e've all suffered the torture. You come home for the holidays and for the duration of your visit, you have to listen to some cheesy Christmas record to appease your grandparents and great aunts. Before letting your ears turn to Velveeta one more year, you need to arm yourself with something that everyone should be able to enjoy -- even you. Rejoice! For the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble can now give you such ammunition. The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble is perhaps the premier torch-bearer preserving the long-lost art of the mandolin ensemble. To those unfamiliar with the concept of a mandolin ensemble, it's important to know that around the turn of the century, the mandolin was the chief vehicle in which popular music was performed and heard. To put it another way, if Kurt Cobain lived in 1902, he'd be smashing "taterbugs" instead of old Fenders. In both cases (taterbugs and Fenders), it was okay to smash them because Gibson offered a better design. In regard to the mandolin, Orville Gibson's violin-based invention revolutionized the instrument as well as put Gibson permanently on the musical map. A mandolin ensemble is arranged in similar fashion as a classical string group. Since the tunings are the same, a mandolin corresponds directly with a violin. A tenor mandola corresponds with a viola and a mandocello relates directly to a cello. This similarity facilitated adaptations of classical pieces for mandolin ensemble use. That said, we come back to the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, who, by the way, play several new and vintage Gibson models (some dating back to 1914). Each musician is accomplished in his own right, and the group makes short work of their new Christmas collection Gifts. NME takes a classical slant on most of this project, which gives the body of work a somewhat solemn vibe. Adding clarinet, pennywhistle, guitar and string bass to augment the five mandolins, two mandolas and one mandocello, the overall sound is rich and surprisingly diverse in tonality. With the aforementioned voices intertwining, performing a complex but delicate sonic dance, each song takes on a new personality. To start with, hearing familiar melodies such as "Carol Of The Bells" and Tcaikovsky's "Dance of the Mirlitons" played on a mandolin catches your ear. What keep your interest is the smooth, even performance which pays close attention to nuances such as dynamics and mood. It would almost be pointless to go into much greater detail, because you already know the tunes and you really have to hear the collection to truly appreciate the twist a mandolin adaptation provides. I will say that one of the highlights is "Christmas In County Kerry," which brings you right back to the Old Country. "Sleigh Ride" ends the collection on a lighthearted note. Overall, the pieces are unobtrusive enough to nicely blend into the background of any festive holiday occasion, yet interesting enough to listen to with headphones (such as this reviewer is doing now). This album is sure to become as much a part of Christmas as chestnuts roasting on an open fire.