More Organ Music for Christmas

Yesterday I was delighted to receive the annual Christmas compilation CD from fellow collector the CaptainOT, one of the true holiday music aficionados.

The good Captain is a generous fellow, and has sent me any number of 10-inch LPs over the years, just because he thought I might like them. So today I want to present my transfer of one of those albums with my thanks to him.

This is a unpretentious LP of familiar tunes played by organist Elmer Ihrke, who recorded three albums for Chicago's Rondo Records in the early 1950s. Ihrke was the music director of a Milwaukee radio station when these records were made. He was active as a musician as early as 1926 and as late as 1973.

In contrast to the mighty Aeolian-Skinner organ that Virgil Fox had at his command in my last Christmas share, Ihrke appears to be performing on a relatively modest Hammond B-3 electric organ - at least that is what he is playing on the cover.

Rondo made quite a specialty of organ records. Its biggest artist was Ken Griffin, who moved on to make many popular records for Columbia, many issued after his early death in 1956.

As you can see at left, Rondo issued the Ihrke LP on red vinyl with a green label. This is just the thing for Christmas - although the label actually issued all its albums with that color scheme.

Merry Christmas, Captain!