Christmas Music

I love this time of year because it is the time of year that you can listen to Christmas music without people giving  you funny looks.  I love Christmas music and often listen to the 24hr Christmas music station during this month.  So it should be no surprise that I have quite a bit of it in my music collection.  Here's a sampling of some of it and some thoughts on each.

Martina McBride's White Christmas is quite possibly my favorite of all of my Christmas music.  There are actually 3 versions of this CD-one released in 1998, one in 1999 and a 3rd in 2007.  The version I have was the one released in 1999.  The CD does the traditional songs, mostly the church type songs too.  She doesn't do anything fancy with the songs to make them her own, just sings them the way they were meant to be sung and for her, that's all she has to do.  She has one of the best voices in country music and the only person I can think of that could do a Christmas album as good as this would be Carrie Underwood. 

SHeDAISY's Brand New Year is just the opposite of Martina's CD in the fact that it is filled with mostly original songs and the non-original songs are mixed into something never heard before.  This CD has been out for 10 years now and it has been a favorite the whole time for me.  One of my favorite songs on the album is actually a duet (or a sextet if you will) with Rascal Flatts.  Twist of the Magi is a cute song about doing things for the other person, but they really aren't that nice of things. An example is the guy setting free the whiney dog so that gal can get her beauty rest, and as the chorus says, "I did it all for you!"

The newest Christmas music I have is Lady Antebellum's A Merry Little Christmas, which is a Target exclusive EP just released this fall.  It features 6 songs, one of which was written by Lady A.  This CD goes along well with the track Baby It's Cold Outside that they released on iTunes and Amazon last year for the holidays.

A local favorite is Mullberry Lane's A Very, Merry Mulberry Christmas.  These four sisters got some national success back in 1999 with a song called Harmelss.  They still tour a bit, expecially with their holiday tour in the region (which I'd like to see someday).  My main reason for getting this album (released in 2004, but I just got it a couple years ago) is for a song called Christmas In Nebraska which I've heard on the Christmas radio station a few times.  Turns out the whole CD is great as these girls have that great family harmony that makes listening the songs an amazing experience.

And it just ain't a Christmas music collection without some Manheim Steamroller!  The guy behind this group, Chip Davis, is also from Omaha.  As with all of their Christmas music, Christmas Extraordinaire is filled with instrumental masterpieces of classic songs.  I'm hoping to finally see them in concert in just a couple of weeks.  I'm sure it will be a wonderful experience!


I have many more Christmas CDs and mp3s, and perhaps I will share some more of those in another blog another day!