Country Goes Christmas, Approaches To Celebrating the Season in Song

It happens around the fourth quarter every year. The weather chills. Colorful lights flicker throughout the neighborhood. And, after 10 months of songs about heartbreak, romance, partying and other facts of life, people feel the urge to hear "White Christmas" again. The recording industry took note of this long ago and as a result conceived the Christmas album. For all the twists and tumbles of our economy, the annual return of this institution remains as sure as the shift from autumn into winter. What has changed is the number of ways by which artists and record labels can jump onto this merry-go-round. It was simpler not so long ago, with a confluence of physical product, brick-and-mortar retail and radio playlists encouraging consumers to catch the holiday spirit. This picture has gotten more complicated - but this means that there is now more than one way to board and enjoy this ride. In the Country realm, opportunities abound for artists to spread and collect their share of Christmas cheer. Those on major labels can follow something close to the traditional route, complete with motivated executives working the album through the media and into the marketplace. They might also benefit from budgets that allow a little extra glitter - an orchestra, say, or jazzy brass swinging on an up-tempo tune. So it is on Faith Hill's Joy to the World, whose title track opens the album with strings swirling, French horns heralding, a choir singing and keys changing dramatically, all of it arranged by David Campbell to evoke the spirit of the season, exactly as Hill envisioned it. "I did have a specific idea about how I wanted the Christmas album to sound," she insisted. "I wanted it to be a throwback to the '40s, '50s or '60s style of big band music, particularly on the classics 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town,' 'Holly Jolly Christmas' and 'Winter Wonderland.' I felt it important to get the sense that you were out shopping. I just wanted you to smell Christmas, to feel Christmas, to bring all the memories back from the Christmas of your childhood." That was music to the ears of Peter Strickland, Senior VP, Sales and Marketing, Warner Bros. Records. "This album has an especially broad appeal," he explained. "If this were a strong Country-sounding album, it would go more to the outlets where you would promote a Country album. Being a more traditional-sounding Christmas album, that broadens its opportunities." In its sophistication, taste and beautifully rendered vocals, Joy to the World pays homage to Nat "King" Cole, Doris Day and Johnny Mathis - artists who helped define the sound of Christmas within the broad stream of American popular music. Strickland and his colleagues responded by booking Hill to perform the entire album live, with a 31-piece orchestra and 9-voice choir, on a Thanksgiving week broadcast of the PBS-TV "Soundstage" series, which will re-air throughout December. The wheels were in motion even earlier as they previewed one track, "A Baby Changes Everything," exclusively for members of her Mobile Club on July 10 - and followed with other tracks, one per week, up to the album's commercial release in September. The key was that in addition to being the first single and the only new song on the album, "A Baby Changes Everything," written by Tim Nichols, Craig Wiseman and R. K. Wiseman, is the sole track that's not tied clearly to Christmas. "It was believed that we might get airplay on that track on other formats early," Strickland noted. "Faith has had success in the AC world, so if we could start the word of mouth as soon as possible, then we figured any format would play it as soon as we released it because of how its message would translate to listeners." Like Hill, Mel Tillis released his first-ever Christmas album in 2008. But Tillis' Snowflake differed from Joy to the World in several respects. First, it was issued independently, on the Country Music Hall of Fame member's own Radio Records imprint. It also sticks close to the Country sound that Tillis has embraced throughout his long career. What took him so long to make his contribution to the Country Christmas catalog? "I just got so busy doing shows for 13 years in Branson, I just didn't have the time," he said. "I did do a Christmas show each year, though. We had Santa Claus, the reindeers and my grandkids all onstage. And people kept asking me, 'Hey, why don't you do a Christmas album?' So finally I did." The selections on Snowflake vary from one new song, "God's Presents," to old favorites to tunes that Country Music fans with long memories are most likely to recall, such as the title track, a hit years ago for Jim Reeves, Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" and "Gonna Wrap My Heart in Ribbons," co-written and recorded originally by Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys. Clearly, Tillis believes that a good tune will be a good fit on a holiday album, no matter how unfamiliar it may be. "Of course, people are nostalgic," he said. "They remember the great songs, like 'White Christmas,' from growing up. I also have some in there that the old-timers might be familiar with, while I don't think the new kids out there on the block ever heard them. But that doesn't really worry me at all." What mattered more was the response each song won from audiences at his shows. That, plus the camaraderie Tillis shared with his longtime brothers of the road, the Statesiders, who backed him on Snowflake at their studio in Ashland City, Tenn., and on his holiday tour this year with laughter, Pam Tillis, and other members of his family, invests this music with a personal quality that's appropriate to the gift-giving season. Rascal Flatts gave a present to their fans in the form of three Christmas songs added to their Greatest Hits Volume 1 package, released by Lyric Street Records in October and produced by Rascal Flatts and Dann Huff. According to Huff, who also produced Hill's Joy to the World with Byron Gallimore and Hill, their challenge was twofold: "How many unique ways are there to do a Christmas standard and how unique does it really need to be?" "The key to Rascal Flatts is how their voices combine," Huff said. "That's why we were looking forward in particular to their a cappella performance on 'I'll Be Home for Christmas.' We didn't do any doubling to fill it out, which meant that we had to fill a lot of real estate with three voices. Jay [DeMarcus] ended up doing the bass part, even though he isn't a bass singer, so that was a stretch for him. But in the end, it was a beautiful rendition."NEW 2008 HOLIDAY CD RELEASES BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES, Jingle All the WayTHE BOXMASTERS, Christmas CheerMARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of ChristmasFAITH HILL, Joy to the WorldJULIANNE HOUGH, Sounds of the Season: The Julianne Hough Holiday CollectionJAMES HOUSE, On This Christmas NightLARRY THE CABLE GUY, Star Studded Christmas ExtravaganzaMEL TILLIS AND THE STATESIDERS, SnowflakeGRETCHEN PETERS, Northern LightsCOLLIN RAYE, A Family ChristmasMINDY SMITH, My HolidayGEORGE STRAIT, Classic ChristmasRANDY TRAVIS, Christmas on the PecosVARIOUS ARTISTS, Elvis Presley Christmas DuetsVARIOUS ARTISTS, The Purpose of Christmas © 2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.