Christmas album reviews: Little Big Town, The Weeklings

If you’re looking for some fresh Christmas music to soundtrack your holiday party, gift wrapping session or just to put you in the spirit while out and about, here are two new noteworthy releases.

Little Big Town
The Christmas Record
(Capitol Nashville)

The superstar vocal group, best known for such country music radio hits as “Pontoon,” “Girl Crush,” and “Better Man” has had a busy year marking its silver anniversary. First there was a Greatest Hits album. Now comes the engaging and charming The Christmas Record, produced by heavy hitter Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell). And this Monday, Little Big Town hosts the NBC/Peacock holiday televised special “Christmas at the Opry.”

The Christmas Record is almost evenly split between holiday classics and originals. Each of the musicians – Karen Fairchild, Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, and Phillip Sweet - take turns at lead vocals in various combinations (though Fairchild handles the lion’s share) and those trademark sumptuous four-part harmonies.

Among the well-known selections are lovely covers of Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” Alabama’s “Tennessee Christmas” the Stevie Wonder-popularized “Someday at Christmas,” and Vince Guaraldi & Lee Mendelson’s “Christmas Time Is Here” (from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”). The newly-penned highlights include the warm, upbeat “Glow,” and “Evergreen” (which details a memory of travelling with daddy to cut down a Christmas tree and musically bears traces of Mac Davis/Elvis Presley’s “In the Ghetto”). The closing track is an outlier: Little Big Town gets down on the dance floor with “Holiday,” a welcome addition to New Year’s Day-themed songs.

The Weeklings
Christmas
(Jem Records)

The Weeklings are a popular East Coast-based Beatles tribute band led by onetime Styx singer/guitarist Glen Burtnik. They released the solid Raspberry Park earlier this year and have received SiriusXM airplay on Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel. The fun 16-track Christmas album includes deftly rocking interpretations of the Mitch Miller-popularized “Must Be Santa” (a mashup with the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”), the J.S. Bach classical composition “Joy” (a spirited Irish jig paired with a snippet of the Fab Four’s “All My Loving”), Chuck Berry’s “Run, Rudolph Run,” and “Christmas Time is Here Again” (the Beatles’ 1967 Fan Club holiday single with more nods to John, Paul, George and Ringo).

Elsewhere, “Gonna Be Christmas” boasts a winsome early Who power-pop vibe and group harmonies, “Revolution Wonderland” incorporates doo-wop, “Dreidel” gives Jewish listeners some attention and the horn-driven “Festivus” (remember that “Seinfeld” episode?) has a party atmosphere. Between the songs are several whimsical interludes.