Skip to main content

Yule Tune Review Pt 2: Country Christmas

When I was little I sort of felt like I wasn't supposed to like country music, being African American and all. Plus, Daddy never listened to country and - since I did everything my Daddy did - neither did I.

As I grew older I learned that Mama LOVES country music. Like, really really loves it. So it became not so bad. Plus, I'm from Oklahoma and country music is everywhere.

Now that I've given you a brief history of my appreciation for country music, let's get into this review already, gee golly.

Lady Antebellum - On This Winter's Night


This Christmas album is...pleasant. It's full of your classic covers played acoustic and semi-acoustic. This group has perfected the art of harmony, and this skill rings true on every song. It's hard not to smile, sway and hum along.

There's nothing extremely stand-out about any of the tracks, however. I'm actually angry about their rendition of 'This Christmas'. It literally pisses me off. I can't even give them an A for effort on that one. I mean, it's not horrible...but it's just...that's one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs and it sounds like they're placing faux feeling behind it.


Fave Tracks:

On This Winter's Night - Yay! An original Christmas song! Again, because I have no other song to compare this one to, it's one of my favorites on the album.

Blue Christmas - I love their upbeat version of this song. Yes, I get it, it's a sad song. But I like how they made it their own.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Aww. Don't mind if I do!! The sweet harmonies of Lady Antebellum are a great fit for this song.


Blake Shelton - Cheers, It's Christmas

I love this album!!! It's so much fun!! It's as if Blake and Cee Lo sat down after taping 'The Voice' and said 'How can we create the two most fun Christmas albums of 2012?' and then they did it.

Classic covers, check. But each one receives it's own Shelton spin. The duets (Reba, Kelly and of course wifey Miranda) are perfect. This album is stuffed full of Christmas cheer and I love love LOVE it!


Fave Tracks:
Oklahoma Christmas - For obvious reasons, I like this little ditty.

Santa's Got a Choo Choo Train - How much fun is this song?! Such great imagery, a fun story, this is what (commercial) Christmas is about, people!

I'll Be Home For Christmas - Great. Now I'm homesick.


We are running out of time for Christmas album reviews!! How does it always happen so fast? One month is not long enough for all of these songs.

Or perhaps it is...

*

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Last Week in Pix/ 2x2

Happy Sunday! This week was relatively quiet until Thursday rolled around. On Thursday my world sort of exploded. I entered a Twitter contest with DigitalLA for tickets to the advanced screening of the final Twilight movie. Immediately after entering, I got a text from Mike inviting me to a party thrown by the project he had been working on all week. I accepted, thinking there was no way I would win the Twitter contest.  Joke's on me. I won the contest and needed to be downtown for the movie at 5:30pm. The party was at 9pm. I rolled out of bed that morning, so I looked like luke warm crud. Trust me, it was bad. My plan had been to go home, nap, shower then head out to Hollywood for the party. But with this movie there wouldn't be time for that.  I started my trek downtown from the valley at 4:20. An hour and ten minutes would be enough time, right?  WRONG. Meet LA traffic. I did not make it by 5:30. I was thoroughly upset, called Chris (who had also won e...

How To Survive Valentine's Day

Apparently no one has decided to cancel Valentine's Day this year. If it were up to me I would curl up in bed and avoid all social media. But, considering I have an office job as a social media community manager that's a tad difficult. In an effort to not be bitter and sad about having no date/flowers/chocolate/diamonds on this 'special' day, why not show a bunch of love to yourself? (I'm writing to myself as much as I'm writing to you, loves).  Break A Sweat A good work out never hurt anyone, and it's always great to show some love to your muscles. Last night I started my own self love (oh, grow up!) with a sweet late night yoga class taught by Emily at Yoga Shelter in Studio City. Her pace is fast, the music was bumpin and the temperature in the room was upwards of 80. Woo! Dress Up Why not put on an outfit that makes you feel confident and festive? I decided on my pink romper with black hearts from H&M  (purchased last year) with ...

Mrs. without the "r."

Of course I'm a feminist. Not that that needs explaining, but I absolutely believe in equal treatment and opportunities for both sexes.  But being a feminist doesn't mean I burn bras every Tuesday night. I still adhere to a number of not-so-feminist-friendly traditions. For example, I hate taking the trash out. That's a "man's" job. I take the trash out when I must, but if I can ask Jersey Mike to do it , well that's just 10 times better. Typically, for me, a man's job is any job I don't want to do.  Maybe that's not quite a tradition (more me leaning on societal norms to feed my laziness). But there's one tradition that, growing up, I always thought I'd be fine:  Taking my husband's last name.  My mother kept her maiden name when she married my father. She was born a Shute and felt that shouldn't have to change just because she found a cool guy to spend her life with. Growing up it wasn't confusing for me u...