Alan Jackson: Let It Be Christmas : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The two schools of thought with holiday albums are separated by their approach: tradition and creation. The best of Christmas songs -- "Silent Night," "The Christmas Song," "Silver Bells," and so forth and so on -- were predominantly penned in the Thirties and Forties. They've been covered well and butchered. And they've endured. As for the creation of new ones, the truth is, there isn't much call for them; Christmas songs are supposed to be sing-a-longs. With Let It Be Christmas, Alan Jackson finds a secret middle ground. He plays the classics, but uses the opportunity to slip out of his trad country boots and into string-laden slippers. The result is hardly revelatory, but then what Christmas album is? It's still a treat to hear Jackson add some brass to "Jingle Bells" and swing through "Winter Wonderland." Weaned on honky tonk, Jackson sounds refreshed connecting with the crooners of yesteryear, Torme and the like, as they were only a step or two removed from country forefather Bob Wills. Jackson warms up eight other chestnuts with his voice, warm hot chocolate with the comfortable touch of twang, and even the one original, "The Christmas Song," dances along with life, as Jackson chooses pluck over schmaltz, the preferred tonic for anyone trying to eek out a nouveaux holiday classic.