Kathy Mattea: Joy for Christmas Day

Kathy Mattea Joy for Christmas Day.

You’ll not finding dancing snowmen, wassailing, or reindeer run amok on country star Mattea’s second holiday album. What you will find is reverence, a sense of fun, an acknowledgment of the work of winter, and yes, joy.

She clearly shows that songs of reverence and faith are every bit as engaging, enduring, and beautiful, and sometimes as funny, too, as any secular Christmas work. There are both traditional and contemporary songs. Mattea and her band have good fun with Marc Cohn’s rocker Baby King, and are sure to get your feet taping, if not dancing with When the Baby Grew Up. There’s a lovely medley of traditional carols , a fresh arrangement of Adeste Fidelis which may have you singing along with Mattea, who has one of the best voices in country music, or any genre of that matter. Ths singer and her band show their understanding of understated grace with the hopeful All Because of Him and the reflective Straw Against the Chill. It’s a set of songs both timely and timeless, done by musicians who truly love and understand the music, and the season.

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