When I plunge my hand into the musical memories of Christmas past, out comes the 1989 CBS Records/Columbia Nashville album Ricky Van Shelton Sings Christmas.
Nobody born in a small Virginia town named Grit has any right to sound this smooth and rich while singing over-exposed Christmas standards. Playing it at a family Christmas gathering is guaranteed to satisfy both the Christmas traditionalists and the country traditionalists. This holiday album comfortably stands shoulder-to-shoulder with those recorded by classic crooners like Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, and Andy Williams. It also invokes Elvis, Marty Robbins, and Jim Reeves.
Shelton’s vocal warmth lends a hushed reverence to his performances of the sacred songs and a joyful spirit to the secular numbers. The greatest gift this collection offers is just how familial and familiar it sounds. Having the greatest vocalist of his generation sing traditional music feels like home and sounds like a dream. His version of “Silver Bells” is loving proof of that.
I can imagine criticism faulting the album for being generic, bland, and dull. I cannot, however, imagine a world where one of country music’s best vocalists ever doesn’t elevate that listening experience to something extraordinary by the sheer beauty of his charismatic singing and sincerity. These eleven songs made me more deeply appreciate Shelton’s talents as a singer than his previous two albums, Wild-Eyed Dream and Loving Proof. This is a vocal showcase for Shelton and he seizes, and humbly celebrates, the moment without showing off.
Before I even heard the first note, I was smitten by the goofy cover photo. Shelton, overburdened with an armful of boxes wrapped with ribbons and bows, looks like a guest stumbling through a door on Sesame Street or The Muppet Show. Steve Buckingham’s production is dense and sweet with violins, cello, and piano. Light harmonies by Dennis Wilson, John Wesley Ryles, Curtis Young, and Louis Nunley rise and swirl like snow along a cold winter sidewalk. The steel guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and fiddle tastefully, but apologetically, keep it country.
As was proving to be his pattern, Shelton elegantly covers two classic songs here, Eddy Arnold’s “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S” and Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper.” He also capably includes two sentimental co-writes with none other than Don Schlitz, “Country Christmas” and “Christmas Long Ago.”
He may be at his best with his genuinely affecting performance of “Silent Night” and “What Child Is This.” The performances are obviously infused by faith and project a true sense of wonder and awe at the miracle at the heart of the Christmas story.
Shelton delivers on the promise of the album title. He sings Christmas. Getting the tone of
Christmas albums right is not easy, much less being able to hold the listeners interest for the duration of a record, even one that barely clocks in at thirty minutes. Ricky Van Shelton Sings Christmas is a prime example of being rewarded when we stop long enough to wake from “the sedative of misdirected frenzy” to really listen to the songs and the vocal performances this time of year.
Albums like this, sung by singers like Shelton, help me find and touch Christmas as I get older.
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