When I want to get way down in my Wassail bowl during the Christmas season, I put on John Berry‘s 1995 album O Holy Night. This spectacular gift of a holiday recording celebrates the singer in equal measure with the season.
Prior to its release in September of 1995, Berry had recorded six self-produced albums, the first dating back as far as 1979. He landed a major label deal in Nashville with Liberty/ Capitol Records in 1993 based upon his regional stardom playing college clubs and coffeehouse in Athens, Georgia.
Berry’s debut eponymous album went platinum that same year and produced his first number one single “Your Love Amazes Me.” His sophomore album Standing on the Edge of Goodbye, went gold. Berry’s success was largely based on his intensity and insanely dexterous tenor. The Nashville Scene said, “ If there is a more commanding vocalist in country music than Berry, we have yet to hear from him.” Country Song Round Up said, “ It would be next to impossible to find a more talented vocalist in country music today.” Music City News said, “ Rugged, soulful, and passionate – a voice like his leaves an indelible mark.” Robert K. Oermann said, “ When he sings, he has the ability to make time stand still.”
As for singing Christmas music, he had been doing that at his local Athens church since the late ’80s, performing with his wife Robin and her sister-in-law. They continued doing well-received Christmas shows for a number of years before he broke in Nashville. When he recorded a full Christmas album for his third collection of songs on Capitol, Billboard described it as “So lovely and exquisite it almost hurts.”
The album was a simple assembly of hymns and holiday standards. There was not an original song in the bunch. I recall being absolutely floored by the elegance he brought to each performance of these potentially overly familiar and stale songs. He backed off his recent pop-country success and inclinations to quietly and faithfully serve these intentionally chosen songs.
As with Ricky Van Shelton’s Ricky Van Shelton Sings Christmas, O Holy Night amplified and accentuated Berry’s special talents as a vocalist better, and more fully, than his first two albums. It turned out, all the praise was not industry hyperbole and mere salesmanship, Berry said, “I love to sing. I am real intense about that. Some people ride horses or play baseball. But I just love to sing. I sing all the time. I walk around singing. And I am thrilled to death that I get to do it, that I get to share this gift with people. It certainly isn’t anything that I came up with, I didn’t design this voice. I am just thankful that I am able to use it and that it touches people.”
Given his talents, Berry could have run roughshod over these songs with that voice. He could have turned up the volume, gone big. And been bombastic. Instead, he opted for humble restraint.
“O Holy Night” is an exquisite performance, full of adoration and awe. Country Universe writers have commented on this noteworthy performance in the past. “O Come Emmanuel” is equally as reverent. Leann Ward has previously championed this performance at Country Universe as well. Berry even somehow makes “The Christmas Song” and “The Little Drummer Boy” sound new again.
Personally, I love his interpretation of “Joy to the World.” It is the perfect exultant opening to the album and functions as an overture for the ten song collection. The celebratory sense of joy and wonder sets “O Holy Night” apart as rare example of sincere yearning and rejoicing in a country music Christmas recording.
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