These holiday recordings are often heard as heartless white noise, seldom worthy of the honour of being recorded by the artist. In case you haven’t noticed, I am now stealing from O’ Henry’s The Gift of the Magi when I say that Christmas music seldom offers little more than mere seasonal meretricious ornamentation as it is often either under-cooked or over-baked.
Maybe it takes a self-professed “Christmas Freak” like Terri Clark to come along and proclaim a Christmas album’s value by substance alone. In fact, she said, “The last thing I wanted to do was limp into a Christmas album and just make another run-of-the-mill record.”
With the Time Jumpers as her righteous backing band, Clark fearlessly swings into 2020’s It’s Christmas… Cheers! from the evergreen swags hanging from the rafters. The Time Jumpers is band of elite Nashville studio musicians who came together in 1998 to play western swing.
According to Clark, “The Time Jumpers gave it [the album] a little of the Vince Guaraldi feel, arrangement wise…The guitar solos have this Gretsch sound but it’s the Hollowbody electric, and it’s not overplayed. The songs are melodic but not following the melody of the song necessarily. It’s not busy or showboat-y. It’s old school,” she continues. “The piano solos…. I don’t have a lot of those on my mainstream records. In certain cases, you have to have it. And Christmas music is one of them. You need a grand piano. I’ve never had a record with so much piano on it.”
In a 2022 Calgary Herald review of the album, journalist Eric Volmers said, “So while you may think another version of “Jingle Bells” is completely unnecessary at this point, Clark and The Time Jumpers turn it into a shimmering, swinging celebration complete with big-band flourishes and fiery violin and trumpet solos.”
It shows that this was one of the rare Christmas albums actually recorded during Christmas time. There are many other gorgeous little in-the-moment details and ornaments all over the place on this ten song collection Clark produced herself. It was Clark who reached out to The Time Jumpers’ band leader Kenny Sears about working together. She also tapped Ricky Skaggs, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, The Oak Ridge Boys, Pam Tillis, and Suzy Bogguss to collaborate with her here.
Although she proudly stands alongside fellow Canadian country women like Anne Murray and Shania Twain, as a vocalist she is not country music’s Celine Dion. Instead, Clark offers vocal warmth, emotional cheer, and rustic sincerity to an album dedicated to the memory of her mother, who according to the liner notes, is the reason Clark loves the Christmas season so much. The charm of this album is how country it is in both spirit and sound.
Seven of the ten songs are traditional standards and two are hymns, The lone original composition was specifically written for inclusion on this album by Erin Enderlin and Dave Gleason. “Cowboy Christmas” sounds like it was lifted from a Colter Wall or Wylie Gustafson album. It sounds peaceful and cold, lonesome and perfect.
My favourite performance on the album features the harmonies of The Oak Ridge Boys on “Silver Bells.” Pam Tillis and Suzy Bogguss sound great singing with Clark on the album’s closing song “Away in a Manger.” Dierks Bentley and Terri Clark should record an entire duets album, given how simpatico they sound on “Let it Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
After having celebrated several albums for the singular vocalists recording them, this listening experience is all about highlighting about how gracefully and eloquently Clark surrenders the limelight to her fellow musicians and makes the event a joyous ensemble performance.
Swinging all the while, this Christmas album is outrageously subtle, cozy, and good throughout. It rewards multiple back-to -back listens with new gifts every time.
It’s Christmas…Cheers!
Very underrated album and artist, definitely one of her better records since her ’90s/early aughts commercial peak.