One of the major country Christmas releases this year is Sara Evans’ ‘At Christmas’, a collection of nine holiday standards and one original that happens to be the title track. There are few surprises on offer here; what you get is just quintessential Christmas classics, and quintessential Sara Evans, but there’s more than enough charm and vocal prowess on show to make sure it doesn’t get boring. Buried in track three on ’12 Days of Christmas’ is perhaps the most unique aspect to the record in the inclusion of her two daughters singing in rounds (and it must be said they sound extremely good), but by and large what Sara is providing is a solid soundtrack to a festive season with a focus on tradition and Christian values.
It’s a market that is surprisingly under-targeted in 2014. True, plenty of the other country Christmas albums of recent years have opted for songs of faith but there’s something about Sara’s record that feels far more worship-orientated than much of the others. To put this into context, it’s the kind of thing nice southern families would listen to around the table at Christmas dinner; only once you picture the scene do you then begin to understand how it sounds and why. I like that Sara is more upfront with this level of faith than her contemporaries even if it doesn’t appeal to me personally, because in turn it feels far more genuine than the same-old, somewhat empty sentiments thrown about in this kind of material. While her fellow artists may be Christians singing Christian songs, I feel it more in her delivery and thus it comes across more intimate and less faceless as a release.
Of the tracklisting, several songs are concerned primarily with the religious aspect of the holiday. ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, ‘Oh Holy Night’, ‘Silent Night’, and ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ all fit this criteria. But intertwined with this sense of faith is also a strong focus on family and love. The title track ‘At Christmas’ delivers this in droves, and serves as a strong anchorage for the whole record to attach itself to. ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ delivers a slower and smoother depiction of how this time of year brings people together (or not, as the case may be), just as the blissfully bluesy ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ is perfect for collective sing-a-longs. The final group of songs on this album seem to be aimed more at children; ‘Run Run Rudolph’, ‘Winter Wonderland’ and the quirky rendition of ’12 Days of Christmas’ have a chipper sense of fun to them, with plenty of references to the more modern manifestations of the holiday. The myth of Santa Claus, reindeer, snowmen and imagination fill these tracks, and round off the themes that Sara puts forward for her Christmas collection.
More than other records of its type, Sara’s feels more cohesive and complete, and despite having only ten tracks feels like it has a lot to indulge in without you getting lost in the amount of content available. ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ even uses an Irish folk sound and structure running through a gospel vein, reminding us which genre Sara is really from (when looking at the pop leanings of much of her repertoire, sometimes it’s hard to tell).
So if you’re looking for a great soundtrack these season that reflects Christianity, love, children and family, Sara Evans’ ‘At Christmas’ is what you’re looking for.
