Every year as we reach October and November, a new selection of country artists make their mark on the Christmas period. Some do so with a stronger track record than others, but either way each fall as we drink our pumpkin spice lattes, we’re guaranteed to get the first taste of gingerbread as well-known acts put their spin on holiday classics (and some fresh ones too). In 2012 we saw Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum, Willie Nelson, Scotty McCreery and the roster of Average Joes (among others) hit stores with shimmering festive joy, while last year Trace Adkins, Kelly Clarkson, Gretchen Wilson and the cast of Duck Dynasty (including a lot of country artists) offered up their own takes on holiday cheer.
This year, therefore, comes off a little bit empty. As far as I know, the only new Christmas-themed albums from country artists are LeAnn Rimes, Sara Evans and the subject of this review, Darius Rucker. For each, this is their first Christmas record. But even more so these albums feel so much less prominent in the market than they have in previous years; there doesn’t seem to be as much promotion, as much buzz and there just aren’t as many people releasing them. Darius Rucker’s collection, ‘Home For The Holidays’, is the perfect example of this. I heard about it because I keep a close eye on the Music Row releases calendar in order to help construct our own, but I had not seen a single other thing about it online. In fact, I had heard so little I actually had to double-check on Google to see whether it had even been released on time. There were a couple of articles dated Monday at the top of the search results talking about the release, and sure enough there it was hovering at #24 on iTunes UK. So what gives?
By my reckoning, if you go to the trouble of recording a dozen-track album, whether the songs be covers or not you’re going to want to actively promote it when it hits shelves. In fact, usually there is promotion a few weeks prior in the form of blog and social media posts, and a big push to get sales going in the first week. I know October has been a crazy month for new releases by major acts, but Darius is hardly small time and I’m missing the Christmassy cheer that usually comes with this time of year in country music.
All that aside, ‘Home For The Holidays’ sounds a lot like what I expected. Darius’ soulful, velvety vocals lend themselves perfectly to the rich, vintage big band sound that often characterizes those Christmas classics, and he pulls off standard arrangements of those well, even if they aren’t particularly new or noteworthy. Tracks like ‘Let It Snow’, ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ (featuring Sheryl Crow), ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ continue a very standard, conventional narrative when it comes to festive covers, and the overriding theme is pleasant, rather than dynamically exciting, music. Even the two originals, ‘What God Wants For Christmas’ and ‘Candy Cane Christmas’ continue that sonic theme so much that until I checked the writing credits I wasn’t even aware they didn’t exist in the public domain prior to this release. They sound like covers, and although nice enough, unremarkable. The only time where Darius sets himself apart is with the Dr Seuss cover of ‘You’re A Mean One, Mr Grinch’, which still takes on the campy, theatrical mode we would expect from it, even if it’s different from the rest of the tracklist.
Thus, their approach to promotion begins to shed more light on the album itself. ‘Home For The Holidays’ is not bad per se, but it’s nothing to write home about (excuse the loose pun), and the same goes for the lack of effort given toward promoting it. This record is not as notable as one might hope for from an artist of his caliber, although to be honest it reflects the way he approached his current radio single ‘Homegrown Honey’ too. My advice? Buy it, if you’re a die-hard fan. But if you’re not? Don’t bother.
