Holiday Harmony, America (Rhino)

If Bob Dylan bridged the folk music trend into the rock era, and people like the Byrds, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young made folk-rock mainstream, then it was America who transitioned folk-rock into the world of easy listening. Hard to make a big case for this 2002 album as a way to rock your Christmas season, then. They are working hard here, and there are sparks of life throughout the disc, including three original tunes, but overall, if you stopped listening to them when I did back in their salad days, you can pick right up where you left off with this. Beyond "A Christmas to Remember," "Christmas in California" and "Winter Holidays," the set list is straight off the pop Christmas list, no surprises or twists, although "Frosty the Snowman" is suitably Spectorish rather than granola-fed. OK for them and their fans; the rest of us will have to look elsewhere.