Amero Little Christmas, Don Amero (Indiependent)

Don's a country artist based in Canada, but he's not one of today's bro-country types. He's more of a mellow Americana artist, based on the fact that most of the songs on this 2018 album are smooth ballads with very little in the way of fiddles or steel guitar to make the overt tip toward Nashville. But you'll hear the country touches often enough. He's been doing Christmas shows for a few years now and this album is the souvenir for a Canadian midwest tour. He kicks things off with a pensive version of "Silent Night," he does fairly laid-back versions of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and "Please Come Home For Christmas," and he amps things up just a tad with his versions of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Even Santa Gets the Blues." Don gets out his songwriter's pen for the Eagles-adjacent "All I Need," the warm "Christmas Time," the piano-led "Sometimes a Whisper," and set-closer "Don't Let Christmas Pass You By." A little smooth and sedate for my taste, but you can make that call for yourself.