Although I'm comfortable with promoting Americana music here, some of the artists that fit in there are more often identified with country music, and that's the dividing line I usually don't cross. In the past, every time I've encountered Rodney Crowell it's been when he's been performing straight-up country music. But it's also true that he's crossed back across that line enough times that he hasn't exactly been embraced by country radio, and on this 2018 Christmas album, though there's a fair amount of country influence, overall the scales are tipped back toward the kind of music we prefer here at Mistletunes. Besides, he wrote or co-wrote every song here, so attention must be paid. The album is bracketed with a female a capella vocal, "Clement's Lament (We'll See You in the Mall)," which takes a poke at early celebrations ("The season starts in August now/We'll see you in the mall), and the nearly mandatory kid vocal, "All For Little Girls and Boys." "Christmas Everywhere" is a fast shuffle with a slow digression in the middle sung by Lera Lynn that's a tribute to John Lennon, "Let's Skip Christmas This Year" is a bouncy bid to escape the usual holiday rituals, melancholy and lack of love is addressed in the mid-tempo "Christmas Makes Me Sad" and the piano ballad "Merry Christmas From an Empty Bed." The horn-led boogie "Very Merry Christmas" is just a straight-up dance number, "Christmas in Vidor" is a rocked-up talk-sing with a cynical take, duetted with Mary Karr, the country comes out in "Christmas for the Blues" while pop-folk gets its due in "Come Christmas" and "Christmas in New York," and my favorite tune on the album is the Memphis soul number "When the Fat Guy Tries the Chimney On For Size." Great songs and performances, another of those albums you can listen to all the way through.
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