Disco de Amy Grant: “A Christmas Album”

I grew up listening to this album and I never get tired of it year after year. It's always the first one I play when Christmastime rolls around.

I have enjoyed this album since its arrival in 1983. It seems to capture a highlight in Grant's career--excellent song choices, and a point where her voice was in many ways at its peak. There are a few moments, let's be frank, where Grant's untrained vocal range is stretched to its limits by this challenging material ("Love Has Come," "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "Christmas Hymn") . Still, her voice from this time has a clarity and earnestness that carries the album with great energy, and even more, great fun that creeps into even the most solemn songs. The "yoo-hoo!" on "Sleigh Ride," while arguably a bit goofy and over the top, always brings a smile to my face. And I love the power of the "Emmanuel" and "Little Town" medley, as well as the innocent torchiness that she displays on "Chestnuts." Finally, the orchestrations and instrumentation are just right. Great blending of new and traditional material, a great performance by Amy, and a little magic make this album a wonderful holiday perennial. I believe it is still the best of her three Christmas collections! I have owned the LP and the cassette, and now I plan to get the CD as well. And that by itself speaks volumes to how much I have enjoyed "A Christmas Album."

I remember when this Christmas LP first came out in 1983. I had only recently discovered 'Contemporary Christian' music and had been an Amy Grant fan for about a year. To this day, I consider this the BEST Christmas LP recorded in the last quarter-century. Recorded between 'Age to Age' and 'Straight Ahead,' this LP offers Amy, I feel, at the peak of her most creative and enjoyable period (early 1980's). This was during the time that contemporary Christian music was just about to seriously escalate in popularity - and Amy, among others, was leading the way. The songs are well crafted and a fine mix of old/new and secular/sacred. The newer songs have become classics, recorded by many other performers. Amy was blessed with an excellent producer, wonderful songwriters and was 'at the right place at the right time.' She, obviously, struck a chord with the Christmas album since she's recorded two seasonal albums since. Although these are fine collections in their own right, neither matches the magic of this initial holiday offering.

In the spring of 1982, around the time that her soon-to-be widely successful album Age to Age was released, Amy Grant was asked whether she would be interested in crossing over from the contemporary Christian music (CCM) market to a more mainstream market. She responded in the affirmative. Her next release was A Christmas Album in the fall of 1983. Grant has said in interviews over the years that she wanted this album to quell the high expectations raised by her considerable recent success. But whatever her intentions might have been, the album actually did the opposite: it increased her fan base and carried her farther down a pop/rock path that would a mere year-and-a-half later culminate in her first dual release (1985's Unguarded) to the secular pop/contemporary Christian market.

For a holiday release, A Christmas Album is a remarkably excellent album. The formula used by Grant and producer Brown Bannister is nothing new: stir in new tunes with the expected traditional favorites and include a few instrumentals. With the holiday classics (both religious and secular), Grant provides renditions respectful of the originals while often adding her own twists to the proceedings. This in itself fit well with the CCM target audience's worship practices of the time. During the 1980s and into the 1990s, it was standard (in larger evangelical churches, at least) to take traditional hymns or songs and embellish them with brassy orchestras, large choirs, and, often, more contemporary vocals and arrangements.

But even in following this trend, Grant's versions are of markedly higher quality than what you'd normally find on a CCM album of the time. She stretches her voice on "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" and towers over the voices of the choir that backs her. She includes a new song from her own pen, "Christmas Hymn," that aims to become a Christmas standard of its own. This "hymn" is the best track on the album and has been picked up by some churches as part of their worship. (A second new Christian song, "Heirlooms," is pleasant enough but not as memorable.)

Grant's versions of secular Christmas songs like "Sleigh Ride" and "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" not only serve as tributes to the original recordings but also bring a sense of fun to the album. In the same vein, Grant's collaboration with then-husband Gary Chapman, "Tennessee Christmas," is as all-American as the previous tunes. When you factor in the album's cover snow scenes and interior photo of Grant's extended family gathering, it's not that much of a stretch to say that Grant comes across here as all American as the individuals in a Norman Rockwell painting.

If the album had just been composed of Christmas standards and new tunes in the traditional mode, it undoubtedly would have succeeded in Grant's goal of deflating expectations. Bannister and Grant also, though, have planted a few left turns in the album. The most obvious one is Michael W. Smith's "Emmanuel," a song that, despite its name, is not specifically Christmas-oriented. (Smith stole the lyrics from a top-selling poster of the names of Christ.) Sandwiched between traditional hymns, "Emmanuel" begins with heavy synthesizers and quickly expands into a full-blown pop/rock tune. It quickly became a CCM hit single and remained a concert standard for some time after Grant "crossed over" into the secular market. The second pop song, "Love Has Come," is sandwiched between "Christmas Hymn" and "Sleigh Ride." The backing vocals from secular pop/rock band Chicago's Bill Champlin provide a harder edge than had been heard in Grant's songs to date, even though "Love Has Come" is not nearly as hard-driving as "Emmanuel."

In fact, both "Emmanuel" and "Love Has Come" easily could have fit on Grant's next studio album, Straight Ahead (released just a few months later in early 1984). That album features pop/rock tunes at the same musical level as A Christmas Album: far beyond anything on the mostly mellow Age to Age's plate and with hints of Unguarded's full-blown technopop. A Christmas Album, then, contains the first signs of Amy Grant's coming transition from CCM superstar to secular pop artist.

But beyond any considerations of its place in Amy Grant's career, A Christmas Album is an excellent album in its own right. Even more than two decades later, its production quality is excellent, thanks to the sterling work of producer Bannister. (The closest CCM Christmas album to this one in spirit is Steven Curtis Chapman's The Music of Christmas, which was also helmed by Bannister.) Grant has released two additional Christmas albums in the succeeding years, but it's this one that's fondly remembered. Many people put it in rotation every Christmas season and even throughout the year.

When it comes to Christmas albums, Amy Grant does it right. She doesn't just play it safe and pump out an uninspired collection that chiefly takes from tried-and-true classics. She also goes off on a limb and creates Christmas tunes of her own that are touching, warm, and fun to listen to. Her voice is, as always, a joy to hear. The only detracting factor from this particular album is the terrifying 80s synth. I still like it -- but mostly for nostalgia's sake. I'm sure if I hadn't grown up with it, I would find it annoying.

"Tennessee Christmas" is warm and pleasant, with guitars and a bit of country flavor. Lovely original tune -- never ceases to make me smile. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is gorgeous -- full orchestra effect, plus a chorus. "Praise the King" and "Emmanuel" feature that 80s synth sound that you'll either hate or love. I can't deny that I love the arrangements -- very exciting and fun to listen to. I often wish that they were recorded with more traditional and timeless instruments.

I love how "Emmanuel" segues into "Little Town of Bethlehem," a stirring and unique rendition of the old Yuletide favorite. (It's a wonder how Amy Grant manages to take such classics and jazz them up without making them sound horrible and ridiculous.) The next song, "Christmas Hymn," is magnificent, full, and rich, with great piano and chorus; on the whole, a bit forgettable, but definitely well-crafted and enjoyable.

One of my favorites, too -- synth notwithstanding -- is "Love Has Come." It always makes me want to stand up and sing (and sometimes, when I'm sure nobody is looking or watching, I do)! The way that Grant and co. use dynamics in conjunction with statements of faith really makes this song pop out from the rest of the collection.

"Sleigh Ride" is your typical arrangement... not all that different from the slew of other "Sleigh Rides" out there. Still pretty fun, though -- so merry and peppy that you can't help but tap your toe to it. "The Christmas Song" and "Heirlooms" usually fly right under my radar -- sweet, but not really all that striking. When they play, I always forget that they're on.

The album ends on "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God/Angels We Have Heard on High," which is quite effective. When the song sweeps up into the hopeful refrains of "Angels We Have Heard on High," it sends you out with high spirits and fills you with a lovely warmth. Perfect end to a great album.

To the uninitiated, it's worth a try. The only thing that keeps this album from timelessness is that goofy synth -- which is never poorly done, by the by, but may prove irritating to some. As for me, I feel like this album is worth every dollar -- it's well-crafted, and lots of fun, and Amy Grant's voice is awesome.