This smart little album sails by at just a bit over thirty minutes and it’s an absolute dream. Tubb was an old-school country artist, a lot of bending guitar notes, shuffling snare drums and high violin melodies. His voice has the necessary gritty charm and he takes on a series of standards and also some wonderful originals. He does both Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the title track as good as I’ve ever heard them done probably (I’m not really a fan of either). This kind of makes sense, given that he was, in fact, the original artist on Blue Christmas; the Elvis version was a cover. The originals really shine as well, particularly the devout We Need God for Christmas and a couple of the real weepers, Christmas is Just Another Day & I’m Trimming My Christmas Tree with Tear Drops. But every song on this one is a keeper, even the chestnuts. Tubb was a good songwriter and also a good interpreter, making this one of the better Christmas albums out there in my opinion. 4 stars.
tl;dr – old-school country album features both chestnuts and sharply written originals; every track is a keeper, even the tired standards, with Tubb’s signature spin on things. 4 stars.