THE LINER NOTES

 

Released on December 11, of ninety-nine, ‘Home For The Holidays’ was the second, and last, Christmas album Lynn Anderson would record in her career.

 

Christmas releases by major artists tend to follow one of two paths: traditional Christian carols celebrating the birth, and traditional Holiday tunes, celebrating the season. Occasionally, the two intersect, but it’s rare. Like her ’71 LP, simply titled, ‘The Christmas Album’, this 31st release from Lynn follows the former. Now fifty-two, with a thirty-year career and 30 albums behind her, Lynn brings a warmth, a tenderness, and her Mom and Dad to these classics, wrapping many of these chestnuts in family harmonies from country legends Liz and Casey Anderson.

 

Wistful, and nostalgic, here is Mel Torme’s classic, “The Christmas Song”, and film composer Hugh Martin’s ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’ setpiece for Judy Garland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, given the lightest contemporary touch from producer Michael Clarke, complementing one of the best performances of any standard in Lynn’s long career; and with this evergreen LP, it’s one of many. With her voice capturing a lilt and flow reminiscent of Patti Page, the title track may be the collection’s standout track; a Perry Como Christmas hit from 1954, sung here by Lynn with the barest trace of melancholy; a longing for Christmases past. A reserved joy, and warm intimacy, that comes across as if she was singing only to you.

 

‘Home For The Holidays’ might’ve been Lynn Anderson’s last Christmas album, but like a treasured family ornament, unwrapped and remembered each year, its music and sentiment are timeless.

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J Buck Ford