A Classic Christmas

1	The Christmas Song 4:19
2	Winter Wonderland 4:22
3	White Christmas 3:51
4	I'll Be Home for Christmas 4:02
5	Santa Claus Is Coming to Town 3:18
6	Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 4:42
7	Ave Maria 3:52
8	O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 4:20
9	O Holy Night 4:15
10	Silent Night 3:29
11	It's the Messiah 4:05

Barnes & Noble

Having already cut a classic country Christmas album with her mom (Christmas Time with the Judds), Wynonna continues her artistic resurgence with a solo Yuletide album that shows a mature singer at her best. Working with the two mainmen behind the Judds' timeless music (producers/arrangers Don Potter and Brent Maher), and employing master string arranger Bergen White, Wynonna delivers a stirring, concise (11 tracks) holiday greeting, its first half being a warm, cozy call to luxuriate in seasonal joys such as homecomings ("I'll Be Home for Christmas"), wistful reflections on seasonal totems that make the Yuletide gay ("The Christmas Song"), the allure of nature's distinctive wintertime palette ("Winter Wonderland"), and a requisite touch of melancholy to balance out the emotions ("White Christmas"). The final five songs in the sequence honor the season's sacred side, Wynonna turning stately and reverent on "Ave Maria," "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," "O Holy Night," and "Silent Night." The lush orchestrations and silky backing choruses are reminiscent of the approaches that Frank Sinatra and Nat "King" Cole took on their great Christmas albums of yore, but vocally Wy settles down partly in R&B territory, partly on pop turf, her phrasing and sensuality reminiscent of both Etta James and Rosie Clooney. Sounding completely at home in this mode, she effortlessly reinvigorates the well-worn repertoire by simply letting the songs come to her. There's nothing bombastic or contrived. A lovely, spare country ballad, "It's the Messiah," closes things out, and Wy's voice, set against a delicately fingerpicked acoustic guitar, is a thing of beauty in this pristine setting. In the end, the album title is most apt. David McGee

All Music Guide

Wynonna isn't kidding around by calling her 2006 holiday album A Classic Christmas. This is as old-fashioned as it gets, from its string-saturated arrangements to its selection of songs -- all classic carols and holiday tunes, and evenly divided between the two categories, too, with the popular standards taking over the first half and the more religious tunes on the second. But old-fashioned hardly means bad, particularly when Christmas records are concerned, since familiarity hardly breeds contempt with holiday albums: instead, it breeds comfort. So, the fact that there are no surprises at all on A Classic Christmas is a blessing -- it makes it sound like an old favorite upon the first listen. And almost all of that is down to Wynonna herself, who gives an easy, relaxed, charming performance here, one of her most natural in years. It's warm and friendly, as if she were casually singing around the Christmas tree, and it gives the album a warm, friendly charm as well, helping A Classic Christmas live up to the standard its title promises. Stephen Thomas Erlewine