A Classic Christmas
Wynonna's first solo holiday album comes across as a thing of beauty, but also as something of a surprise, and not just because she tackles "Ave Maria" in Italianized Latin. Though paired with the original team behind the Judds (producer Brent Maher, musical arranger/guitarist Don Potter), the normally fiery redhead seems subdued on this collection of mostly reverent holiday fare. Throughout, Bergen White's arrangements are fresh and often sophisticated, Maher and Potter hang just the right amount of tinsel on the tree, and Wynonna's soaring soprano remains a wondrous instrument. (Even her kids, Grace and Elijah, impress on "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," the album's lightest offering.) But the down-home diva seems to hold back both passion and power, particularly on the show-your-stuff standard "O Holy Night." Where she most comes alive is on Potter's 1983 offering, "It's the Messiah," a modern take on the birth of Jesus. It's a lovely coda to this smooth, if oddly spiceless, eggnog entry.--Alanna Nash