** ** ** ** ** SPECIAL HOLIDAY REVIEWS 2009 ** ** ** **

The Tunes They Are a-Changin’
When news broke that Bob Dylan would release his first-ever Christmas album, music lovers – and critics – went into a tizzy, concerned that it wouldn’t be a good fit. And rightfully so, for it seems that the legendary singer-songwriter spiked his eggnog en route to recording Christmas in the Heart (Sony).

Christmas Music Wrap-Up 2009
No matter your musical style, there’s certainly a new Christmas album just for you in 2009. This year’s new holiday choices include everything from vintage soul to modern worship, from light rock to indie pop, from bluegrass to contemplative folk—it’s all here. CT music writer Andrew Greer sorted through piles of records to review this season’s great, the not-so-great, and the, well, let’s just say some might deserve a humbug.

Starting with the cream of the crop …

Christmas Cheer From Downhere!
Known for his quick wit and dry humor, Downhere’s main man, Marc Martel, banters about the holidays, granting fans an inside scoop on the popular band’s first yuletide recording, How Many Kings: Songs for Christmas (Centricity). Dishing behind-the-scenes details on the album’s brightest tracks, the brassy Canadian takes time to school CCM on rock ‘n’ roll and Christmastime in the Great White North.

Shane & Shane

Scriptures Unplugged
Using Holy Scripture to frame songs of praise for more than a decade, Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, better known as Christian music’s best-selling acoustic duo, Shane & Shane, are leaning more than ever on their personal Bible study and experience leading worship at their home church in Texas to inspire their trademark memory-verse music. Using the pop-producing sensibilities of Pete Kipley (MercyMe) and Jason Hoard (Fee), as well as veteran audio engineer Steve Churchyard (The Eagles, Kelly Clarkson), to get the heart of the songs on tape, Barnard shares with CCM what makes their new studio recording, Everything Is Different, so, well … different.

Jeremy Camp “Live”

Sophomore Concert CD Focuses On Hits
It’s been four years since Jeremy Camp released his first “live” recording, Unplugged, featuring a list of No.1 singles and fan favorites from his trio of gold-certified records (Restored, Carried Me and Stay), including the companion concert DVD, which has been certified multi-platinum since. Suffice it to say, Camp has not only a loyal record-buying base, but also legions of live fans. And he further captures the in-person experience on his latest CD, Live.

Seabird “Rocks Into Rivers”

More Melodic Rock From Rising Indie Outfit
For a band quoted as perfectly content “being the underdog” for their entire career if “that meant surprising the critics and naysayers every time we scored a touchdown,” EMI’s indie/alternative collective Seabird must have ignored their recent mainstream achievements. With accessible melodic piano-based rock, the band has found a home on popular television programming like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Pushing Daisies,” giving the young band a freshman upper hand.

But if they aren’t careful, their primetime credentials will associate the musical bunch with a slew of other delay-heavy rockers who achieve 30-second greatness before being swallowed by the current of trends pervading today’s fickle entertainment field.

Newsong “Give Yourself Away”

Thirty Years Is A Charm
When Newsong signed with Word Records in 1981, Michael W. Smith was still a couple years shy of his first major label deal. Sandi Patty had been awarded none of her three dozen-plus Dove trophies and ccm poster child, Amy Grant, was no big deal.

The point? Younger generations may not even realize Newsong has been around for nearly 30 years. Or that the resilient outfit has continued to evolve during its lauded Christian music tenure, not only into a veteran mainstay but also a relevant asset.

Whitney Houston “I Look to You”

About to lose my breath / There’s no more fighting left / Sinking to rise no more / Searching for that open door / Every road that I’ve taken / Led to my regret / I don’t know if I’m gonna’ make it / Nothing to do but lift my head / I look to you. (from “I Look to You”)

Whitney Houston has long been affiliated with gospel music. She cut her teeth singing church standards with her local New Jersey congregation’s choir as a teenager. Her ties to the Christian music market became well-known after she collaborated with BeBe & CeCe Winans on their 1988 hit record, Heaven, a close kinship that exposed CeCe to a broader audience thanks to their hit duet, “Count on Me,” from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack.

The 1998 Dove Awards hosted a live display of the soul singer’s roots with a cut-loose performance of the late Dottie Rambo’s “I Go to the Rock” from The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack, Houston’s only fully faith-based record. The soundtrack, which featured the Georgia Mass Choir and Shirley Caesar, quickly became the greatest selling gospel album of all time, thanks to Houston’s worldwide celebrity and her history-making soundtrack for The Bodyguard (which included a BeBe Winans-produced rendition of “Jesus Loves Me”).

Even Houston’s familial ties lead back to religious music.

Switchfoot “Hello Hurricane”

Style: The alternative rock of The Killers and indie rock of Death Cab for Cutie

Top tracks: “Mess of Me,” “This Is the Sound,” “Sing It Out”

The evolution of Switchfoot has been interesting. Ever since veteran producer Charlie Peacock signed the San Diego-based band to his re:think label thirteen years ago, the resilient rockers have gone from being an emerging West Coast Christian music-oriented outfit to an internationally-known modern rock collective.

When 2003’s The Beautiful Letdown went multi-platinum and elevated them to celebrity status, a whirlwind of media and touring obligations left little time for leisure inspiration. But with a somewhat diminished profile in more recent years, and frontman Jon Foreman’s extracurricular exploits (both solo and as “Fiction Family” with Nickel Creek’s Sean Watkins) sparking new ideas, the seasoned musicians decided to re-introduce, if not reinvent, their smorgasbord of power pop/rock on their first release with Atlantic, Hello Hurricane

Sara Groves “Fireflies & Songs”

Style: emotive acoustic pop; compare to Shawn Colvin, Cindy Morgan and Patty Griffin

Top tracks: “Fireflies & Songs,” “From this One Place,” “It’s Me”

A songwriter in the truest sense, Sara Groves transfers the strains of everyday life to tape better than any artist in Christian music today. And though she has always translated her keen observations of others into four-minute song stories, Fireflies & Songs finds the ex-high school teacher stepping back from the chalkboard for some serious self-examination, making her already personal track record even more intimate