Description
1. Christmas in the Smokies
2. Jingle Bells
3. My Christmas Dream
4. The Christmas Song
5. Frosty the Snowman
6. A Carpenter, a Mother and a King
7. Santa Clause is Coming to Town
8. Stuck in the Chimney
9. There's a New Kid in Town
10. Winter Wonderland
11. It's a Time For Joy
12. White Christmas
13. Oh Come, All Ye Faithful
14. Away in the Manger
15. Go Tell it on the Mountain
Review
"The biggest names here are B J Thomas (singing Jingle bells) and Eddie Rabbitt (singing Deck the halls), but I suspect most people will recognize that Stella Parton (singing Hark! the herald angels sing) is Dolly's sister even if they haven't heard her own music. Actually, she once had a UK top 40 pop hit (with The danger of a stranger), something that most country singers have never done.
Some people will remember Helen Cornelius (here singing The first Noel and O holy night) as Jim Ed Brown's duet partner between 1976 and 1980 or thereabouts. Her solo music is not well known, although she recorded some.
Con Hunley had a series of minor country hits from the mid seventies to the mid eighties but never had a hit big enough to push him into the big time. Along with Helen, I regard him as the star of this album, on which he sings Jolly old St Nicholas and It came upon the midnight clear.
Given his lack of success when he was younger, you might think that Con's music would be hard to find on CD, but he has his own website and some of his original albums have been released on CD. The masters for some others have apparently been lost, so he has re-recorded those. Not everybody likes re-recordings, but if the masters have been lost, they offer a legitimate alternative. At the point of writing this review, I haven't bought any of Con's music beyond the two tracks here, but I hope to one day.
The remaining three tracks are by the Four Guys, who sound pleasant enough on O come all ye faithful, Away in a manger and a medley of Go tell it on the mountain / We wish you a merry Christmas, but I'd never heard of them before I bought this CD and their name does not make them easy to find on the internet.
If you're looking for a country Christmas album that gets away from the big name artists, this could be what you're looking for." - Peter Durward Harris, Amazon Hall of Fame Top 500 Reviewer