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There are many Christmas fans out there – and a couple of Scrooges, too – but few love the season of joy as much as Trisha Yearwood. You can hear it from the first reverent notes of her new album, Christmastime.
Mixing symphonic splendor and jazzy jaunts, the project showcases a ’90s-country icon taking the transformative quality of Christmas quite seriously, even while making it fun. With timeless vocals and a classy, orchestral sound, she says Christmastime is meant to match the tone of a special season that brings out the essential goodness in us all. On a personal level, it’s something she falls into as soon as possible.
“I get into it – as soon as we get the trick-ortreaters done, I’m there!” she says with a laugh. “I don’t know if it’s all the decorations and the twinkling lights or what, but we tend to be a little kinder to one another during the holidays. So I’m looking forward to that and hoping that we can figure out how to make that stretch into the new year.”
Like the best holiday traditions, Yearwood’s experience with Christmas music goes back a long way. She released her first holiday set, T he Sweetest Gift, in 1994, just three years after her debut. In 2016 she topped Billboard’s Top Country Albums with Christmas Together, which she recorded with her husband and fellow country icon Garth Brooks. But Christmastime is different – in fact, it’s not a country album at all.
Yearwood chose a unique mix of songs for the album, which features 12 festive tracks (for the 12 days of Christmas). Grammy Award winner Don Was produced Christmastime, and Hollywood legend David Campbell composed its arrangements. Some songs are Christmas classics including “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Others are holiday-movie favorites like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” while some tunes aren’t Christmas songs at all. Plus, there’s a brand-new song, “Merry Christmas, Valentine,” that Yearwood penned and performed with Brooks, which might have a life after the holiday season.
Musically, it finds Yearwood returning to the “big-band” style she tapped for the Frank Sinatra tribute Let’s Be Frank in 2018, with pristine vocals and a sophisticated shimmer. She recorded the project with a full orchestra over four days in Los Angeles, and says that was a purposeful choice.
“I want to hear Christmas music all the time – and I’m also a little resistant to record something that everybody else has recorded, but that’s kind of what Christmas music is,” she says. “We took everything in that symphony vein. Every day was a little different depending on the song, but we had 40 to 50 musicians in the room every day, recording everything live. It was really amazing. Symphonies don’t work as much as they used to because you can unfortunately recreate a similar sound with a keyboard now, but there’s nothing like being in a room with that many folks making music. It was really, really cool.”
Tunes like “Blue Christmas” bring back familiar feelings of Christmases past, but others will make you stop and listen. Yearwood says she actually walked down the aisle of her wedding with Brooks to “Christmas Time Is Here” (from A Charlie Brown Christmas), so that song was at the “top of her list to record.” Her version highlights the often-overlooked lyrics, with the calming stillness of a snow-blanketed winter’s night.
“It was Christmas time, and it just felt right,” says the Snoopy fan of her wedding-entrance theme. “We got married at home, so it was a casual wedding. And even though I was in a massive dress, it just felt like the right song. We both love that music.”
Meanwhile, “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is no Christmas song at all, but has a “magical” quality that strikes the right chord. And with “Merry Christmas, Valentine,” Yearwood and Brooks share a tender, double-holiday duet. “That worked really beautifully with the orchestra – but it would also be really nice as a country song,” she hints. “It could be recut a whole different way.”
No matter what, each song presents her angelic vocals with a breathtaking, classic charm. She’ll share the album live with Nashville fans on her Christmastime With Trisha Yearwood: 12 Days of Christmas Tour.
Kicking off with a two-night stand at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on December 2–3, the tour promises a dozen dates with local symphonies across the U.S. Yearwood plans to channel her lifelong love of singers, including Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, and Linda Ronstadt.
The symphonic run won’t be a first for Yearwood. She previously toured with orchestras, performing classics from the American Songbook, but the two-part shows will be a treat for all – including herself. Noting how lucky Nashville is to have “a beautiful symphony hall worthy of this town of Music City,” she says fans can expect a little bit of everything — and a whole lot of Christmas. Each stop will pair her with a different symphony orchestra.
“It’ll be an adventure,” she says. “You get there in the afternoon, you run through the whole show to see how it’s going to go, and it’s always fun with different conductors. It’s mostly going to be Christmas, but we might throw in a little ‘She’s in Love With the Boy’ – you never know!
“I just want people to feel good,” she goes on. “I hope that if you come to the show and you’re not in the Christmas spirit already, we’ll throw you right into it. That’s my goal. And like I said, if you walk out the door feeling like you’re ready to be a little softer and kinder and gentler, then I’ve done my job.”