Personnel includes: Garth Brooks (vocals); Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar); Chris Leuzinger (electric guitar); The Nashville String Machine (strings); Jeff Bailey, Ernie Collins, Mark Douthit, Chris Dunn, Robert Green, Michael Haynes, Don Jackson, Sam Levine, Chris McDonald, Douglas Moffet, Steve Patrick, Denis Solee, George Tidwell (horns); Blair Masters (Hammond B-3 organ); Bobby Wood (keyboards); Mike Chapman (bass); Milton Sledge (drums); Sam Bacco (percussion).
Recorded at Jack's Tracks Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.
Personnel: Chris Leuzinger (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar); Nashville String Machine (strings); Chris Dunn, James R. Horn, Mark Douthit, Robert Green, Sam Levine , Chris McDonald, Jeff Bailey , Don Jackson, Steve Patrick, Denis Solee, George Tidwell, Ernie Collins (horns); Bobby Wood (piano, keyboards); Blair Masters (organ); Milton Sledge (drums); Sam Bacco (percussion).
Recording information: Jack's Tracks Recording Studio, Nashville, TN; The Sound Emporium.
Photographer: Beverly Parker.
Arrangers: Dennis Burnside; Bergen White.
The Magic of Christmas: Songs From Call Me Claus features country-pop superstar Garth Brooks performing a number of longtime holiday favorites. Some of the featured songs include "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Let It Snow," "Winter Wonderland," and several other favorites. In addition, there are a few idiosyncrasies here. Songs like "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" and "Wise Men's Journey" may be unfamiliar to many listeners, as should Brooks' own "Call Me Claus." It may humor you as well to find "Mary Had a Little Lamb" here, not exactly the most traditional of holiday songs. Overall, this is a rather halfhearted effort on Brooks' part and is recommended to fanatics only. ~ Jason Birchmeier
Appearing two months after his much-hyped pop crossover move In the Life of Chris Gaines, Garth Brooks & the Magic of Christmas suffers from extraordinarily bad timing. When it was being recorded as the soundtrack for a television special, Chris Gaines had yet to be unveiled and, if anything had gone according to plan, The Magic of Christmas would have been the cherry on the top of a successful year for Brooks. Even the best-laid plans have a way of unravelling, however, and none unravelled more spectacularly than Brooks' hopes for the fourth quarter of 1999. It's likely that The Magic of Christmas was intended to reveal another layer of Brooks' musical talents, to complement Chris Gaines' mainstream pop by illustrating that Brooks can also sing Christmas standards like a big band crooner. That's right -- The Magic is another stylistic departure for the most popular country artist of all time -- this one finds him doing big band, swing, ballads, and even gospel. Certainly, he had to find a way to distinguish this album from 1992's Beyond the Season, especially since it shares a handful of songs with the previous holiday affair. Traditional pop may not have been the wise way to go, however. On paper, it's a bold, gutsy move, but the artist just doesn't have the voice to pull it off. Throughout the record, he's entirely too self-conscious, trying to keep the twang out of his voice while struggling to adhere to the textbook image of a classic pop crooner. His voice is way too flat for this predictable setting. In order to make such chestnuts as "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Let It Snow," "Winter Wonderland," and "Sleigh Ride" sound fresh, particularly when they're given such predictable, brassy, post-Don Costas arrangements, a singer has to be both powerful and filled with charisma. Brooks is neither -- swallowed up by his big band, he sounds meek on each track, no matter how hard he tries to make himself heard. An interesting stylistic experiment, perhaps, but one that doesn't work. Unfortunately, The Magic of Christmas appeared just weeks after another interesting stylstic experiment from Brooks, the instantly legendary Chris Gaines. Musically, Gaines worked, but Brooks' invention of a fictional alter-ego was just too plain weird for his entire audience. Usually, Brooks records went platinum within two weeks of their release dates; two months after its release, In the Life of Chris Gaines didn't even go gold. Clearly, this was not the time for yet another stylistic departure, even if it was in the guise of a holiday album, but Brooks and Capitol had already locked themselves into a November release for The Magic of Christmas, and they couldn't stop it. To make matters worse, the TV special for The Magic wasn't completed in time, so it was bumped to Christmas 2000, leaving the album stranded in 1999. To save face, Brooks and Capitol decided to have the original release of The Magic of Christmas be a "Christmas 1999 -- First Edition" limited edition, planning to reissue the album with a different cover in 2000, when the TV special actually aired. That still doesn't explain the bizarre cover shot of a possibly airbrushed Brooks, dressed in black and sucking in his cheeks, standing beneath a spooky moon, holding a crystal ball, staring demonically into the camera -- it gives the impression that the album celebrates the black magic of Christmas. The picture doesn't ease the suspicions raised by Chris Gaines: the feeling that Brooks is retreating into his own insular world. From any other artist, such a wildly divergent sequence of albums would be seen as an attempt to alienate his audience, but Garth isn't Bob Dylan, who has been known to go out of his way to irritate his dedicated followers. Brooks wants to be all things to all people, but he not only can't pull everything off, he doesn't have an audience that will follow all of his detours. Consequently, the further away he goes from his standard sound, the smaller his audience becomes, and the more fascinating his recordings become. And, truth be told, few pairs of albums from a superstar have been quite so bizarrely fascinating as Chris Gaines and The Magic of Christmas. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Like every good businessman, Garth Brooks knows the value of diversifying his portfolio. Would any other country star release a rock concept album (IN THE LIFE OF CHRIS GAINES) and a traditional Christmas album in the same year? Wait--make that a traditional big-band Christmas album. Unlike Brooks' 1992 Christmas CD, BEYOND THE SEASON, THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS swings with Sinatra-esque arrangements, as Brooks croons his way through yuletide standards like "Winter Wonderland," "Let It Snow," and "White Christmas."
The full string and horn sections, plus a backing choir, give the album a full, rich sound, and Brooks sings in a higher, more delicate register that's completely twang-free. But the best tracks on the album are the gospel numbers--"Baby Jesus Is Born" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain"--which Brooks sings with the fervor of a minister in a Baptist church. On these tracks, the big-band style is dropped in favor of simple arrangements and terrific, rousing vocal performances. If you're a Garth fan who felt betrayed by CHRIS GAINES, THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS will have you dancing around the tree singing, "Come home Garth--all is forgiven." minimize