Call me a Grinch, but I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas music. After a couple of weeks of listening to Christmas music, I’m usually done with it for another year! Plus, it is my opinion that Christmas music is its own unique genre and should have a certain sound and feel, and for the most part, the Southern Gospel genre fails at creating truly meaningful and captivating Christmas music. If you notice, in the course of my discography reviews, I have purposely skipped over a couple of Christmas recordings, but I absolutely could NOT let this series with the Talleys go by without talking about “A Family Christmas”, which I consider one of the best (if not the GREATEST) Christmas recordings in our field! This album is one of the classiest Christmas recordings ever released, from song selection and arrangements, all the way down to the cover, which was shot at the house of a close friend of the Talleys, who had decorated their house specifically for the photo shoot.

Released in time for Christmas in 1988, this would be the last vinyl record the Talleys would release, as their future recordings would be released only on cassette and CD. Once again enlisting the assistance of Steven V. Taylor as producer, along with Roger Talley and John Mays serving as Executive Producers, there were a lot of moving parts and individuals who helped make this album such a spectacular piece of work. With orchestrations being handled by 3 different orchestrators…Reed Arvin (“The Christmas Song” and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”), David Maddux (“Sleigh Ride”) and Russell Mauldin (handling the remaining tunes), Taylor also assists with some of the unique arrangements for this album, as the Talleys purposely worked at creating a Christmas album that was not your traditional Southern Gospel sounding recording, that completely embodied the spirit of the season.

“The Noel Medley” gets things underway as it starts with a dramatic acapella opening…”Noel, Noel, we sing, we sing Noel…”, which immediately grabs your attention, before the orchestra kicks in. Consisting of the classics, “How Great Our Joy”, “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World”, each song is interwoven into one spectacular medley, filled with wonderful brass and string embellishments, orchestrated by Russell Mauldin. The dramatic acapella beginning, varying tempos and intensities, and the unique arrangement created by Steven V. Taylor, all come together to make this my favorite piece from this recording.

The nostalgic and heartfelt, “I’d Still Like to Go to Grandma’s House for Christmas”, became the perennial favorite from this album, as many people (myself included) could relate so well to the sentiment in the song. According to Kirk, his Aunt Mary Evelyn was the loudmouth of the Kirkpatrick family, and she made Christmas fun. His grandmother was a prankster as well, so between her and Mary Evelyn, there was never a dull moment at the family Christmas dinner. The song worked exceptionally well live because just about every family can relate to the song, and Kirk always set the song up exceptionally well telling stories from past Christmas dinners, leaving the audience in stitches, but would always end his stories by saying, ““but Mary Evelyn loved Jesus!”….and the music would start and they’d go into the song. It was a fantastic moment of fun and cherished memories. In the midst of all the fancy music on this recording, they had to tell the musicians to go in a different direction and go more country, to fit the overall feel of the song. After Kirk went solo, he eventually re-recorded the song on his 1999 solo Christmas recording, “Talley Ho Ho Ho!”, much to the delight of his fans.

Slowing things down to a warm and soothing pace, we come to another wonderful medley featuring “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “Away in a Manger”, the latter song being Lauren’s first solo on a professional record. Funny story, the engineer recording vocals for the album was Brent King, and he worked hard at trying to make sure Lauren was comfortable and not nervous about recording, but she stepped up to the mic and delivered her solo in just one take! When she was done, Brent told Lauren “why can’t you get your mom and dad to sing that good?”!

The upbeat, regal feel of the Kirk Talley/Phil Cross penned, “His Excellent Greatness” is next, and features Kirk. The song was a perfect inclusion for this album, and in fact, it was also recorded by Gerald Wolfe on his first solo album that was released the same year as “A Family Christmas”. The song was most recently included in the 2016 collaborative Christmas recording, “Glad Tidings” by the Whisnants and Mark Trammell Quartet.

Another spectacular medley finishes out the first side, appropriately titled, “The Caroling Medley” which features “Carol of the Bells” and “Caroling, Caroling”. The Talleys flawlessly executed vocals, coupled with Russell Mauldin’s outstanding orchestrations, makes this such a marvelous piece of work, and another one of my favorite pieces from this recording.

The Christmas classic, “Sleigh Ride”, gets side 2 underway, and it is sheer perfection. In fact, the Talleys version of this tune is my all-time favorite rendition of the song and is the crowning jewel of the recording, but getting it recorded was a feat for the Talleys. The group didn’t want a “Southern Gospel” Christmas album, they wanted something featuring lush harmonies and orchestrations, and as Kirk relayed to me, they wanted something that made you want to skate to the mall and shop! The song was arranged and orchestrated by David Maddux, who was a New York-based arranger and composer who has worked with such artists as Rosemary Clooney, Debbie Reynolds, Sandi Patti and First Call, and has worked on various high-profile productions including the jazz vocal production, “An Evening in December” and “Ben Hur: The Musical”. When the time came to record “Sleigh Ride”, Maddux came into the studio with 10 notebooks with every note that each musician and singer was to play or sing. When they got ready to record the vocals, they were as lost as lost could be, and it literally took an entire day to record the vocals for the song, but the end result was something the Talleys were extremely proud of!

Starting off acapella, “Home for the Holidays Medley” features the classic tunes “Home for the Holidays” (love the Carpenters vibe), “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “White Christmas”. Nicely orchestrated and featuring some nice, intricate harmonies, this beautiful montage of tunes is about as close to perfection as one can get, before we come to the whimsical and somewhat amusing novelty tune, “I Can Still Celebrate Christmas”, which was written by Kirk. Starting out with some really nice piano work by David Huntsinger, the song was inspired during a trip to Ohio after Christmas break, where Kirk noticed that all the people had their trees sitting by the curb waiting to be picked up, and he realized that for a lot of folks, Christmas was over, but joy is a 12-month thing if you know the joy of the Savior, and thus, the song was born. Kirk always had a delightful knack for writing his thoughts into a song in a lighthearted way, yet getting his message across, and this was a wonderful example of that! Several years later, Legacy 5 recorded the song on their 2016 “Messiah” Christmas recording.

Debra finishes out the album with an elegant performance on the Christmas classic, “The Christmas Song”. This was such a warm and reflective performance, nicely orchestrated by Reed Arvin, who is a wonderful producer, musician, and writer, who got his start playing keyboards for Amy Grant in the early 80’s, and then later teamed up with Rich Mullins, producing multiple recordings for him before Mullins passed away in 1997. It’s a very classy and tastefully arranged performance, winding the album down with a very elegant and low-key finish.

I am pretty much a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas music, and “A Family Christmas” is an exceptional Christmas recording that is about as close to perfection as anyone could ever be. The medleys are a superb blend of classics, refreshed with marvelous vocal and musical arrangements, and the new songs fit in perfectly between the classic tunes. This is a spectacular sounding Christmas recording that is full of that Christmas “spirit”, and I’ve yet to hear a Southern Gospel Christmas recording that surpasses this wonderful piece of work. It is full of delightful ear candy that can put even the most grinchiest of grinches into the Christmas spirit! Bar none, this is the greatest Christmas recording in our genre, and for me, it is the measuring stick for every other Christmas recording released afterwards!

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