A Fairly Original Country Christmas Album: The Gift By Kenny Rogers!

The Good: Good mix of largely obscure Christmas music, Decent vocal range
The Bad: Very short, Musically unspectacular.
The Basics: A very different Christmas album, The Gift showcases the talents of Kenny Rogers as a performer, even if there is not much to the album other than fairly original song choices.


Complaining about how much Christ comes up on a Christmas album is about as ridiculous as wondering why the Torah has so many Hebrew characters; it’s the nature of the work. And yet, recently while driving with my wife, she put on one of her favorite Christmas albums from her childhood - The Gift by Kenny Rogers – and as we drove along, I began to get progressively more uncomfortable with how religious the album was (both my wife and I are atheists, but she was raised as a Christian). After a few days of letting the emotional impact of The Gift wear off, I got to a place where I felt I could objectively listen to the album and review it fairly.

I was actually surprised when considering The Gift that I had reviewed only one other Kenny Rogers album; 20 Great Years (reviewed here!). Rogers is one of my wife’s favorite Country music artists and from an objective standpoint, The Gift is good, especially for a Christmas album. Unlike the usual standards that appear on virtually every other Christmas album since Elvis released Elvis’s Christmas Album (reviewed here!), The Gift is largely unfamiliar Christmas works, at least to the general population. Only one song contains familiar Christmas songs and even those are ones (the song is a massive medley) that fall to the hymn side of Christmas music.

With only nine tracks clocking out at 43 minutes, The Gift is mostly hampered by being short. Kenny Rogers clearly has plenty of faith and Christmas spirit, so why he includes so few songs and uses so little of the compact disc’s capacity is a bit of a mystery to me. Rogers sings the lead vocals on all of the songs, but he is only credited as a co-writer on a single track (which surprised me because I had not heard any of the other songs before this album). Rogers is not credited with any of the instruments, arrangements, or production credits on The Gift. How much of The Gift is actually Rogers’s creative vision, as opposed to being studio vision/profit motive is unclear.

That said, Kenny Rogers provides smooth, beautiful vocals on all of the songs. He sings every line on the album so it may be clearly understood and the album has a very Gospel-Country sound to it.

Instrumentally, Rogers is backed up by keyboards and light strings. Only “Pretty Little Baby Child” truly diverges in terms of the instrumental accompaniment; it includes percussion (presumably glockenspiels) that bring the song a more up-tempo and almost Caribbean sound. The rest of the songs sound like they could be played at virtually any church. The one problem with that is the familiar song; “The Chosen One Montage.” “The Chosen One Montage” is a fifteen-plus minute song that has Kenny Rogers telling and singing the story of the birth of Jesus. Utilizing children singing and asking questions, Rogers answers with the story of Christmas in words and music. Unfortunately, the children’s vocals come between long stretches of Rogers singing, so it replays poorly; there is more of a feeling of “Oh, are we still on that song?!” when the children’s vocals pop back up seemingly at random.

Lyrically, The Gift is very much a Christmas – and Christian – album. The songs are largely unfamiliar to secular listeners and include larger religious themes than just Christmas. For example, “A Soldier’s King” plays off the Country music-listener’s stereotypical level of faith and patriotism with lines like, “No one seemed to notice the man beside the road / He was just a ragged soldier out there in the cold / But he seemed to have a purpose only known to him / As he walked along the streets that night through the town of Bethlahem. / In his head he held a memory of all the wars he'd known / In his hand he clutched a medal for the bravery he'd shown / And the weight of every battle he caried in his heart / But his eyes were clear and searching for a manger in the dark.” The songs aren’t bad, but they are very much playing to the established Kenny Rogers audience and are fairly inaccessible to anyone who is not a Country or Gospel music fan or a Christian.

Ultimately, The Gift is good for Christians looking for something other than the usual commercial Christmas album or those who are familiar with the songs on the album and are drawn to the nostalgia of it. The best track is “I Trust You,” the “The Chosen One Montage” fares the worst over multiple replays.

For other fairly original Christmas albums, please visit my reviews of:
Wintersong - Sarah McLachlan
Midwinter Graces - Tori Amos
20th Century Masters: Christmas Collection – The Best Of Reba - Reba McEntire

6.5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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There Have To Be Better Kenny Rogers Mixes Than 20 Great Years!

The Good: Good vocals, Good lyrics, Catchy tunes
The Bad: DREADFULLY short, Very much incomplete
The Basics: A disappointing album more for what is absent than what is present, 20 Great Years undersells the career of Kenny Rogers.


Once in a while, I encounter an album that is so simple, it leaves me with very little to actually write about. When there is no original content on a work, it is hard to make it stretch and in the case of the Kenny Rogers album 20 Great Years, I see little point in trying. My wife picked the album up when we were out a few months ago and I listened to it in pretty heavy rotation as I've worked. The truth is, it is not a bad album.

However, the ten-track compilation album is entirely lackluster when one looks at both the musical career of Kenny Rogers and when stacked up against other compilations. Taking a twenty year career and reducing it to ten songs (and not including "Islands In The Stream") seems both thoughtless and pointless. There are vastly better Kenny Rogers compilations on the market which have more songs than this album does.

With only ten songs occupying a little more than thirty-eight minutes, this is a poor collection of the works of Kenny Rogers. While it includes many of Rogers' most popular and recognizable songs, like "The Gambler" and "She Believes In Me," it has Rogers only as a performer of other people's works. If he ever wrote any of his own work, one would think even one song ought to make it onto a compilation. As it stands, 20 Great Years features only the vocal talents of Kenny Rogers, not his instrument-playing abilities or songwriting prowess. Rogers sings only; he was not involved in the production of any of the singles or the album.

Instrumentally, Kenny Rogers is accompanied most frequently by guitars or the piano. His style of song is generally one of musical storytelling, so the musical accompaniment on some of the songs is minimal. "Coward Of The County" is almost amelodic, whereas "Lucille" has the sweeps and falls of a sea chantey or drinking song. Rogers was at the forefront of the popular Country revival that preceded Billy Ray Cyrus and Reba McEntire, so some of his songs include synthesizers and "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" has a full orchestra backing it. Songs range from ditties ("Daytime Friends") to undancable emotional outcries ("Something's Burning").

Vocally, Kenny Rogers has a somewhat limited range, but he still sounds great. Rogers sings low, but exceptionally clear. He has an almost Folk way of presenting many of his songs such that each and every word may be perfectly understood. Accompanied as he is by instruments which he has the vocal power to overwhelm, Kenny Rogers is a fine vocalist who is able to tell a great story clearly, as he does on "The Gambler" and "Coward Of The County."

Beyond that, Rogers is able to emote and really put his back into his vocals. When he sings "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" with Kim Carnes, he holds notes and the strain and effort in his voice may be heard. It makes the wrenching nature of the song work, however and listeners are likely to appreciate how much emotion Rogers is able to express. He is able to have both force and a level of excitement in his voice when he sings "You Decorated My Life" and that makes him extraordinary.

Thematically, Kenny Rogers is a Country music storyteller. His songs are essentially life lessons about knowing when to quit ("The Gambler"), standing up for oneself and others ("Coward Of The County") and infidelity ("Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," "Daytime Friends"). The album is a pretty even mix of Country storysongs and Country love ballads (like "You Decorated My Life" and "Something's Burning"). And to the credit of Kenny Rogers, he knows how to pick songs that he can make sound good!

But even with the quality of what is here on this mix, it is hard not to feel cheated. The album is dreadfully short - there is now a 50 years collection that has far more than this album does - and those who enjoy Kenny Rogers' smooth style of musical storytelling are much more likely to want more of it than this ten-track "sampler" offers.

The best track is "The Gambler," the low point is "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," though there are honestly not really any bad tracks on the album.

For other Country music works or male vocalists, please check out my reviews of:
Little Bit Of Everything - Billy Currington
Dusk And Summer - Dashboard Confessional
No Name Face - Lifehouse

4/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here for a neat listing of all I have reviewed organized for ease of finding the reviews!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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