By David McGee
CHRISTMAS TO CHRISTMAS
Toby Keith
Mercury Records (released 1995
A CLASSIC CHRISTMAS, VOLUME ONE
Toby Keith
Show Dog Nashville
A CLASSIC CHRISTMAS, VOLUME TWO
Toby Keith
Show Dog Nashville
Released: 2007
Toby Keith’s star was still on the rise in 1995 when his first holiday album, Christmas to Christmas, appeared on the heels of his acclaimed sophomore album, Boomtown. One of the two Keith originals here, “Blame It On the Mistletoe,” says much about what made Keith special: a beautifully crafted lyric about an accidental meeting with a woman while shopping for Yuletide gifts culminating in a loving relationship that is especially fulfilling at holiday time when otherwise being alone is the most abject of states. It’s a tender moment on the disc, with understated, piano-based background supporting a subdued, conversational Keith vocal—the passions are reigned in but also deeply felt in the unwavering conviction in Keith’s sturdy baritone. An accidental encounter while Christmas shopping also informs another tune, the hard driving “Santa, I’m Right Here,” which is not about a love affair a-borning but rather is an appeal from a homeless person who’s feeling dismissed at Yuletide and is simply reminding Santa, who is clearly a stand-in for the general populace, that there’s a family living on the street without resources. This is less country than it is full-on rock ‘n’ roll and Keith fully embodies the blend of anger and despair his narrator articulates. A sweet family scene is the backdrop for the R&B-tinged country ballad “Jesus Gets Jealous of Santa Claus,” in which Keith sings of a father seeing the season in its proper light when his young daughter confesses to being in despair of the baby Jesus’s birth being overshadowed by commercial interests at this time of year—not altogether different from the lesson Linus taught Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas. On the playful side, Keith’s other original contribution, “Hot Road Sleigh,” is a rockin’ good time celebrating a new souped-up sleigh fired up and ready to speed Kris Kringle on his way with “Rudolph and his reindeer looking long and lean.” It’s a tune worthy of a Brian Setzer cover, complete with a sizzling guitar solo and a wailing harmonica addendum. All in all, Christmas to Christmas, lacking any traditional tunes, captures the young Toby Keith in a wide-angle perspective, plumbing the many emotions the season brings and having some lighthearted good times as well.
‘Santa, I’m Right Here,’ a homeless person’s outreach to Santa, from Toby Keith’s Christmas to Christmas
‘Blame It on the Mistletoe,’ a Toby Keith original, from Christmas to Christmas
Two discs totaling 20 Yuletide favorites served up in warm, welcoming fashion defines this most pleasant of holiday treats. Gathering an acoustic band comprised largely of fiddle, mandolin, bass, guitar, piano and, in what amounts to a star turn, Rob Ickes on dobro, Toby Keith kicks back and luxuriates in some festive arrangements offering a fresh spin on traditional favorites. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is soothing and seductive, thanks to Keith’s engaging pop crooning touch. “Frosty the Snowman” gets all dressed up in a rocking western swing arrangement complete with twin fiddles and bopping rhythm attack. Christmas chimes and a cooing background chorus lend a hopeful air to the bluesy urgency Keith brings to his R&B-tinged version of Charles Brown’s enduring “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ Toby Keith, from A Classic Christmas, Volume 1
‘Joy to the World,’ Toby Keith, from A Classic Christmas, Volume 2
Whereas Volume One focuses on secular seasonal songs, Volume Two hails the newborn King, as Keith assays carols from across the ages. Digging into contemporary gospel, he wrecks the house with a righteously declaimed rendition of “Go Tell It On the Mountain”; the ancient “O Come All Ye Faithful” is rendered with all the majestic importuning the lyrics demand, Keith’s stentorian tenor rising strong and proud over thundering percussion and plaintive choral singers as Ickes adds a rustic touch with his precisely placed dobro punctuations. This Christmas package concludes (on Volume Two) with an ebullient rendering of “Joy To the World,” with drums, fiddle, and chorus adding exactly the proper measure of celebratory attitude to buttress Keith’s unabashed exultation in the moment and in the lyrical sentiment he drives home with unflagging commitment. Herein, Toby Keith keeps Christmas well.
Diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2021, Toby Keith passed away on February 5, 2024. He was 62 years old. RiP and Godspeed, good man.
