Sixpence None the Richer

Ohhhh – Christmas CDs! The inevitable deluge has begun to the delight of some, and to the chagrin of others. A cornucopia of artists have been readying blogs to go up on their MySpace pages all across cyberspace: “You know, we’ve been wanting to do a Christmas project for a long time, and since so many of you have asked….” Once a year, an unsuspecting public faces every possible permutation of Christmas family music, from A Death-Metal Christmas to Harpsichord Holiday Favorites. Thankfully, there are often some real keepers in the bunch, and this year the re-formed Sixpence None the Richer gives us their delightful Christmas project, The Dawn of Grace – an album of eight traditional and two original songs that will take its place in the stack of Christmas recordings that you’ll want to keep in your ‘must-play’ Christmas rotation.

In many ways Leigh Nash’s voice is the perfect vehicle for Christmas songs. Possessing a pure and almost child-like quality, Nash also manages to phrase the lyrics with the accuracy of a singer who knows her way around the studio. Many of the tracks here (particularly songs like “Some Children See Him”) start out with just voice and acoustic guitar accompaniment, adding elements bit by bit, until you slowly notice that you’re hearing an artfully, but sparingly, produced Christmas classic evolve before your ears.

Familiar Christmas standards like “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Silent Night” are transformed into Sixpence songs while retaining a healthy respect for the original melodies. Some heavy bass here, some tasty snare drum there, interesting back-up vocals, and subtle synth work add texture and color the tunes delicately enough to keep Leigh’s voice as the center of attention, featuring the time-tested words and melodies where they belong.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” rings out as true as any version I’ve ever heard, even with the distinctly unique timing and innovative chords under the melody. “Riu, Riu, Riu,” a less-familiar song (although Bruce Cockburn did a haunting version of it several years ago), is an interesting, somewhat exotic, diversion from the usual menu of holiday fare. Avoiding clichés, “Carol of the Bells” offers the familiar melody set against a great bass line, engaging percussion and busy, but appropriate, strings.

Although I often question the inclusion of this song on various Christmas projects, Sixpence None the Richer offers a fine rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “River,” a song which, apart from the line, “It’s comin’ on Christmas,” and the inclusion of a few notes of ‘Jingle Bells’ (for ironic effect), has no real relationship to the holiday: still, this is a very pure and atmospheric version of the song, and Nash, thankfully, creates her own phrasing instead of slavishly re-creating Mitchell’s. Strictly for fun, there’s “Christmas Island,” which has been covered by everyone from Bing Crosby to Jimmy Buffett – an easy going song that has that retro-holiday mood all over it.

The two original songs are warm Christmas ‘love’ songs: the first, “The Last Christmas,” being a tender song sung from an expectant mother to the baby-soon-to-come (“I feel your heart beating inside my own skin / And I think of Mary in Bethlehem”), the implication of the title being, the last Christmas ‘without you.’ The cuddle-up-in-front-of-the-fire track would be “Christmas For two,” a song tailor-made for being near the one you love, late on Christmas Eve – aside from the whistling (!), it’s pure Sixpence….

Look – you know you need to eventually build up your own cache of Christmas music, right? Somebody’s got to move those Hollywood String Christmas CDs out of the way. The Dawn of Grace is a good start!

Tagged as: Leigh Nash, Sixpence None the Richer, The Dawn of Grace

↓ One comment

#1 Matt on October 12th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Nice review, Bert. And I love their “Angels We Have Heard on High”

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