Holiday Harmony

13 seasonal songs, also including 3 new (2002) compositions 'Christmas In California', 'A Christmas To Remember' and 'Winter Holidays.' Features warm interpretations of traditional favorites like 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', 'Silent Night', 'White Christmas' and other perennials. Rhino.

Although Dan Peek left America in 1976, the remaining members--Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley--recapture the magic that put the folk rock trio atop the charts 25 years ago on Holiday Harmony, their first Christmas album. Much of the credit must go to seminal 1970s figure Andrew Gold, who not only produced and engineered the record, but played all the instruments (save Beckley's and Bunnell's guitars) and added his own soaring background vocals to the 13 songs. Gold also cowrote "Christmas in California," one of the three originals on the disc, which, with its tight harmonies and breezy subject matter, could have been lifted off The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. In an unusual twist for a holiday album, America's newly penned songs are the best tunes on the collection. Beckley and Bunnell haven't lost their chemistry and homespun imagination, conjuring images of Yuletides past on the excellent "Christmas to Remember" and the witty "Winter Holidays." When the duo cover Christmas classics, they seem to bend them to their will, adding background harmonies on "Winter Wonderland" that recall the ones they used on "A Horse with No Name." On their version of "White Christmas," Beckley and Bunnell incorporate the melody line from "Tin Man," with surprisingly good results. --Jaan Uhelszki