::ALBUM REVIEW::

It’s hard not to imagine the charisma of Vickie Winans ever embracing a full-length holiday album. Her imaginative and jovial personality has a tendency of lifting up the heaviest heart and downtrodden spirit - a trait she has used in other career ventures such as gospel comedy albums and fun-oriented music videos. But it took a number of albums on both the CGI and Verity label to lead her to release her first independent-release; which happens to be her very first holiday project ever. And just in time for the holiday rush, the album is loaded with her dynamic persona aimed to be one of the biggest acclaimed stocking stuffers amongst gospel music lovers. Predominately produced by Winans alongside her son Marvin Jr, Happy Holidays From Vickie Winans is a loaded fifteen-track collection that floats on a hefty hybrid of Christmas classics saturated in newly-crafted arrangements and a bundle of originals loaded with her usual dramatic deliveries.

Opening the collection is “The Holiday Jam”; a feisty urban club cut that borderlines a finale’ of a big Broadway musical. The song is definitely wordy and full of surprises like quick samples of Darius Brooks’ “My Mind Is Made Up” and the late Kayla Parker’s “Now Are We.” On the vamp, the music journeys through a bundle of modulations and lyrically goes down a list of major holidays ranging from Easter to MLK Day. It’s an all-inclusive track that can be played at anytime of the year, and even though a song with so little connection to the Christmas season may be a bit risky, it isn’t surprising to hear a cut as robust and zealous opening such a set. Fred Darkchild Jerkins contributes “Special Day”; a moving love dedication to God set to cool R&B/pop sounds and riding on breezy instrumentation. Important contributions here include the retro-groovy “Motown In Yotown Family Song”, staged by familiar Dozier/Holland/Dozier traits, and the careful arrangement of “A Merry Little Christmas”.

There are a few other neat additions tucked beneath the album’s loaded contents. Newly signed to Destiny Joy Records is Denise Tichenor and she appears on the well-polished, sultry and smoky R&B rendition of “O Holy Night.” You can hear a little bit of Shirley Murdock and gospel’s Rhonda McLemore in her charming vocal deliveries. A vintage inclusion of a fifteen-year old Marvin “Coconut” Winans dueting with Vickie Winans on a surprisingly-likeable 90's styled “Hark The Herald Angels Sing.”

Unfortunately when you don’t have the backing of the big labels behind you, it’s hard to make mediocre sound grand. Some of the production presented on cuts like “Jingle Bells” and “Joy To The World” feels rubbery on the edges and lacks the big production most gospel studio presentations are afforded with. And there’s a course of album fillers tossed into the mix that help and hurt the album’s overall replay value: depending on if you like gimmicks and repeat performances. “Joyful Joyful” and “The Rainbow” are both copy and pasted onto this collection from her previous Woman To Woman: Songs of Life project on Verity Records. “We Wish You A Merry Little Christmas”, “Jingle Bells” and “My Christmas Gift To You” feel more like reprises than official songs due to its lack of lyrical length. But Happy Holidays From Vickie Winans doesn’t suffer in total disparity since it does bundle up Winans’ enjoyable personality and power pipes into a few cuts dazzled with keyboard synths, drum loops and the late Kayla Parker’s background vocals. Not really sure if this is the album one will seek after when camping around the Christmas tree and fireplace in the years to come, but Winans’ attempt of creating her own holiday gift for her supportive fan base proves she’s definitely one of the hardest working women in the gospel music industry. Next time, she should step back and allow the pros to handle all the dirty work.