It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Sugarland

By Alison Bonaguro
October 13th, 2009

The holidays are still a couple of months away, but that's not stopping Sugarland from rocking Twitter with a little listening party starting today. Their first holiday album, Gold and Green is streaming right this minute, and you can hear it as soon as you log onto Twitter and tweet that you are indeed listening to Sugarland. (If you don't do Twitter, it takes about one minute to sign up. If you never want to go back to tweet or follow or be followed after today, so be it.)

What's cool about these online streams, to me, is that it does more than just play you the music. It puts you in a mood. In this case, it's an uber-twangy holiday mood. One that seems a little more festive because of Jennifer Nettles' distinctive vocals heaped on top of that mood. And five of the songs are originals, so the album has a good mix of songs you grew up with and ones your kids will grow up with.

And as usual, there are some nice touches that really stand out. There's some very nice piano on "Winter Wonderland" and a gorgeous choir on "Coming Home." The sparse guitar picking and very orchestral fiddle on "Gold and Green" makes everything looks (and sound) better in gold and green.

Kristian Bush seems to have more time on the microphone with this batch of music, which I like, too. He shares vocals with Nettles on "Holly Jolly Christmas," "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and takes the lead on "Maybe Baby (New Years Day)," which might just be the sexiest holiday song I've ever heard.

Best, though, is "Nuttin for Christmas." It is super bluegrassy mountain music perfect for decorating cookies, trimming the tree and/or wrapping gifts. I'm all for tradition, but if I can hear a little more steel guitar in December, I'm all for it.