Guitar-slinging twins
Matthew and
Gunnar Nelson offer up their first holiday set with 2015's This Christmas. The album's lead single and title track is told from the perspective of two best friends who discover, on Christmas, that they are in love with each other. It's a romantic notion made sweeter by the added vocals of
Carnie and Wendy Wilson, whose familial gift for harmony dovetails neatly with
the Nelsons' own smooth tenors. Elsewhere, the brothers apply their latter-day Nashville-inspired country-pop sound to a smattering of seasonal standbys from traditional carols like "Away in a Manger" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" to
Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and the Hawaiian Christmas favorite "Mele Kalikimaka." ~ Timothy Monger