A two CD set of 20 true, Christmas Classics from Toby Keith. A Classic Christmas is Toby's first holiday release in 12 years. The songs are divided by disc into both contemporary and spiritual based holiday standards.

The instrumentation and production is acoustic based and allows the simplicity of the music to shine. These are the songs you want to hear during the holidays, performed by the biggest artist in country music.

Toby Keith, a Christmas Classic indeed!

Toby Keith likes the holidays so much that he’s recorded a second Christmas album (his first was 1995’s Christmas to Christmas), a two-disc set that divides the program between secular and spiritual songs. Co-producing with Randy Scruggs (the two also collaborated on arrangements), Keith keeps the backing tasteful and easy-going, with a pleasing western-swing fiddle on "Frosty the Snowman" and a Celtic fiddle flair on "Joy to the World." In contrast to his often blustery delivery, he delivers a pure reading nearly throughout, and dips down into the richest part of his register for such standards as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Mel Torme’s "The Christmas Song," one of the hardest holiday classics to sing. Overall, Keith fares better on the secular songs: While "We Three Kings" earns a sparkling arrangement and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" veers happily between gospel and bluegrass, several of the churchy numbers seem as stale as Grandma’s fruitcake. Keith would have done better to consolidate his 20-song offering into one disc, as A Classic Christmas makes for a better stocking stuffer than a major present under the tree. --Alanna Nash