America
Holiday Harmony (Rhino) The idea of soft rock dinosaurs America cutting a Christmas album with Andrew “Lonely Boy” Gold sounds like a bad joke. Those looking for gag gifts won’t be disappointed either, what with “Winter Wonderland” reworked as the group’s “A Horse With No Name” and “White Christmas” liberally sprinkled with “Tin Man” quotes. America was never groundbreaking, yet Gold’s specter-with-an-iMac arrangements actually give
Holiday Harmony a slight edge in the “Jesus, Does Everyone Have to Make a Christmas Album?” category.
This article appears in December 20 • 2002.
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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.
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