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I recently had the blessing of hearing Triumphant Quartet’s latest Christmas CD. It starts with “Jesus, What a Wonderful Child” which the Talley Trio included on their project a while back. Two songs I hadn’t heard before were “Hope Has Hands” and “Mary’s Christmas,” the latter of which was sung by Clayton Inman who did a terrific job.

When I first started listening to “Christmas Shoes,” I really wasn’t sure how a bass singer would do but Eric Bennett did a great solo.

They repeated the Cathedrals’ acapella arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and then David Sutton sang a really neat song called “Jesus is Lord.”

As I listened to Jeff Stice do a piano solo of “O Holy Night,” I thought, “I’d love to see him do that in concert.” I love the song anyway but Jeff is one talented musician!

Probably the neatest song on the project is the title song, “We Need a Little Christmas,” which Legacy Five also recorded earlier this year. However, on Triumphant’s version the families of the group members join in and sing. It was introduced by Paul Heil. Upbeat and fun, this song is definitely a winner!

Closing the project is a “Medley of Fun” which includes “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Jingle Bells,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (another piano solo).

One thing that added to the project was, between each song, Jeff would play a short piano solo of a carol. Then it would go into the next song. I’ve never heard a group do that before but it gave it more of a Christmasy feel.

If you like Triumphant Quartet, you will like this project!

~Sony Elise

My tenth Christmas wish would be for the Browns; if I could, I would arrange for Lari Goss to produce one of their albums. Goss is a legendary producer within our genre, and I think he would bring out nuances in their group sound that could make the project a break-through project for the group.

My ninth Christmas wish is for radio listeners–and really for anyone who wants to see higher quality programming on Southern Gospel radio stations.

Sometimes record companies and radio promoters send the obvious best song to radio. But once in a while, their choices leave the fans scratching their heads. I’ve even come across a few instances where artists were surprised by the songs a label / promoter picked. Since I think this would improve the quality of songs aired, I’d like to see record companies and radio promoters set up email addresses where fans can give feedback on what song they feel should be a project’s next single.