Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Vineyard Music sent out a message to their USA music team and their overseas satellites (UK, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, India) to record renditions of popular carols and Vineyard Christmas originals and this is the result. It was actually released last year but we missed ‘Humble King’ then so with Authentic re-issuing it, here are our observations. Firstly, it’s rather a mixed bag. Sometimes the renditions work well, with Vineyard Music South Africa doing great things to “Joy To The World” capped by a top rate vocal by Sibusiso Ntsala. I also found VM USA’s rendition of “Adoramus Te” with a duet by Dean Salyn and Daphne Rademaker very moving. Other times there was too much saccharine in the arrangement like on Debby Smith-Tebay’s version of Andy Park’s “Lord Come This Christmas”. Probably the best song here is the Brenton Brown-penned title track with a good vocal by Nigel Briggs. Funny though, I’d never really thought of that as a Christmas song.

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