Gold and Green

Gold and Green balances five traditional Christmas carols with five non-religious humanitarian tunes to make for a festive album that almost anyone can enjoy — even those relatives who don’t care too much for country music. That’s right — though the opening “City of Silver Dreams” celebrates Christmastime in New York City with some of that familiar award-winning twang-pop, Sugarland daringly branch out with “Coming Home,” a slow-burning, jazzy number where singer Jennifer Nettles croons with more gospel- tinged soul than previously heard. And the title track is a straight-up, adult-contemporary ballad à la Judy Collins that floats on the romantic swoops and swells of an elegant sounding string section. But fans of the heartland hymns can obviously rejoice too, as Nettles lays on her drawl extra-thick in the rootsy ballad “Little Wood Guitar” and the banjo-laced “Nuttin’ for Christmas,” a playful porch-jam of a country carol. Nettles channels her best Linda Ronstadt on a half-Spanish-sung rendition of “Silent Night,” which bookends the album in style.