Artists of all stripes put out new Christmas albums each year, but the country singers are particularly fond of the holiday. This year alone, Brad Paisley, Trisha Yearwood, Mickey Guyton, Hunter Hayes, and LeAnn Rimes released new holiday records.
Rimes is so enamored of Christmas music, in fact, that her newest album is titled Greatest Hits Christmas and features songs from the handful of other Christmas projects she’s released over the years (in addition to some new material).
This cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ is one of the new cuts, and it’s a beauty. Like yesterday’s Wham! track, this song is about a Christmas breakup, though it is decidedly more musically melancholy than ‘Last Christmas.’
Both tracks are Christmas songs the way It’s a Wonderful Life or Die Hard are Christmas movies… they aren’t specifically about the holiday, but it’s hard to imagine them being set at any other time of year.
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
[Verse 2]
But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m gonna make a lot of money
Then I’m gonna quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
[Chorus]
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
[Verse 3]
He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
[Verse 4]
I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
[Chorus]
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
[Verse 5]
It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Meet Me In Montauk 