CD review: Snow Globe by Matt Wertz

Do you have a favorite Christ­mas album you pull out every year when dec­o­rat­ing the house? Well make room for Matt Wertz’s “Snow Globe.”

Wertz set out to make a Christ­mas CD that includ­ed his child­hood favorites, along with some “hum­ble orig­i­nals.” A CD that you would pull out while mak­ing cook­ies, wrap­ping gifts or cruis­ing the neigh­bor­hood streets in search of win­ter won­der­land lights. And he suc­ceed­ed.

The first track is one of my favorites, “Walkin’ In a Win­ter Won­der­land,” also on the CD are such sta­ples as “White Christ­mas,” “O Holy Night,” “Sleigh Ride,” and this lit­tle sur­prise — “Christ­mas­time is Here” — the song from Char­lie Brown’s Christ­mas spe­cial.

Wertz isn’t afraid to call for some help, with the Nashville Chil­dren’s Choir singing “O Holy Night.” And then there is Bran­don Heath on two orig­i­nals, and appear­ances from Amy Grant and Dave Barnes.

The title track, “Snow Globe” is a whim­si­cal track that I can hear lit­tle kids singing through­out the sea­son. It’s about liv­ing in a snow globe, with can­dy canes grow­ing on trees and every­body liv­ing in a gin­ger­bread house. And when you shake it, you make it so beau­ti­ful.

Out of the five orig­i­nals tracks, “Wake Up, Wake Up” is my favorite. It’s Christ­mas from a child’s per­spec­tive. The verse just cracks me up.
“Wake up, wake up
You know that it’s Christ­mas morn­ing
Get up, get up sleepy head”

The first time I heard Wertz’s “Christ­mas Just Does This to Me,” it made me long for my East Coast home and brought tears to my eyes. It’s a soft ren­di­tion of Christ­mas day in a fam­i­ly set­ting.

“I’ll spend the night down on the sofa with the lights left on the tree, dish­wash­er hum­ming in the kitchen will send me asleep.”

This CD has quick­ly moved up my favorites’ list and I def­i­nite­ly rec­om­mend it for your col­lec­tion. The clas­sics fea­ture a 1950s ver­sion of “White Christ­mas,” to the chil­dren’s choir to the instru­men­tal “Sleigh Bells.”