AMG Review of Hallelujah He Is Born

Thom Owens
All Music Guide

Most country acts choose to temper holiday sentimentality with a little religion. Sawyer Brown takes a different approach. As its title telegraphs, Hallelujah He Is Born is a distinctly religious Christmas album -- only a handful of songs aren't explicitly religious, and even they have a religious underpinning. That is the saving grace of the album, the one element that makes Hallelujah He Is Born stand out from the pack. The album still has the slick country-pop atmosphere that marks not only Sawyer Brown's work, but contemporary country in general -- but its religious conviction makes it one of the more original (and, actually, better) country-pop Christmas records of recent years.