Seven Gates, A Christmas Album, Ben Keith and Friends (Reprise)

Ben was a top pedal steel player with longtime ties to Neil Young (RIP 2010, see link), and Neil's credited as co-producer on this 1994 album, along with sometime guitarist, pump organist and lead vocalist on two cuts. This is as close as it comes to a Neil Young Christmas effort, although it's Ben's show all the way. But this is pretty much a straight country album. Half the cuts are instrumentals featuring Keith's pedal steel in the melody position and many of the vocals are from a children's chorus. Neil shares the lead with Johnny Cash and Nicolette Larson on "The Little Drummer Boy" and with Nicolette and the children's choir on "Greensleeves." This really doesn't stand out from the pack of country Christmas albums in any meaningful way, and there's not much that's uptempo or fun about it in the way that Mistletunes looks at things. But fans of the above folks might want this in their collections all the same. This album has been reissued as Christmas At the Ranch, but it's the same disc and cover, with only the title text changed; Amazon offers both versions of the disc for sale.