The latest releases reviewed.

WYNONNA JUDD A Classic Christmas Curb **

Wynonna goes mostly serious for this classy if dull offering. Strings abound and, as the title implies, the songs are what some folks call classics and others call lazy and predictable. There is the simply bizarre in the shape of Ms Judd getting her huge voice around the Latin lyrics of the Ave Maria. The result is a stiff to behold. Definitely a sack-the-producer moment, unless the producer is the legendary Brent Maher (which, of course, he is). So you just grin and bear it through the grinding schmaltz of Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song, I'll Be Home for Christmas, etc - as you can see, they didn't stay up late working out what they should record. And to borrow a phrase from Dorothy Parker, Ms Judd runs the gamut of emotions from A to A. Wearying. www.wynonna.com Joe Breen

RHONDA VINCENT Beautiful Star - The Christmas Collection Sugar Hill ***

You just have to admire someone prepared to pose in a lime green dress with frosted hair, as Ms Vincent did on an earlier album this year, An All-American Bluegrass Girl. But that's the kind of woman Rhonda Vincent is: unpretentious verging on gauche, proud possessor of conservative small-town American pieties and loyalties, and one hell of a bluegrass singer. This, however, is not the album to prove her quality; apart from the odd swinging arrangement, Vincent plays it safe, with many of the same "classics" that turn up on Ms Judd's album. Though not as powerful, Vincent is a far better singer, more nuanced and capable of wringing emotion from the most stoney arrangement. That said, she does have her work cut out here. www.rhondavincent.com Joe Breen