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Linda Ronstadt's A Merry Little Christmas plays, in part, like an old Nat King Cole Christmas record, with orchestrated versions of classics and a knowing vocal command at work on every track. Where Ronstadt makes her departure is midway through the 14-song set, when the CD suddenly becomes an album of sacred music, complete with "The Welsh Carol," "Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming," the lesser-known "O Magnum Mysterium," and "Past Three O'Clock." Ronstadt's record also features two producers and two respectable choirs, one from Tucson, Arizona, and the other from Los Angeles, and she works well with them and as a soloist, including her take on what may be this year's most covered song, Joni Mitchell's bittersweet lament, "River." --Martin Keller