Rhonda Vincent, and Carrie Underwood's "The Gift"

Before our conversation, bluegrass musician Rhonda Vincent never thought about the lack of Christmas music in her house growing up. She played in her family band, The Sally Mountain Show, but they didn't play Christmas music onstage or at home.

Vincent chews on that with Alex Rawls while talking about the ideas behind her two Christmas albums, Beautiful Star (2006) and Christmas Time (2015), and her upcoming residency in Branson, Missouri, "Christmas in Branson." She talks about the challenges posed by Christmas shows, bluegrass and country Christmas standards, and the challenge of singing Christmas songs.

Before that, Alex reviews Carrie Underwood's new Christmas album, The Gift. 

In the episode, Rhonda talks about "Beautiful Star." While preparing for the interview, Alex ran across this history of the song. Producer AF the Naysayer made the 12 Songs theme music, and he has a new single, "Adelheid," on Strange Daisy Records.