With a smoky, soulful voice and a heart for worship, singer/songwriter Shaylee Simeone has been pouring her heart out through song for the better part of a decade. Though most of her releases have been singles, her most notable work is a two-part EP series called For the Love of the Sea, released in 2016. This year, she’s trying her hand at Christmas music, and the results are delightful.

Now, this isn’t Simeone’s first take on Christmas music; she released an EP called Happy Christmas in 2013. But her new release, The Holidays, features some songs, new and classic, with some slightly different styles than six years ago. The former EP dealt mostly in piano pop and acoustic folk, which continues in the latter’s “We Three Kings” and “When You Come (Mary’s Song).” The three remaining new songs feature more of a jazz/pop leaning. It’s not quite the jazzy style of Lauren Daigle’s Christmas album, but is more along the lines of Pretty Speeches by Poema. It sounds great in “Merry Christmas Baby” and the Simeone original “The Holidays,” as well as the cover of Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas.”

Shaylee Simeone is a very talented singer, and she clearly has a knack for Christmas music. Happy Christmas has a touch of the spiritual side of the holiday as well as a good dose of the heartwarming, romantic side. It’s a short EP, but all five of its tracks are wonderful choices to add to your Christmas music playlists.

- Review date: 12/3/19, written by Scott Fryberger of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 Record Label: None
 Album length: 5 tracks: 21 minutes, 6 seconds
 Street Date: November 29, 2019
 Buy It: iTunes
 Buy It: Amazon Music

1. Merry Christmas Baby (4:16)
2. The Holidays (4:44)
3. We Three Kings (3:33)
4. This Christmas (4:19)
5. When You Come (Mary's Song) (4:14)