Twistmas Story: Conway Twitty with Twitty Bird and Their Little Friends

Conway Twitty's A Twistmas Story is a children's Christmas album on which he is joined by his granddaughter Christi Prater, who portrays "Twitty Bird," a character given to calling Christmas "Twismas" and altering the words of Christmas standards such as "Silver Bells" by singing "It's Twismas time in Twitty City," for example. She and Twitty are joined sometimes by what sounds like a chorus of chipmunks as they sing and converse in a fanciful manner that mixes familiar Christmas lore with some new concepts. (There's something about Snowball, Santa Claus' dog, protecting the presents from the snow witch, for instance.) The songs are a mixture of evergreens and some forgettable originals, often sung as duets by Twitty and his supposedly avian friend. Children may be charmed by the results, and adults, especially Twitty fans, may be able to tolerate the album once per Christmas season, after which they are liable to find it a bit too cloying. [After being released on LP and cassette in 1994, A Twistmas Story went out of print until it was reissued on a remixed and remastered CD on November 6, 2007, available through Twitty's official website, www.conwaytwitty.com.] ~ William Ruhlmann