Seasons greetings from Marley County, USA, where folks don't have a whole lot, but where everybody's doing what they can to make the Christmas holiday crackle -- except for one mean and miserly old coot who somehow misses the whole point. Ring a bell?

It's Dickens' classic, dusted off and gussied up in a new country-western musical version. A Country Christmas Carol is ideal family holiday fare -- fresh, engaging, often hilarious, and genuinely moving. It's a timeless tale of redemption and reunion, community and family, the kind of story that was made for country music. The score would make Patsy Cline proud, with show stopping ballads and snappy two-steps sung by a feisty bunch who deal head-on with life's joys and heartaches.

All the characters are here -- with some nifty variations: Banker Scrooge, the man with the worst case of Christmas blues ever; his secretary Bobbie Jo Cratchit, a young widow with two small children, Jane and Tim; his lovable ne'er-do-well nephew Dwight; Lavinia, a good-ol'-girl with big hair and an even bigger heart; plus some decidedly Country Christmas spirits.

This is a down-home pleasure from start to finish.