Before this year, if I’d sat down to make a list of musicians who I thought might someday record a holiday album, I have to admit the Indigo Girls wouldn’t have crossed my mind. But Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have added their voices to the tradition with Holly Happy Days.

Setting Holly Happy Days apart from other new offerings this season is the album’s homegrown sound. The Indigo Girls have given traditional favorites like “O Holy Night,” “Angels We Have Heard On High,” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” a bluegrass bent, while the folk-rock duo casts lesser-known covers and three new tunes through the the same Appalachian-tinted prism. 

If Christmas doesn’t happen to be your thing, the always-inclusive Ray and Saliers included a rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “Happy Joyous Hanukkah” on Holly Happy Days. Going one step further, their own “Your Holiday Song” offers a seasonal shout-out to both religious holidays as well as the Winter Solstice. So no matter how you roll this time of year, as the lyrics to the ukulele-centric tune go, “It’s your holiday song / No one more true, right or wrong.” Hear here:

Free download of Indigo Girls – “Your Holiday Song” via Amazon MP3.