The Spirit of Christmas (Michael W. Smith album)

Background

This album features duets with several country music artists, including Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Martina McBride, and Vince Gill. Other artists on it include U2 frontman Bono, Amy Grant, and Michael McDonald. Bono is featured in spoken word on the track "The Darkest Midnight."

Tour

Cracker Barrel sponsored Smith's 2014 "Spirit of Christmas Tour", which started on November 30, 2014, and finished on December 21, 2014. The tour features a full symphony and consists of 14 shows, 3 of which were co-headlined with Amy Grant.

Smith toured this album again in 2015, also with Cracker Barrel sponsoring. This time Amy Grant was featured in 8 of 13 shows. The tour began on December 4, 2015 in Kentucky, and ended on December 20, 2015 in Virginia.

Critical reception

Jeffrey Lee Puckett for The Courier Journal said the album "gets the season of holiday Christmas albums off to a big start."

Commercial performance

The album sold 4,000 copies in its first week of release, debuted at No. 80 on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 16 as of December 2014. It also reached No. 13 on Top Album Sales Chart which counts traditional album sales and does not include streaming. On the Top Christian Albums Chart, the album debuted at No. 5 and peaked at No. 1. This marks Smith's third new album for 2014 to enter the Billboard 200. He previously released Sovereign, which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, selling 16,000 copies; and Hymns, which debuted at No. 25 with 12,000 copies. As of January 2015, The Spirit of Christmas has sold 145,000 copies.

Personnel

Charts