By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jo Dee Messina told the crowd at the Taft Theatre Sunday that Christmas is her favorite holiday, because it was the one time of the year that her family would be together.

She also must like what Christmas means to her as a recording artist, because it allows her to fatten up her act and stage a headlining tour.

Jo Dee Messina's Christmas Gift Concert began with a 45-minute set of the pop-country singer's hits and songs from a forthcoming album, followed by another 45 minutes of holiday songs.

Ms. Messina has had a number of hits since her 1996 debut, but not enough to pass from the level of opening act to credible headliner. Plus, there wasn't much stage presence. She just sort of stood there and sang while her seven-piece band, in a semi-circle behind her, played the bland, non-country country-radio pop that marks her songs.

The one defining characteristic of her music was the motor-mouth delivery used in a few of the up-tempo songs, and a couple of the new selections sound like they'll be hits, which is entirely different from saying they're good. Ms. Messina might be on the way to developing her own singing style, but as spunky red-haired singers go, she's no Reba McEntire.

Ms. Messina's last record of new material, Burn, came out in 2000, and she said the search for songs is to blame for the delay in releasing a new album, expected next year. So instead of finding songs, she's writing her own, including "Would You Be My Wings," "Love Just Isn't Enough," and what will be the disc's title track, "Delicious Surprise." They ranked with any of her hits.

The nine-song second set, plus the three-song encore, consisted of all 12 songs from A Joyful Noise, the Christmas record released in October.

She went for the classics - "The Christmas Song," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Silver Bells," and so on - and threw in an original composition, the spiritually minded "Keep the Faith."

Most of the songs were washed over with a soft-rock feel, so the best two moments were the bare-bones songs, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Silent Night." For those two numbers, Ms. Messina was accompanied only by keyboards.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com