Holiday Crafts From 2016

Nashville, Tennessee-based singer/songwriter JJ Heller crafts atmospheric and contemplative faith-based country-folk songs in the vein of Sara Groves and Jill Phillips, with a foot in the mainstream that brings to mind artists like Jewel, Patty Griffin, and Alison Krauss. The native of California's Bay Area records and performs with longtime collaborator/guitarist/producer/husband David Heller, and released her debut, Songs That I Know, in 2004. Subsequent albums like Only Love Remains (2006) and The Pretty and the Plain (2007) further developed Heller's introspective style, though it was a song from her fourth album, Painted Red (2008), that would prove to be her commercial breakthrough. Reaching number 13 on Billboard's Christian songs chart, "Your Hands" set the stage for 2010's When I'm with You, which charted on both the Christian and folk album charts. An acoustic album, Deeper, arrived a year later and, in 2012, Heller got another boost when her song "When I'm with You" was covered by Jennifer Love Hewitt's character on the TV series The Client List. Another song, "Control," from the album Loved, appeared on a 2013 episode of One Tree Hill. Recording at a prolific pace, Heller's next two albums, 2014's I Dream of You and 2015's Sound of a Living Heart, both fared well on the folk and Christian charts, further proving her crossover appeal. Unto Us, Heller's first Christmas LP and second holiday-themed release following 2007's Wake Up the World EP, arrived in 2016.

Toronto's Bernice craft weightless, genre-defying pop music that touches on indie pop, jazz, and R&B and sings the praises of family and the environment. Led by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Robin Dann and rounded out by some of the city's most in-demand musicians, the group came into its own in the late 2010s with the ornately produced EP Puff and the minimalist pop of Puff: In the Air Without a Shape.