While Carri Coltrane would be very jazz-oriented on Flamenco Sketches, the gifted but underexposed singer was at her most folk-influenced on the Christmas-oriented Child Inside My Heart, her second album for Numoon and third overall. The Christmas songs that Coltrane and her partner/producer Eugene McDaniels chose aren't 20th-century Christmas pop tunes like "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" or "Winter Wonderland," but rather, traditional European Christmas folk songs such as "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night." All of the selections prove quite appropriate for Coltrane, whose sensitivity and softness serve her well throughout this pastoral effort. Although Coltrane has excelled as a jazz singer, Child Inside My Heart is hardly a jazz release. This is essentially a folk-pop release -- and a very sincere and likable one at that. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide