SUZY BOGGUSS
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
(Loyal Dutchess)
THE DECEMBER PEOPLE
Sounds Like Christmas
(Magna Carta)
THE GREEN PAJAMAS
The Carolers' Song
(Hidden Agenda)
NANCY WILSON
A Nancy Wilson Christmas
(MCG/Telarc)
VARIOUS ARTISTS
A Putumayo World Christmas
(Putumayo)
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Stuck in the Chimney
(Parasol)
Let's face it: when it comes to Christmas music, you either love or you hate it. The relentless barrage of Yuletide tuneage during the last two months of the year can take us for a frenetic ride on an emotional rollercoaster in ways Mark Eitzel never conceived of in his blackest dreams. Yet these songs can also provide just the right accent to the family gathering on Christmas morning, providing the same warm glow as the hot cocoa Mom is brewing in the kitchen. It's impossible to predict how an individual will react to the opening notes of a well-traveled favorite. The people most infused with holiday cheer might become psychotic enduring the millionth Muzak version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," while at the same time folks with feelings closely aligned to those of the Grinch may smile fuzzily at the strains of "The Little Drummer Boy."
Needless to say, popular artists have been indulging in, or bucking, this trend practically since the dawn of recording technology. It's hard to put a fresh spin on such an old theme, but every year a cadre of brave souls hits the studio with the intent of reinvigorating the moldy oldies or contributing their own would-be classics to the canon. Let's bend an ear to the latest batch of holly-bearing, gay apparel-donning hopefuls, shall we?
Nashville country star Suzy Bogguss and jazz vocal vet Nancy Wilson offer the records most likely not to cause your grandmother to arch an eyebrow. Bogguss realizes a long-held dream with Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, released on her own label. The album is easily the most traditional of the bunch, with straightforward readings of songs like "Winter Wonderland," "O Holy Night" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." She contributes a couple of originals, including the frisky "Two Step 'Round the Christmas Tree" and the sincerely sappy "Through Your Eyes," and duets with Delbert McClinton on the R&B chestnut "Baby It's Cold Outside." Guests Ricky Skaggs and the late Chet Atkins contribute licks as well. While there's little here you haven't heard before, Bogguss has a nice voice and a heart full of holiday spirit. With this album's goal of comfortable amiability, that's enough.
Wilson doesn't go for radical re-interpretations either, but considering how few people actually listen to jazz these days, it'll seem that way to the layman. On A Nancy Wilson Christmas, she gives "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" some serious swing with help from the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Big Band. The crusty staple "White Christmas" gets a lilting bossa nova workout, "O Christmas Tree" receives a free bop reading that all but dispenses with the original melody and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve," augmented by an ace solo from saxist Darmon Meader, plumbs the depths of the blues. Especially impressive is "Carol of the Bells," which seriously jazzes up the classical melody of the original with soul, charm and a savvy arrangement. Wilson is in fine voice throughout, and all proceeds from the sale of the disk go to the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild Jazz program. A Nancy Wilson Christmas would make a nice gift for pretty much any family member.
The world music label Putumayo has long specialized in collections of international music that won't confuse or offend the average vanilla listener, so their compilation A Putumayo World Christmas is as family-friendly as anything more traditional, despite the exotic flavors on display. For instance, Brazilian composer Ivan Lins' "Noite Para Festejar" may be a old Brazilian Xmas tune with a lundu rhythm, but its melody follows the kind of path with which most Northwesterners are familiar. Similarly, the steel drum version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by Barbados' Banks Soundtech Steel Orchestra doesn't bring anything particularly unusual to the melody other than the love-it-or-hate-it sound of the instruments. More exotic is "Nadal de Luintra," a Celtic/Iberian blend from Berrogüetto, an unusual contemporary folk band from the Galicia region of Spain, "Kling No Klokka," from Norway's folk traditionalist Åsne Valland Nordli, and "Diciembre," a Colombian carol performed by the vallenato ensemble Los Embajadores Vallenatos. The catchy reggae of Jamaica's Ini Kamoze, Latin melodies of Puerto Rico's Pepe Castillo and Galicia's Chouteira and the sonorous Cajun musicality of Beausoleil leader Michael Doucet also stand out. Given just enough twists to set them apart, the songs on A Putumayo World Christmas have the bright ring of familiarity without the dull thud of overexposure.
If the preceding is just too precious, never fear: enter the eccentrics. Seattle's long-running psychedelic folk/pop quintet the Green Pajamas have been releasing woefully overlooked records for nearly two decades, finally turning their eclectic literary vision toward Christmas music with The Carolers' Song. Band hub Jeff Kelly leads off with the title cut, a startlingly sweet Yule tune that's an earnest and altogether successful attempt to create a new Christmas classic. The rest of the tunes don't seem to relate as directly to the season, but since any cluster of new Pajamas tunes is a gift, we can forgive them for meandering off topic. The melodic gems "Felicity Cross" and "She Smiles Sweetly" further Kelly's rep as the best unknown songwriter in the United States, while keyboardist Eric Lichter's Beatlesque "Orchid Sunshine" and "Hush Your Violence" shine brightly as well. The band's respectful take on the traditional "Abbots Bromley" sounds appropriately holy, like the incidental music in the background while you take your seat at midnight mass. Kelly's ghostly waltz "Night Boat to Gondal" takes you home down the river. The Carolers' Song isn't for the traditionalist on your list, but it's a fine record for those celebrating outside the box.
A Christmas-themed album is already a concept album, but just in case that's not clear, the December People put Sounds Like Christmas under the tree. The brainchild of producer/musician Robert Berry and contemporary prog label Magna Carta (Magellan, Shadow Gallery, Cairo), the conceit here is not just Xmas tunes, but Xmas tunes as performed in the style of well-known progressive and classic rock bands. Thus you get "Carol of the Bells" as perhaps recorded by Yes (and a mixture of their 70s and 80s incarnations at that), "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as interpreted by Queen after an all-night Beatles jag, and "Little Drummer Boy," as rendered by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Berry enlists several guest vocalists to aid in his multi-instrumental mimicry. Prog icon John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia, etc.) assists with the Pink Floydian version of "Silent Night" and an anemic Crimsoneque take on "The First Noel." Shadow Gallery's Mike Baker fronts "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," which condenses a Led Zeppelin-style epic into four and a half minutes, and Jake Livgren (nephew of Kansas leader Kerry Livgren) voices a convincingly Kansas-like "Up On the Housetop/Deck the Halls." John Lennon's "Merry Xmas (War is Over)" gets an all-star treatment and a revised Beatle melody. Some of the copycat intentions are a bit obscured, as with Magellan leader Trent Gardner's "What Child is This?," which sounds like a sort of Magna Carta best-of rather than a specific artist. Sometimes the original Yuletide melodies are so freely arranged as to be barely recognizable. Then again, trainspotting the prog in-jokes matters more here than rockin' around the Christmas tree. Sounds Like Christmas is best for the art rock completist on your list.
Finally, Parasol Records, one of the very finest pop/indie rock labels in current operation, sneaks its own gift box under the tree with Stuck in the Chimney, a collection of chestnut-roasting tunes from its artists and friends. The attitudes range from serious to irreverent, somber to playful. Neilson Hubbard's original "Merry Christmas (Wherever You May Be)" contemplates a broken heart on Xmas day, with a breathy arrangement that's practically a tribute to the Pernice Brothers, while Absinthe Blind gives "Silent Night" a slowly building epic reading that's reminiscent of U2 in their Unforgettable Fire period. Jenifer Jackson's softly crooned "Blue Christmas" and Fonda's banjo-ornamented "Last Christmas" stay true to the spirit of the originals, while Erik Voek's beautiful, Bacharach/Costello-influenced "Cruel Tide" makes melancholy as legitimate a holiday emotion as joy. The Green Pajamas' faithful translation of "O Holy Night" and White Town's mostly acoustic take on Teenage Fanclub's "December" also feel the spirit. On the flip side, Sukilove unwraps an eccentric country-rock gift called "X-Mas for Aliens," the punk poppin' Toothpaste 2000 celebrates a "7-Eleven Christmas" and Jack & the Beanstalk leader Joe Algeri playfully asks "How do we turn up the drum machine?" on "Computer Xmas." The oddest of the oddballs is The Soundtrack of Our Lives' "Jingle Hell (Stuck in the Chimney)," an homage to 60s' psychedelic garage punk that gleefully falls to pieces in a frenzy of fuzz guitar and guttural caterwauling, like a soused Uncle Frank stumbling into the Christmas tree. A lavishly decorated spruce presiding over a multitude of presents, Stuck in the Chimney offers a little something for everyone on your frosty Christmas morning. Michael Toland
For fans of: Christmas music, the artists involved
Copyright © 2001 High Bias
