A lot of folks are reflecting back on 2020 with the near universal, ‘Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out’ type of sentiment. I get that. However, maybe this past hellish year taught us a little about ourselves. Anytime we can learn anything, then the experience isn’t entirely without merit. These life lessons might be bitter pills to swallow, but for us survivors, the medicine is the cure. That medicine includes staying home, wearing a mask and avoiding contact with folks outside of your immediate “bubble.”

Back during the second week of March our world changed. The soul of our industry died a sudden death with the closing down of live music venues. It was a cruel shock to the countless number of musicians who have traveled almost non-stop for a majority of their adult lives. Everything was suddenly ripped from them. Their art and livelihood were gone in an instant.

The recording aspect of the business is still alive, although it had been on life support even before this novel virus took over the world. With our economies in ruin, spending on CDs and vinyl records is way down, creating further hardships for the artists who have given our lives so much joy through these many years.

We have moved forward and reviewed some of the records (CDs) that were released here in 2020. One of the very best from this past year comes from blues veteran Duke Robillard. His album, appropriately entitled Blues Bash!, which was released on November 20^th, is a return to form for Duke and is his best straight-ahead blues album since 1994’s Duke’s Blues. Check out that review here in our Holiday Extravaganza edition of BLUES JUNCTION.

I’m very fortunate to have a bubble that I mentioned earlier and have Tracy in that bubble…oh, and two rescue dogs. Hell, I was a rescue dog when I first met Tracy a long damn time ago. It is generally understood that she is the brains of this operation and the engineer that keeps the train moving forward and me on the rails. I’m lucky to have a partner who enjoys this music almost as much as I do. In fact, the new album by Dave Alvin moved her to the point where she flexed her writing muscles and offered up a review of his brand-new release From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings.

Sitting in our Monthly Album Spotlight is another perennial favorite here in the JUNCTION, Joel Paterson. His album Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar is an all-instrumental affair which has been a welcome addition to our library for three Christmases now.

Another relatively new Christmas album also reviewed here this month is by J.D. McPherson. It is entitled Socks. McPherson delivers all brand-new songs which offer a refreshing and sometimes humorous twist to some holiday traditions.

These two albums have made their way into our Top Twenty Christmas Albums of All-Time.

You are welcome to revisit the interview I conducted with Santa Claus a few years ago. It is a wide-ranging discussion which gives some insight as to what makes Santa tick. His honesty and humor are refreshing and help to explain why Christmas is so special. The big man sits in our Monthly Artist Spotlight.

Another very moving thing is that musicians are still hard at work putting out new music. The best of these offerings is examined in our Recommended Listening feature. As always, I had some help from one of the best very best musicologists in this field. Thanks to Charlie Lange for his continued help with this ongoing feature. Additionally, we are also joined by long-time music journalist and producer of the San Diego Blues Festival, Michael Kinsman.  

I was very moved the other day when I went to the mailbox and received a gift from the very talented Austrian Hammond B3 player Raphael Wressnig. He has just released a limited edition, red vinyl, seven-inch single. It is also available on all digital platforms. The package is called Santa Likes to Boogaloo.  Side One is an up-tempo boogaloo version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Raphael is joined here by the Prado brothers out of Sao Paulo, Brazil. They are drummer Yuri and guitarist Igor. The single is backed by the heartfelt traditional Leise Rieselt der Schnee.

I thought it might be nice to share with our readers the interview I conducted with Raphael Wressnig back in 2016. Like Santa Claus, Raphael is also of European heritage. It also gives me a chance to remind our readers to explore the archive section of our site. We have a rather voluminous treasure trove of articles, essays, editorials, music reviews, recommended listening, old records we re-visit and of course the world-famous BLUES JUNCTION interviews, of which I am very proud. 

As 2020 comes to a close with so much heartache, it might be important to point out two very obvious optimistic signs for the future. First, we are at this very moment distributing and administering the first vaccines to combat the novel corona virus in the United States. This could signal the beginning of the end of this world-wide pandemic.

Second, here in America last month, we fended off fascism and authoritarian government with the decisive victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We flexed our democratic muscles in a big way and held onto our democracy. This is no small thing for us and the world at large.   

As many of you know, in the past few weeks this democracy has been under direct assault by the President of the United States, of all people. These attacks are unprecedented in American history, unconscionable and, in many ways, unfathomable. Our judicial system is rebuking his outrageous claims and ludicrous court filings almost as fast as these asinine assertions are presented.

We are holding together both in the realm of science and history. On these two fronts we end the year with tremendous hope. I guess with all this good news, coming not a moment too soon, it should be pointed out that the worst part of this isolation and desperation many of us feel as a result of this pandemic is that when we could use a hug the most, in many cases, isn’t available to us.

This Christmas season we will have more serenity than frivolity and more reflection than exaltation. This year there will be many chairs around the table that will be conspicuously vacant for one reason or another. As death has visited our households in record numbers this past year, we know many of those absences are permanent.

Hopefully, next Christmas we will return to something more akin to normal, but with a view that we will never again take each other for granted. Those of us who survive this pandemic will feel a sense of joy and be grateful for another day, another Christmas and the love we feel for each other will be so palpable that we will be bursting with happiness.

Until then stay safe and stay in touch.

- David Mac