In the fall of 2017 Joel Paterson finally released Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar, the Christmas album he had been threatening us with for some time. This all instrumental offering didn’t make it into my mail box until December 26^th. This means of course I didn’t get around to listening to it until this Christmas season. When I finally heard the recording, I wasn’t surprised. I heard the consummate guitar player applying his deft touch and impeccable taste to some tradition holiday favorites. The album features Paterson playing guitar, steel and lap steel guitar creating a lush soundscape in a multi-track homage to Les Paul, Buddy Merrill and Jorgan Ingman. This Ventrella Records release comes with the great packaging and liner notes you have come to expect from Paterson’s independent label. Spotify that Scrooge. Hi-Fi Christmas Blues is a real winner and a very welcome addition to our Christmas library. 

Socks by JD McPherson and his great band is a brand-new, just released Christmas album which is full of fresh new ideas and get this, brand new songs. McPherson and these Christmas Cats whip up a holiday treat that is dripping with vintage Americana via a post war rhythm & blues sensibility.  The album is void of the overwrought sentimentalized clichés which are so often present in Christmas music. I believe I could actually listen to this album any time of the year. We’ll have to see about that, but Socks is easily McPherson’s best offering since his 2010 release Signs and Signifiers and in many ways is a return to form for this Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, native. Socks is full of warmth, intelligence and wit. The listening of this album marks the beginning of a new holiday tradition in our home.



The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole is a no brainer. How is one expected to do Christmas without Nat “King” Cole? It just wouldn’t be right. There are many wonderful renditions of Mel Torme’s The Christmas Song. The tune was written in the summer of 1945 and recorded a year later with the vocals and piano of Cole along with his regular band of guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller. The band is augmented here with a lush string arrangement. It is the vocals that carry the day as Cole’s singing is as warm and inviting as, you guessed it...chestnuts roasting on an open fire. I have to confess, I have never roasted chestnuts on an open fire and a recent informal survey revealed I don’t know anyone else who has either. It is just as hard to find someone who doesn’t have Nat King Cole on their short list of favorite singers of all time. The title track anchors this collection of traditional holiday favorites by the incomparable Mr. Cole. 

A Charlie Brown Christmas by The Vince Guaraldi Trio is one of the best selling Christmas albums of all time. If you like west coast 1960’s era cool jazz it doesn’t get much better than the VGT. This 1966 album along with the 1965 record entitled Jazz Impressions of a Boy named Charlie Brown helped to define the legacy of this San Francisco native. Guaraldi’s 1962 album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus yielded a track entitled Cast Your Fate to the Wind, which became that rare jazz tune which crossed over to a mainstream audience. Television producer Lee Mendelson heard the song on the radio in a taxi cab and commissioned Guaraldi to score the television adaptation of the Peanuts’ comic strip. For many children, and now adults alike, this may be the first time they ever heard jazz music of any kind. It is a wonderful irony that the music which had its roots in California nightspots sitting under swaying palm trees became associated with animated children ice skating and catching snowflakes on their tongues. 

In the Christmas Spirit by Booker T. And the M.G.s finds these four consummate musicians doing what they do, which is putting their funky stamp on some very familiar material, in this case Christmas standards. Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson Jr. weave their magic on this 1966 Stax Records release. The blues Christmas standard made famous by Charles Brown (no relation to Charlie Brown) Merry Christmas Baby gets the M.G.’s treatment here. This instrumental (what else did you expect?) features the absolutely beautiful yet haunting guitar of Steve Cropper. It is my favorite tune on this album by one of my favorite bands. Other highlights are their take on Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.   

While we are in a B3 kind of mood, why not listen to one of the hippest Christmas albums of all time, Jimmie Smith's Christmas Cookin' This 1964 album swings hard from start to finish.  This release on the Verve label has sides recorded in New York City as well as Smith’s familiar recording haunt, the Rudy Van Gelder home studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Tracks on this record have him in the company of both of his primary guitar collaborators Kenny Burrell and Wes Montgomery. One of my favorites is The Christmas Song which can also be found oddly enough on the double sided compilation Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of the Verve Years. This record helps explain why you hear sleigh bells on the opening to Smith’s classic tune Walk on the Wild Side. Like most Christmas albums, they shoehorn these sessions around regular recording dates. You just knew somebody picked up the bells that were sitting around the studio and thought, ‘Why not?’ This album is an absolute must if you are attempting to have a cool Yule. 

There is no single blues man more associated with the holidays than Charles Brown. He was the piano player and vocalist in guitarist Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs is a 1961 release on the King label. In this compilation of Brown’s post war sides from his days with the Aladdin and Modern labels you will find the song that he made famous, Merry Christmas Baby.  Brown singing this blues ballad is still as good as it gets. That single yielded a B-side, Please Come Home for Christmas. The irony of this is that for decades Brown was never home for Christmas. By the time this album came out, Brown’s brand of mellow, sophisticated blues with an uptown feel, fell out of favor with audiences. In 1996 he told me that for years it was corporate Christmas parties, society gigs and December stints in hotel lounges playing Christmas music that paid the bills. 

The 2002 release entitled Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Boogie Woogie Christmas could have just as easily been called “How the Gretsch Stole Christmas.” This album served as a launching pad for Setzer’s very lucrative Christmas career which yielded a follow up album in 2005 called Dig That Crazy Christmas, The Best of Collection: Christmas Rocks which was released in 2008 and a 2010 live album called Christmas Comes Alive. Rockin' Rudolph is the latest in his Christmas catalog. His first foray into the Christmas marketplace, however, is still his best. If you like a treble heavy, whammy bar slingin’ bad boy and a big band with your eggnog, mistletoe and holly than this record is for you.  

As it turns out the genius loves Christmas as evidenced by his 1985 album The Spirit of Christmas by Ray Charles. This Columbia album features one of my favorite tunes associated with the holidays. Baby, It's Cold Outside. The Ray Charles/Betty Carter version of this pop standard is hands down the best version of the tune, which was written way back in 1936. The tune was recorded many times through the years. Notable versions include Louis Armstrong/Velma Mittleton as well as Sammy Davis Jr./Carmen McCrae. None come close to the intimacy and urgency that Carter and Charles emote when singing this tune. While Ray Charles may very well be my favorite musician of all time, this album is far from his best work as by 1985 his best years were far behind him. However it is Ray Charles and not having Brother Ray in your home for Christmas just might land you on Santa’s “naughty list.” This album is now available through the Concord Music Group. 

Many of our Christmas traditions, such as Saint Nicholas, who morphed into Santa Claus, have come from Scandinavian countries. So it seems particularly appropriate that the best, and in some ways most original, blues album(s) to come out in years is from Norwegian guitarist Chris “Kid” Andersen. Kid put out two records that are cleverly entitled Volume Red and Volume Green. These albums not only feature American secular Christmas standards, but some traditional Norwegian tunes that are bluesd up. Andersen, who is a long time Northern California resident, has many of the great players from that region of the country including Rick Estrin, Rusty Zinn, Terry Hanck, Elvin Bishop, John Nemeth, Mark Hummel, Paul Oscher and others playing on these two separate albums. 

Another new millennium blues album Jolly Jump Jive could easily be called “Roomful of Christmas” except for the fact that there is an album already with that title which we will get to in a minute. This album features several players who have played in the venerable Rhode Island institution, Roomful of Blues. This 2006 album by Sax Gordon and Doug James is an all instrumental affair, which has the tenor and baritone sax men in the company of fellow Roomful alums pianist Matt McCabe and guitarist Duke Robillard. The tune Winter Wonderland, like the rest of this solid album, takes you back to the swinging jump blues of another era. Very tasty, swinging stuff that will help to wash down even the driest piece of fruitcake. 

The 1997 release by Roomful of Blues entitled Roomful of Christmas is fronted by the best singer to pass through their ranks, Sugar Ray Norcia. Ten Christmas favorites mixed with some lesser known holiday gems including Lloyd Glenn’s Christmas Celebration and Fats Domino’s I Told Santa Claus are given the Roomful treatment. Norcia even sports a falsetto on the Irving Berlin standard White Christmas. The stellar musicianship and creative arrangements, which have been a hallmark of this band, are in full effect here.  So with Roomful of Christmas it’s more ho ho ho and not the ordinary ho hum. This recording is an essential entry into any Roomful of Blues collection and a holiday favorite here at the JUNCTION. 

James Brown made several Christmas albums and cut several more singles throughout his long and prolific career. Each of these Christmas albums reflects the style of music he was playing at that particular time. So depending on which JB you like best, the hardest working man in show biz has something for you this time of year. 2010's The Complete James Brown Christmas is a 37 track double CD set that pulls material from his three Christmas albums for the King label. Included are songs from Brown’s 1966 album Christmas Songs, 1968's A Soulful Christmas and 1970's Hey America.  Also included are some singles JB released from this period. James Brown did what few artists do with Christmas material in that he didn’t change his approach to music to accommodate the holidays. It is the holidays that had to accommodate Brown. Heh! The deep soulful grooves Brown and his airtight band lay down might just scare the reindeer off your roof, but that’s OK. This record is so fun it could be played any time of the year. 

An Austin Rhythm & Blues Christmas was released on vinyl in 1983. The original album came out on the Austin records label but was re-issued on Epic/Legacy Records in 1986. Paul Ray produced the album and it features the crème de la crème of the burgeoning Austin, Texas, blues scene. Vocalists Lou Anne Barton and Angela Strehli, along with Ray, make fine contributions. Saxophonist Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff, guitarist Denny Freeman and drummer George Rains make up the core band along with bassist Sarah Brown. It is her performance on her original tune, My Christmas Tree is Hung with Tears, which she sings with such soul that it stands side by side with the more famous Austin based divas, Barton and Strehli, that is one of my favorites. The two T-Bird tracks are a lot of fun as well. When the album was finally re-issued on CD they tacked on an additional track on the end of the album by Willie Nelson from his Christmas album, Pretty Paper. That tune simply doesn’t fit here on an otherwise very solid record. 

Don’t worry Willie Nelson fans, that tune does work on Willie’s 1979 album Pretty Paper. The album features Nelson’s regular studio and road band which includes the great harmonica of Mickey Raphael. The album reunited Nelson with Booker T Jones who produced his huge crossover hit album from the previous year, Stardust. Jones and Nelson collaborate on an original instrumental entitled Christmas Blues. On this album these consummate musicians stick to mostly Christmas standards save the previously mentioned instrumental and the album’s title track written by Nelson way back in his Nashville days which was a hit for fellow Texan Roy Orbison in 1963. A year later Nelson recorded the song with Chet Atkins. The song takes its inspiration from a man who had his legs amputated and got around on rollers. At Christmas time he used to sell paper and pencils in front of Leonard’s Department store in downtown Fort Worth. To attract attention to his exceedingly modest enterprise he would yell out “pretty paper...pretty paper,” to pedestrians passing by. Now that’s a Christmas story. 

Blue Yule is probably the best blues compilation of Christmas tunes of all time. It is a truly hip album thanks to the good folks at Rhino Records. This 1998 release is full of rare tracks from Lightnin' Hopkins, Detroit Junior, Charles Brown, Jimmy McCracklin, Louis Jordan, Hop Wilson, Canned Heat, Roy Milton and others. Many of these tracks can’t be found on other holiday compilations or appeared on records that are long out of print. My favorite from this record is John Lee Hooker’s Blues For Christmas, but there are lots to choose from. Highly recommended... 

The title track to the 2000 compilation album from Stony Plain Records entitled Christmas Blues is seven minutes and thirty two seconds of pure bliss. The Gatemouth Moore tune features the late vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon along with guitarist Duke Robillard and his fine band. The entire album features very unfamiliar Christmas tunes from various artists who were, and in some cases still are, part of the Stony Plain family. Some blues heavyweights who have left us in recent years such as Rosco Gordon and Jay McShann, along with Jimmy Witherspoon, make wonderful contributions to this great CD. You can also hear a Sonny Rhodes original and Billy Boy Arnold doing an old Jimmy McCkracklin tune on this collection. There is even a track with Asleep at the Wheel accompanied by the Roomful of Blues Horns. Duke’s guitar is all over this record and the opening instrumental by Robillard has Duke flexing his rather prodigious jazz chops. This is a very different kind of Christmas album. It is also one of the best. It isn’t your typical record label compilation where the company trots out its roster and has them doing standards with, for the most part, stock arrangements. This record is different, original and fresh, which is why it is one of my favorites. 

It is hard to believe that the Black Top compilation Blues, Mistletoe and Santa’s Little Helper is celebrating its 27^th anniversary this year. It remains a favorite out here at the JUNCTION and why not. It is filled with tunes from this long defunct New Orleans based label's roster of artists. They include Earl King, Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters, Robert Ward, Rick Holmstrom and others. The highlights include tunes from the label’s house musicians including reed man Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff. The real treat here is for fans of Black Top stalwarts Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring Sam Meyers. They are featured on three gutbucket Christmas blues, which are sprinkled throughout this outstanding 15 song holiday spectacular. This album is discussed in our Re-Visited feature this month. 

From the Richard Weize Archives, a division of Rock Star Records comes one of the finest Christmas compilations of all time, Boogie Woogie Santa Claus. This 2017 release has gathered together a stunning array of Christmas songs, all from the golden age of American rhythm & blues music. The Richard Weize Archives, like Rhythm Bomb Records and Koko Mojo Records, is part of the Rock Star Records family of labels. They continue to produce some wonderful new music yet this batch of rhythm & blues “oldies” are what the holidays are all about. Santa Claus digs this album and so do I. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus should be at the top of your Christmas wish list. 



In September and October of 1963 the gun wielding, dark prince of mono, Phil Spector, recorded a pop perfect album for the ages. The tracks for A Christmas Gift for You from Phillies Records were laid down in Hollywood’s Gold Star studios where the famed Wrecking Crew built their wall of sound around Spector’s roster of mostly ‘girl-groups’. Upbeat arrangements by Jack Nitzche of secular holiday favorites are the memorable high points of this collection. The album was released on November 22, 1963, the same day President Kennedy was assassinated. As one might suspect this album wasn’t an initial hit but various singles emerged in subsequent years as tracks received heavy rotation on mostly AM stations, where Spector’s unique recording sensibilities sounded best. These AM radio staples, includingThe Ronnettes doing Frosty The Snowman and Sleigh Ride (ring a ling ding dong ding) as well as Santa Claus is Coming to Town by The Crystals and Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), became holiday classics. These tunes are now deeply imbedded into our collective consciousness and represent pop music as high art. The tunes from this album create an almost instant nostalgia and yearning for a seemingly more innocent time in rock&roll and the world at large for that matter. The album was re-issued by Apple Records in 1972 and a few times in the intervening years under the name A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.