For Christ's Sake, Jon Graboff (Confidential)

Graboff is a New York-based session guitarist who steps out on this 2002 all-instrumental holiday album. He's assisted by some hometown friends, including The Smithereens' Dennis Diken and other folks who have played with such luminaries as They Might Be Giants, Joan Osborne, Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams. This is a fairly subtle affair, incoroporating styles and licks from across the spectrum for active listeners but not sticking out too much to be used as background music. Most tunes are familiar carols, but Graboff also digs into the catalog to take a crack at NRBQ's "Christmas Wish" in a Pet Sounds kind of arrangement, fairly straight readings of XTC's "Thanks For Christmas" and The Beach Boys' "Merry Christmas Baby," the latter with a pedal steel lead line. Graboff's one original, "Christmas Shopping," manages to keep the Christmas feel going with the help of carillon. A non-holiday tune by Laura Cantrell, "Too Late For Tonight," gets subtitled "Bombay Noel" for its use of electric sitar. "Run Rudolph Run" substitutes sax for vocals in an otherwise authentic original arrangement. A solid, if low-key effort.