It's the Thought That Counts, Jill Sobule (self-issued)

This is Jill's Christmas record for 2001, and while it has more music than last year's, it only has three Christmas songs out of nine, two of which were released previously. The new Christmas song is an acoustic version of "Christmas Time Is Here," the pop standard, combined with reruns of "Jesus Was a Dreidel Spinner" and "Merry Christmas From the Family." In keeping with the post 9-11 mood, she does "This Land Is Your Land" with Kim Richey and Bill Lloyd, and rabid Jill fans will be happy to see a live version of her semi-libelous "Kathy Lee." Acoustic versions of three songs from her last "real" album and the unreleased "St. Francis" round out the set. UPDATE: This was reissued in 2005 with another Christmas-appropriate song, "That Hat," reviewed here, and with the non-Christmas songs excised. There's also different cover art, which I saved for the "That Hat" entry. Jill typically offers the disc at Christmastime via her website only; at the time this entry was updated, it wasn't on offer.