Lunch at Allen's is a quasi-supergroup of four Canadian singer-songwriters, Murray McLauchlan, Cindy Church, Marc Jordan and Ian Thomas, with three albums to their name before this 2012 collection featuring originals as well as two covers from the North American songbook, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." Thomas contributes the title song, a tribute to the iconic film "It's a Wonderful Life." McLauchlan offers "Old Tin Star," a nostalgic ode to a tree decoration, and "Spending My Christmas With You," a jazz-pop romance song. Church performs her "It's Christmas," another look back to the past, and makes a bid for more romance with the shuffle "Oh, What a Christmas Eve." Thomas also offers "Six Teams in the NHL," more nostalgia for the old days, but then hockey fans have little to console themselves but nostalgia while the strike continues. The group also takes on Chris Bolton's "Sober Up For Christmas" and "Christmas Day," along with "Count Your Blessings." All told this is pretty sedate, as you might expect from folk singers with long careers under their belts, but the songwriting at least deserves a closer look.
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