February 2015 Archives

Recorded roughly at the same time as his hit album Carney, this 1972 original by the heralded pianist, producer, arranger and songwriter only ever came out on 45, though it's possible to download it nowadays. It's a bluesy ballad featuring blues legend Freddie King on lead guitar. The flip side, "Christmas in Chicago," is a bit more uptempo and suggests the blues style of the city in the title. Both are fine performances and will satisfy fans of blues and classic rock. Leon later recorded 1995's Hymns of Christmas, but that is a collection of piano instrumentals backed by orchestra featuring 10 classic and antique carols, nothing resembling Leon's signature rock sound.

This British band calls themselves purveyors of "shambolic rock music," and this kind of punk-ish uptempo number will make your Boxing Day celebrations more enjoyable. This 2014 tune is at Bandcamp, leave them a tip even though there's no minimum.

Here's a Netherlands band that named itself after William J. LePetomaine, if the Soundcloud URL is to be believed, anyway. This 2014 holiday rocker is solid gold power pop and needs to be in next year's holiday playlist. (Better make a note of that myself.)

Missed this when it was a free download at Soundcloud (you can still stream it there), but it was a single in time for Christmas 2014 and will be on the artist's 2015 album New Love that drops in February. It's a nice raging uptempo rocker, guitars to the fore, and it's all about Christmas in the big city, as you might well imagine.

SOTA is a production company from Georgia, or "music collective" as the popular phrase currently goes, and they promote, produce and even make their own rock-Americana flavored music alongside a small roster of artists. For 2014 they decided to try their hand at Christmas music, and they've put together a nice collection of music featuring their own roster along with a few guests from outside. Things kick off promisingly with a fine uptempo arrangement of "Silent Night" from Marshall Ruffin, a song that too often gets the reverent, or worse, the diva approach. The Shadowboxers acquit themselves well on "Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday," Alex Gordon Hi Fi offers a guitar/bass instrumental rendition of "Deck the Halls," then they back Marshall Ruffin on "Angels We Have Heard on High." Indianapolis Jones offers a fine uptempo original by Galavanters' bass player Nicholas Niespodziani called "Peace and Harmony," and then that band comes back with their own organ-led instrumental take on "Jolly Old St. Nicholas." Big Mike Geier gets help from Larkin Poe on "Christmas Island," Trs Lechers perform a jazzy xylophone-led "Joy to the World" and Michelle Malone, who has a past Christmas album to her credit, performs the original "Feels Like Christmas." Stephen Kellogg, with help from the Galavanters, performs his syncopated original "Christmas in Cancun," the Handlebars render Ellis Paul's "Santa Claus & the Tooth Fairy," in which a mild Bo Diddley rhythm meets a child-sung chorus, Tim Smith takes on NRBQ's "Chrismas Wish," and Mike Snowden breaks out the cigar box guitar and accordion for a suitably rocking exit to the disc with "Auld Lang Syne." The producers imply in their liner notes that this may become a tradition, and that's all right with me.

I'm always bemoaning when artists from the now-distant past attempt to make themselves relevant again with a Christmas release, especially when they use their rock brand name to make something that's more in the adult contemporary vein. And of course, the Bay City Rollers is not a brand name that suggests rock integrity. Nevertheless, this is a strong pop-rocker that draws on the BCR legacy but hammers out a fine rock rhythm. You might want to check out this 2014 single before you dismiss it entirely.

Never heard of this guy until recently, and then only because of this fine Phil Spector-influenced holiday rocker. (Turns out he's in Panic! At the Disco.) Just released in 2014, the way he strings together holiday cliches threatens to make the title unironic, but the driving rhythm and fuzzy bass set against the Carpenters-esque piano is simply addicting. Gotta have.