"Him and Christmas," Red Sky July (Shadowbirds)

The Amazon page for this 2017 single states its genre is "Country > Alt-Country & Americana," and a little research assured me that this was an accurate description of this female vocal trio's sound, as they have several Christmas releases to their credit already, consisting of nicely scrubbed folk-country harmonizing. This record is an exception to all that. It's a swampy, almost psychedelic thing, and yes there's some banjo propelling it along, but this is more of an alt-rock song telling an interesting story, with some nice jagged guitar fills. It reminds me of something from 10cc, which it should, because the credits state "featuring Graham Gouldman," songwriting mainstay of that band as well as a staff songwriter who provided many a top 10 hit to bands in the first British Invasion, not to mention a few late 60s bubblegum bands that led to the founding of 10cc. Don't buy this because the old guy played on it, buy it because it's aces.