New Star Shining, Orleans (Sunset Blvd.)

Seventies folk/soft rock powerhouse Orleans hitched a ride in Doc Brown's car to the 21st century to gift us here in 2021 a Christmas album. (Various incarnations of the band have existed between then and now, per Wikipedia.) As you might expect, this offering is even more mellow than the band was in its heyday. I'm not about the mellow myself, but I'm including it here because the bulk of the tunes here are new originals, although some of them have history to them. For example, the album's title tune by former congressman John Hall and his wife Johanna dates back to a 1994 Woodstock Holidays album released only in Japan (available on Amazon for stupid money if you're interested) and was cut as a duet by Ricky Skaggs and James Taylor. The Halls also contributed "Quiet Place" with Jonell Mosser, "I Wish I Could Have Been There" with Tad Richards, and "Snowed In With You." Dennis "Fly" Amero wrote "Jinglin' In New England" with his wife Donna, "Ballad of the Christmas Day Cowboy" with Robert Ellis Orral, and "I Wish I Could Fly" with Allen Estes. Former Orleans member Chip Martin contributed "The Sound of Christmas." Late band member Larry Hoppen had recorded a version of "Winter Wonderland" for a 2010 charity album, and that's here, and the band also scavenged a 1985 recording of Larry, Lance, Lane, and Lynda Hoppen singing the opening of "Mary Had a Baby" and built a new track around it. Also here is a cover of Little River Band's "Mary's Christmas," and "I'm Coming Home For Christmas" was originally by Ambrosia's Joe Puerta. All of these songs are warm reflections of Christmas memories, and this will be loved by the folks who were young when Orleans was a new band.