Lonely Christmas Eve, Joe Bonamassa (J&R Adventures)

From a box-office standpoint, Joe Bonamassa is one of the current kings of blues guitar, even if folks like Christone "Kingfish" Ingram and Gary Clark are more often seen in the pop charts. Joe's had an ongoing habit of dropping free Christmas song recordings over the years, and for 2024 he's gathered up a bunch of them and added a few more for this album now widely available on downloads and streaming. Most of these songs are familiar, especially to blues fans: "Merry Christmas Baby," "Lonesome Christmas," "Christmas Comes But Once a Year," "Santa Claus Is Back In Town," plus evergreen classics "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "O Holy Night," and then there are the ones attributed to Joe himself, like "Christmas Boogie (One Little Kiss)," "Christmas Date Blues," "Hello Christmas" and "You Know It's Christmas," the latter two also featuring Dion of Belmonts fame. Three tunes also get alternate treatments; "Merry Christmas Baby," "O Holy Night" gets an orchestral arrangement, and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" gets an "Irish rendition." All told, a solid collection, especially if you haven't been exposed to Joe before.