Various Artists – Jingle All The Way
Blue Heart Records
15 tracks
Blue Heart Records and NOLA Blues Artists one again get to the studio to deliver another superb annual Christmas and holiday album featuring a great variety of original and cover tunes that will help make the holiday season bright. They’ve done these for several years and they are always atop the list of the best new Christmas albums every year. This new one adds to their record of delivering some great Xmas tunes!
The Texas Horns featuring Michael Cross do a great version of “Silver Bells” to start thing off. Great horn work makes this special. Benny Turner offers up an original entitled “I Want Some Christmas Cheer” which is a super blues cut from this great artist. Phil Specter’s “Santa Baby” gets a great cover by Lil Red & The Rooster. It starts off slow and sexy as it’s been done before but then the tempo picks up, slows down and speeds up a couple more time for fun.
Theresa James & the Rhythm Tramps out their spin on “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” It’s a fun rendition where James sings with passion and the band plays it up nicely. Rick Vito offers an original rocking tune for the holidays called “I Was A Bad Boy This Year.” Rockabilly swing is the order of the day and it’s a fun ride. “Slim Down Santa” is another original by Jim Koeppel. It’s a jazzy, swinging cut.
Clarence Spady does Chuck Berry’s “Christmas” in a funky, soulful style that’s cool and well done. Bobby Gentillo then gives us James Brown’s classic for the holidays “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto.” Breathy vocals and cool bariton sax make this one sweet. A harmonica instrumental “Amazing Grace II” comes to us from Tomislav Goluban in a greased harp style.
Mark Cameron offers an original “Rick’s Place (Holiday Mix)” with some deep, dark spoken vocals, slick harp and nice guitar; cool stuff. “Merry Christmas Baby” by Laura Tate is delivered in a great, breathy fashion with some great honky tonk piano, killer sax and super guitar licks. A Vaneese Thomas original entitled “Peace and Goodwill” is a slow, powerful and soulful blues that will delight the listener. Outstanding vocals, excellent guitar and backing work by the band make this memorable.
“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” is next, done up by Peter Veteska with just he and some beautiful piano. He builds to a great finish in this Xmas standard. “River” is a great Joni Mitchell cut that Tiffany Pollock and Eric Johanson make their own. Ethereal vocals and subdued and restrained piano make this one special, too. The set concludes with the Texas Horns returning, this time with Theresa James. They perform Mark Kaznoff’s “Even Santa Gets The Blues” in a sultry and exceptional manner. The cupped trumpet and horns along with cool vocals make this one another winner.
Distributed by Betsy Brown and Blind Racoon, it is always a joy to receive the annual installment of NOLA Blues and Blue Heart Record Artists making Christmas bright. I loved this album and if you want a superb, bluesy Christmas album then look no further. Blue Heart Records has loaded up their sleigh with fifteen great tunes for Christmas including a half dozen original cuts that will certainly add to the memorable Xmas songs we will hear from year to year. Go get a copy of this now!
