It`s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know, I know. It`s not even Thanksgiving yet. 
Christmas music is with us again, in the stores, on the radio and, yes, in my house. Of course, some people have already been listening to it for some time. Hello daughter! Christmas for a lot of Brits, does not start until Noddy Holder says so. See picture, left.
There`s always a discussion on how early you can play Christmas music. My answer? As early as you like. There`s a lot of it to listen to and not really that much time to do so.
I have a large collection of Christmas cds and a few vinyl albums. I never intend to buy more, but yard sales yield some great bargains. Among this year`s stash I got Joe Diffie, James Taylor, Mannheim Steamroller, Pentatonix and Lady Antebellum cds plus yet another various country artists disc. All for a dollar each or less. Country music, especially, leans towards themed albums at this time of year.
When it comes to new releases, this year, there are quite a few to go round. John Legend, Englebert Humperdinck, Jessie J, Diana Ross. Even Captain Kirk in his alter-ego of William Shatner. I have bought three new releases. Eric Clapton, The Monkees and The Mavericks.

I have always been a Monkees fan. I had two second hand albums in the early 70`s. Their first, eponymous, one and the third one, Headquarters. I bought them  from the guy that lived in the house at the bottom of our garden. Not in our garden, people, but joined to our garden. I was still at school, just starting to build my collection. 15 Albums for ten bob [ten shillings or 50 pence]. A great bargain. Wish I still had all of those. I once had to give an occasional 10 minute talk, in a music lesson, at school. I chose The Monkees for one of those talks. I only had the information on those albums. How I managed to make it last 10 minutes, I don`t remember. This was, of course, well before the internet.
The Monkees Christmas Party has a few original tracks, written by some interesting people. Andy

Partridge is a particular favorite of mine, from his days with XTC. His track, Unwrap You At Christmas, starts the album off energetically. It sounds like it`s going to be a Spector style cover, but turns into a double entendre track about unwrapping someone for Christmas. It is better than that makes it sound. Of course, time will tell if any of the original tracks, on here, will become standards, played on the radio, year after year. The best tracks on here, just happen to be the original ones, written for this album. Rivers Cuomo, from Weezer and Peter Buck, from REM,  contributed. There are a couple of decent versions of classics, like Mele Kalikimaka and Silver Bells, both using vocals from the late, lamented Davy Jones. They also have a stab at a couple of more modern classics. No-one will ever beat Roy Wood`s original with Wizzard, but the boys do a decent, standard pop version of  I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. Also a very nice version of Paul McCartney`s Wonderful Christmastime. There`s even a cover of an old song about Jesus written by Alex Chilton. That doesn`t happen a lot on mainstream Christmas albums. The instrumentation, all the way through, is fairly basic, but sounds pretty good for all that. Adam Schlesinger produced and mixed most of the album. A couple of the tracks sung by Michael Nesmith, were produced by Michael`s sons.
Adam Schlesinger is no stranger to Christmas, having been heavily involved with Stephen Colberts`s Christmas album, ten years ago. My favorite song of Schlesinger`s has to be Masters of the Sea from Ice Age, Continental Drift. Lots of ice, but no Christmas. Overall, a pretty good contribution to the long, long list of Christmas albums. Every now and then it actually sounds like The Monkees of old, especially the Davy Jones` tracks. He was always the most distinctive of the voices. I will be using a few tracks for a future Christmas mix CD for the car.

Eric has done a Clapton on his disc. Full of the usual easy, relaxed blues sound and Eric`s laid-back

vocal style. That`s really what I`m looking for from a Christmas album, music that fits in with the usual sound of whatever artist it is. An Eric Clapton album is always welcome. I came late to the Eric Clapton is God party. I remember going to a record store, in my hometown, Walsall. It was the 70`s. I had spotted a second hand copy of All Things Must Pass by George Harrison in there. My kind of price too. It was a triple vinyl album. The hippie behind the counter [that`s what I thought at the time] took each of the records out and checked both sides. When he pulled the last one out, he said "now, this is the one that matters, right?" I nodded. I had no idea what he was talking about. Eric was what he was talking about. Slowhand Clapton. Years later, I got into Clapton through his version of I Shot The Sheriff. Now I`m buying a Christmas album by this guitar god.
How would his relaxed blues style transfer to a Christmas album? Very well, it turns out. Starting out with THE Christmas song, White Christmas. I usually do not like it when vocalists mess with a tune, but this version seems to work very well. Next up, I did not know that Away In A Manger was a blues tune. Fantastic. The rest of the album is filled with a mix of Christmas classics and blues/soul tracks. For Love On Christmas Day is a self-penned track, along with Simon Climie [co-producer] and Dennis Morgan. His version of Jingle Bells is an, almost totally, instrumental gem. The whole album makes for a gentle evening of Christmas music. A great alternative to the Bing, Spector, Country and Buble albums that dominate so much, here in the States. Nothing wrong with that stuff, I have those in my collection and they will be listened to. If you want some Christmas on the stereo, but without a lot of jingly jangly stuff, this is your choice. Some of it would not look out of place alongside Nat and Dean and Frank. Very cool. His Silent Night is one of the best I have heard. A "heavenly choir" backing and Eric`s soulful vocal chipping in. Also the collector in me is happy with the free flexi-disc I got when I bought the album.

The third new Christmas album I bought, this year, is The Mavericks` Hey! Merry Christmas!. A Christmas classic in the making. Somehow, their distinctive sound, especially Raul Malo`s voice, lends itself to Christmas music very easily. In the UK, I got turned on to these guys by a DJ called Nick Barrowclough who had a nice turn of humour and presented a weekly show of, what was then called, New Country. They became huge in the UK, for a while, with Dance The Night Away, which gave them a solid fan base. We saw them live once. They did not disappoint. Like most country artists, they can play. The album starts off at a cracking pace, sounding familiar but not quite. These are songs that may get covered. Should get covered. Standard Christmas themes like Christmas is coming, Santa knows what you do, I want you for Christmas, it`s for me and you, more Santa, Christmas without you, that kind of thing. Of the 10 tracks, on the standard issue, 8 are Mavericks penned songs, with a couple of classics. Baby, Please Come Home and Happy Holidays sound like original Mavericks tracks, so natural is their feel for them. It slows down a little in the middle, but comes back with Hey! Merry Christmas, a track I am confident will be played on Christmas radio for many years to come. They should be made to do this every Christmas.
All in all, I am very pleased with these new additions to my collection. They will be coming out to play, for many Christmases to come.
Just as a side note, why is there so little music for Thanksgiving? It`s as big a holiday as Christmas for a lot of people.