Nope, still not feeling it. This is starting to get serious. Well, what are you going to do? Just keep on keeping on, I guess.
Like, for instance, Chris Mann of NBC's The Voice will be putting out a six song Christmas EP, "White Christmas", on October 9. Chris was the finalist (from Team Christina) with the operatic training. I loved The Voice and I though Chris Mann was amazing. Songs on the set include "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "The First Noel", "O Come All Ye Faithful", and, of course, the title track.
Now, ordinarily, an EP of this type would be a digital-only release, which is always kind of a bummer, especially with Mann's full-length major label debut scheduled for just three weeks later on October 30. But there will be an actual hard copy CD of "White Christmas". And it's a Wal-Mart exclusive, though there's no on-line listing for it as yet (might be one of those you'll have to go in and purchase; they do that sort of thing sometimes).
Now, see. This has all the elements to it that I should really be looking forward to it. I should feel kind of all Christmas morning and Jingle Bells and Ho Ho Ho. But I'm not. Oh, I'll buy it. And I'll probably love it. But, sitting here on August the one-th, I'm just not feeling it. I suppose that's how some artists feel recording a Christmas record in July.
By the way, Chris did a killer version of "Ave Maria" on The Voice and you can pick that one up via iTunes anytime you like (though iTunes has gone quite a bit to the $1.29 price point and, honestly, that's a real buzzkill).
About a week ago, McCreery's friend, singer-songwriter Nick Autry tweeted a picture of Scotty wearing a Santa hat (left) with the message "[Scotty] wraps up a Christmas record." About the same time, Scotty himself tweeted "well it's still 90 some degrees outside, but it's Christmas in July here in the studio." Both tweets have since been scrubbed from the Internets (we did save the picture of Scotty in hat, as I'm sure did a lot of folks).
Last year, newly coronated, Scotty made the rounds of the television holiday specials singing songs like "The First Noel" and "Holly Jolly Christmas", so we know he's got those in his repertoire. And McCreery's Country, so a Christmas record wouldn't be a bad marketing move, but the record company may have other ideas. Nothing "official" has been announced. But, you know... Dude, you're getting a Christmas record. Maybe.
In the meantime, you can always check out the man's debut album, "Clear As Day".
Yep.
No details, yet. But the word is out there. And this year's title is "Now That's What I Call TODAY'S Christmas", so you know that means....means, what, exactly?
And here's something a tad interesting. Well, maybe not but I've got nothing else to tell you about this one so, so I'm going with it. If you google it, you'll find it's only been mentioned by our friends at Imwan and on a NOW wiki page. But not the regular wiki page. It's on a results page for a search of the Danish NOW albums. But, again, not on the regular results page itself. No, it only turns up with the "cache" search page, with the notation "to be released Holiday Season, 2012". What's up with that? It's like spy messages written in invisible ink or something. Who are these NOW people, free masons or Templar knights or something? It would explain a lot, actually.
The somewhat more interesting collection is "Home On Christmas Day" and here's the full track list for that one:
1. Joy To The World - Mariah Carey
2. Christmas Eve - Celine Dion
3. Must Be Santa - Bob Dylan
4. Wintersong - Sarah McLachlan
5. Do You Hear What I Hear? - Whitney Houston
6. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Jordin Sparks
7. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Wilson Phillips
8. The Christmas Song - Christina Aguilera
9. Home On Christmas Day - Kristin Chenoweth
10. Auld Lang Syne - Susan Boyle
So... lots of stuff that's new to compilations (Dylan, Jordin Sparks, Susan Boyle, etc), Christina's hot right now, and the late Whitney Houston as well. At least Sony put a little thought into that one.
There's a third listing at Amazon, for the same release date, called "Romantic Christmas", but there are literally NO details for that one. But it IS from the same Sony Special Markets people.
What else we got?
Soul singer Anthony Hamilton is working on a Christmas album. Producer and songwriter Kelvin Wooten is in the house, too, so I hope there will be some original material. Anthony's truly an amazing artist, and he's turned up on a couple of holiday recordings, but nothing that really shines as bright as his usual work. You can get his "duet" of "Buon Natale" with the late Nat King Cole, along with the rest of that formerly Target exclusive, for just $3.98 at Amazon, right now (and there are vendors who'll sell you a used copy for a buck). And he's likely better known for "Silent Night", recorded with Boney James for the 2007 CD "Christmas Present". [Note: Those of you who stopped by early Wednesday morning may have seen "Boney M", rather than "Boney James"; well that's what you get after 5 in the morning. Anyway, corrected and apologies to all involved.]
I've got at least one more, but's it's real late (or early), so I'll stash that one in my back pocket for now.
It's August, now. I hope that means things will be picking up soon. Let me leave you with a picture tweeted out by Colbie Caillat from her album cover photo shoot for "Christmas In The Sand".