

I loves me some new cover art and we just got the cover art for Celtic Woman's "Home For Christmas", scheduled for release October 9. Check it out on your right.
Joy Williams of The Civil Wars is reportedly recording a new Christmas song. She's working with producer Jay Joyce. In addition to last year's brilliant "Tracks In The Snow" EP (the title track and "O Come O Come Emmanuel" have been floating around since at least 2010), Joy had previously released a handful of solo Christmas songs, including the popular "Here With Us" from 2005 and a version of "Bring A Torch Jeanette Isabella" that was given as a free download in 2008 (that one is still free just for signing up for Joy's mailing list over at ReverbNation).
Another artist recording a Christmas song this year is Lucy Lawless. That's right, Xena, The Warrior Princess herself. Lucy still does some acting, of course, but she's also pursued a singing career, particularly in the last 5 years. Unfortunately, it's likely Lucy's holiday tune won't be readily available here in the states--not immediately, in any case. Lucy's track, she recently tweeted, will be included on a charity Christmas release in New Zealand for Starship Children's Health Hospital--a leader in pediatric medicine and research and a charity to which Lucy has devoted a good deal of time, energy, and caring.
Australian vocal group Human Nature, a staple of those Myer "Spirit Of Christmas" albums, was also said to be working on a full-length Christmas record earlier this year, though there've been no recent updates on such a project.
Canadian tenor John McDermott will release another Christmas CD this September. And Gary "Ho Ho" Hoey is also working on a new Christmas album though, with the number of projects he has going on at the moment, that one might not surface before next year.

The most useless of these new/old products--IMHO--are a series of digital releases with titles like "Christmas With Al Jarreau and Friends", "Christmas With B.J. Thomas and Friends", "Christmas With Patti Austin and Friends". All of these digital collections are essentially the same tracks rotated around a bit and with the title simply picking out a different artist who has friends. Now, sure, you could argue that the label is making full use of the flexibility the internet offers, but that cup is half empty to me--it's just a waste of my time. If you need any of the individual tracks, by all means download a la carte. But I'll not be putting those albums on our list.
The Sony Legacy albums, on the other hand, will be added to the list ASAP. Considering the nice collection the Tony Bennett "Classic Christmas Album" turned out to be last year, I've been waiting to see some track lists for the many "Classic Christmas Album" titles on this year's schedule. We've gotten some of them now and, though I haven't looked at them closely, they appear to be in that Tony Bennett mold--collections that seem to cover the artists' full career including an obscure (or unexpected) track here or there. And budget priced to boot. We'll be posting these in our Previews section presently, though largely without commentary.