Always new singles this time of year. Let's try to run through a few of these real quick.
A couple of updates, first. The Phoenix single of "All Alone On Christmas Day" featuring Bill Murray and Buster Poindexter (and others) vanished from the Internets not long after we announced it. It becomes this year's first entry on the Limbo List, since there was no explanation. My best guess is that they couldn't reserve enough vinyl pressing time to print the number they were going to need. Record pressers don't grow on trees. And nobody wants to pay for a new one since--the vinyl explosion of the past few years aside--the industry still sees vinyl as a fad. It is weird, though, that there isn't at least a digital listing for it. Maybe it sucked.
Also the Courteeners 45 of "Winter Wonderland" was delayed from mid-December to mid-January. There are digital listings for that one...in the UK. It'll make its way across the ocean in a week or so (I'm guessing). Meanwhile, you can listen to it here.
A couple of updates, first. The Phoenix single of "All Alone On Christmas Day" featuring Bill Murray and Buster Poindexter (and others) vanished from the Internets not long after we announced it. It becomes this year's first entry on the Limbo List, since there was no explanation. My best guess is that they couldn't reserve enough vinyl pressing time to print the number they were going to need. Record pressers don't grow on trees. And nobody wants to pay for a new one since--the vinyl explosion of the past few years aside--the industry still sees vinyl as a fad. It is weird, though, that there isn't at least a digital listing for it. Maybe it sucked.
Also the Courteeners 45 of "Winter Wonderland" was delayed from mid-December to mid-January. There are digital listings for that one...in the UK. It'll make its way across the ocean in a week or so (I'm guessing). Meanwhile, you can listen to it here.
She's destined to be overshadowed by Katy Perry in a few days but, for the moment, the hot new Christmas single is Carly Rae Jepsen's cover of "Last Christmas". Carly's version might be the most faithful to the spirit of the original (minus the disco beats). And, let's face it, Carly has a quality that makes everything sound wonderful. But, at the end of the day, it's pretty much another cover of "Last Christmas" (and not a genius vision of it, like the one from The Linedance Fever). I still prefer "Mittens" from the "604 Records Christmas" album. Not that Carly can't drop by any time and sing to me from the phonebook. Carly, call me. Maybe? "Last Christmas" is at all the digital hot spots, including Amazon.
Our old friend Laurie Cameron is on the single release schedule. The 3-track digital release, set for this Friday, includes the now classic "Merry Christmas From Scotland" as well as "One Christmas Fall", the flip side of her first Christmas single ("Christmas Baby Please Come Home"). The one I'm not familiar with, here, is "Holy, Holy, Holy". It could certainly be the traditional hymn, but there are several other songs and adaptations with that title. Plus she's a songwriter, so who's to say she didn't write a whole new song with the title? There's no video as yet and Laurie hasn't said a word about it on Facebook or her web site. The 30 second clip at Amazon is no help whatsoever. So I guess we'll have to wait and find out.
My guess would be the single is a way to remind people that Laurie's long awaited full-length, "The Girl Who Cried For The Boy Who Cried Wolf", came out over the summer. Laurie being one of those artists who I'll actively seek out and listen to, whether its Christmas music or not, I did buy the album and I can tell you it's absolutely brilliant. She included a nice note with the record, thanking me for the mentions on our site, which was sweet and completely unnecessary. Laurie is a gifted songwriter and a magical performer with the ability to convey so much more than just the lyrics when she sings. The invitation to stop by and sing from the phonebook is certainly open to her as well. Just sayin'.
We've shared the videos of "Merry Christmas From Scotland" and "Christmas Baby Please Come Home", but I think we've shortchanged "One Christmas Fall". Let's correct that oversight right now.
My guess would be the single is a way to remind people that Laurie's long awaited full-length, "The Girl Who Cried For The Boy Who Cried Wolf", came out over the summer. Laurie being one of those artists who I'll actively seek out and listen to, whether its Christmas music or not, I did buy the album and I can tell you it's absolutely brilliant. She included a nice note with the record, thanking me for the mentions on our site, which was sweet and completely unnecessary. Laurie is a gifted songwriter and a magical performer with the ability to convey so much more than just the lyrics when she sings. The invitation to stop by and sing from the phonebook is certainly open to her as well. Just sayin'.
We've shared the videos of "Merry Christmas From Scotland" and "Christmas Baby Please Come Home", but I think we've shortchanged "One Christmas Fall". Let's correct that oversight right now.
The Swedish Hard Rock trio T.A.J. has released "Christmas For Everyone". The band gets its initials from the band members' first names. Jimmy Drexler and his son Andre had been making music for years. But, when their earlier band NonWorkingGeneration reached its end, Jimmy reached out to childhood friend Tommy. They clicked, musically, immediately and the fans took to T.A.J. just as quickly. They've released three albums, to date. "Christmas For Everyone" isn't really reflective of their usual sound, but it is the sound the band felt the song needed. Given the nature of the vocals on the piece, the single reminded me a bit of Crash Test Dummies, though that could easily just be me. And I did listen to their other stuff and they do rock hard, most of the time. "Christmas For Everyone" has more of an Indie Rock vibe and, like the earlier song from Sondre Lerche and Jherek Bischoff, this one grows out of the Syrian refugee crisis. The lyrics, though, can be interpreted on a wider level. Even when the world isn't besieged by war, there are always children who, for one reason or another, are orphaned, hungry, alone and living in poverty. What T.A.J. wishes for is "Christmas For Everyone". It's a great and powerful sentiment and song. You'll find it on Amazon and other online digital retailers.
The band known as Pop Noir, who split their time between the UK and Cali, will be releasing a two-track Christmas single Friday. I'd put Pop Noir in roughly the same musical bag as Daft Punk. I don't think either "Father Christmas" (not the Kinks tune) or "Little Burundi Drummer Boy" are new. The duo has occasionally rewarded fans with a Christmas song at the end of the year, with "Drummer Boy" (if I'm not mistaken) being their 2010 gifty. But Pop Noir are growing in popularity of late and a Christmas single isn't a bad idea as a way to grow it further.
Also coming Friday is this superb Christmas Blues from Delta Deep. Delta Deep is the side project of Def Leppard's Phil Collen. The group features Debbi Blackwell-Cook on vocals and she was the impetus behind the project. She sang at Phil's wedding in 2010 and, soon after, the two were getting together and jamming for fun on old songs--Motown, Gospel, Blues, whatever they felt in the moment. They were good enough together that Phil thought there was something more, here. They recruited Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Forrest Robinson who had not only played with the Crusaders and TLC, but with some Heavy Metal groups as well.
Delta Deep's self-titled debut full-length was released earlier this year. I haven't checked it out, yet (though I intend to), but some of the Rock critics were less than kind. In essence, they said the record wasn't Rock enough to appeal to Rock fans and not Blues enough to appeal to Blues fans. We'll see. But I'll tell you this: "Take Me Home For Christmas" sure ought to appeal to Christmas music fans. It's true the song isn't a hard-edged Blues--it's a smoother Blues seasoned in R&B and Jazz and the kind of a song you might have heard in an after hours club in the forties or fifties. Rather than trying to figure out if its too much of this and not enough of that, I take the song on its own merits...and it merits pretty high on my chart.
Delta Deep wrote "Take Me Home For Christmas" themselves. Phil was skeptical, not being much of a fan of Christmas music. But, once they started playing it, Phil jumped right on board. The single is due out on Friday and, right now, you'll only find it on iTunes, but I suspect it will turn up on Amazon shortly.
It's been quite a good year for Christmas Blues. And there aren't too many years where you can say that.
Delta Deep's self-titled debut full-length was released earlier this year. I haven't checked it out, yet (though I intend to), but some of the Rock critics were less than kind. In essence, they said the record wasn't Rock enough to appeal to Rock fans and not Blues enough to appeal to Blues fans. We'll see. But I'll tell you this: "Take Me Home For Christmas" sure ought to appeal to Christmas music fans. It's true the song isn't a hard-edged Blues--it's a smoother Blues seasoned in R&B and Jazz and the kind of a song you might have heard in an after hours club in the forties or fifties. Rather than trying to figure out if its too much of this and not enough of that, I take the song on its own merits...and it merits pretty high on my chart.
Delta Deep wrote "Take Me Home For Christmas" themselves. Phil was skeptical, not being much of a fan of Christmas music. But, once they started playing it, Phil jumped right on board. The single is due out on Friday and, right now, you'll only find it on iTunes, but I suspect it will turn up on Amazon shortly.
It's been quite a good year for Christmas Blues. And there aren't too many years where you can say that.
If you're into Smooth Jazz, you'll love the new Christmas single from dee Brown (hey, that's how he does it, with the small first initial). Of course, if you're into Smooth Jazz, you're probably familiar with "It's Christmas" already as it's one of the hottest adds in Smooth Jazz radio. dee has been working in support of big name artists for a lot of years and has stepped out of the shadows in more recent times to follow his own muse. "It's Christmas" is an original song and, between dee's silky smooth guitar and the soulful backing vocals (no lead vocals, mind you--that would be the guitar), it's clearly going to be a Smooth Jazz holiday staple. You can find the single at Amazon. If you happen to like "It's Christmas", then you might also want to check out dee's holiday single from 2013, "Do You Hear What I Hear?".
Among the many artists who hit the charts in 1955 with "Nuttin' For Christmas" was an 8 year old Joe Ward. Supposedly, Joe was the first to record and release it, though his wasn't the highest charting version. Well, Joe is all grown up, now (you do the math), and, surprise, surprise, he can actually sing. And Joe has finally released his follow-up single. It's a Christmas song, of course. "More Than Christmas" is a pretty straight ahead MOR/Pop Vocal tune. I would think, personally, that it would benefit from a hipper arrangement (you know, someone like Tony Bennett could give it a bit of pizzazz), but I really do hope it charts. Because that would have to be some kind of record, don't you think? You can grab Joe Ward's "More Than Christmas" at Amazon and CD Baby.
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga have released a second Christmas song...sort of. Last year, you might recall, the odd couple recorded "Winter Wonderland" as the "official" H&M holiday song. Then the digital single was released and a lot of folks gobbled it right up. This year, the pair teamed up to take on "Baby, It's Cold Outside", their performance holding center stage for Barnes & Noble commercials. Their singing on the minute spot is exceptional. Of course, Tony always sounds great and I personally feel Gaga is singing better than ever. Don't know if they'll release this one as a single--I suspect they might--but I'm still hoping for a full album of holiday duets (although, as things stand, they might have to call it "Commercial Christmas"). Check out the spot here.
I like to have a little something for everyone when I do these singles posts, and we have got some Blues, Rock, Pop, and Jazz. But we do seem to be missing something...rural. How bout some Bluegrass to close us out?
Becky Buller sings, plays the fiddle, and is an accomplished singer/songwriter. She spent a decade writing for, playing and touring with Liberty Pike while artists like Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver recorded her songs. Stepping out on her own, Becky took home 3 IBMA Awards earlier this year, including awards for Best Emerging Artist and Songwriter of the Year.
Becky's two-song Christmas single, available at Amazon and CD Baby, features "Our Gingerbread House" and "The Savior Is Born". Of the two, the latter is easily my favorite.
Becky Buller sings, plays the fiddle, and is an accomplished singer/songwriter. She spent a decade writing for, playing and touring with Liberty Pike while artists like Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver recorded her songs. Stepping out on her own, Becky took home 3 IBMA Awards earlier this year, including awards for Best Emerging Artist and Songwriter of the Year.
Becky's two-song Christmas single, available at Amazon and CD Baby, features "Our Gingerbread House" and "The Savior Is Born". Of the two, the latter is easily my favorite.
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