Country singer Sammy Kershaw has a new listing at Amazon. "A Sammy Klaus Christmas" is due out October 23. Sammy, on the other hand, hopes it will drop on October 6.
Sammy, of course, is a pretty big name in Country music, with over 40 Country hits and one previous Christmas album to his credit. 1994's "Christmas Time's A-Comin'" set a pretty high bar for any follow-up, too, with it's nice mix of the new and old, the sentimental and the fun, the cajun flavored and the straight up Country.
In recent years, Sammy's drawn as much ink for his runs for Louisiana Lieutenant Governor as for his music, but he's been busy in the studio and on the road lately--with the Christmas album representing just one of several projects in the pipeline. No specifics on the playlist just yet, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear Sammy do "The Cajun Night Before Christmas".
And, as long as we're revisiting stuff we already told you about, there was a cool piece on-line from Rolling Stone about how Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton were each unaware of the other's Christmas album. Blake's done his publicity rollout for "Cheers It's Christmas", but we did get one nugget about Cee Lo's coming album plus a priceless bit of back and forth in this new piece:
"I did a version of 'You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch'," [Cee Lo] says. "That says a lot. Just ponder on that."
It was enough to make Shelton envious. "That's a great idea, that son of a bitch," he said. "Damn it."
In all seriousness, Cee Lo describes his holiday set as a "soulful spin" on the Christmas classics, while Blake contends he was striving for a timeless album that wouldn't be bound by genre, adding that he has no intention of ever making another Christmas album. Ever.
Lots of people have been after Kem to record a Christmas record before, but he didn't want to end up just singing the same old worn out chestnuts. The finished record is about half seasonal favorites and half self-penned Christmas songs. And Kem is extremely happy with the results. "The originals are better than the standards," he says. "People are going to be surprised."
One certain highlight from "What Christmas Means" is bound to be the duet with Ledisi on "Be Mine For Christmas". Other original titles include "Glorify The King" and "That's What Christmas Is All About". Kem also promises a "sexy" take on "Christmas Time Is Here".
"What Christmas Means" is tentatively scheduled for an October release. In the meantime, we do have a 2006 video of Kem and Brian O'Neal performing "The Christmas Song" to whet our appetite.
1. The Christmas Song
2. Heaven Everywhere
3. Christmas Is
4. What Child Is This?
5. Marshmallow World
6. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
8. You're Here
9. Joy To The World
10. Christmas Dreams
11. Go Tell It On The Mountain
That's why I was thrilled to find this February interview with a fantastic young Jazz vocalist, Mandy Harvey. As of that interview, Mandy was working on several projects, including an album of all newly penned material, but a Christmas album was at the top of her to-do list and she figured to have it ready by November of this year.
Mandy was just a college freshman hoping to go into music education when, in 2006, she lost her hearing. That's right, this young Jazz singer is deaf. Mandy went through a difficult time following her hearing loss. Her dream of teaching voice ended and she gave up music altogether for nearly a year. With the encouragement of her father, though, she started singing and writing again and now has two incredible albums to her credit--"Smile" and "After You've Gone". For me, the second album far surpassed the first--no doubt a reflexion of Mandy's blossoming confidence--though the first album was pretty damn good. Deaf or not, Mandy is a sublime vocalist and I anticipate an extraordinary Christmas album. Mandy "guarantees" the album will include "White Christmas", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "Baby It's Cold Outside". Look for it this fall and keep up with Mandy via her web site and/or Facebook.