Nelson has reemerged over the past few years and you might no longer recognize them. Gone are the waist-length golden locks and equally gone are the trappings and sounds of a Hard Rock band. They've even dropped the Nelson moniker, now appearing and recording under their full names, Matthew and Gunnar Nelson. The hair may be shorter, the band name longer, and the Nelsons are now a little more Country and a little less Rock N Roll. But they still sing a sweet song and, as you can hear in the clip above, that's a good thing. Yeah, so they aren't the next Whitesnake (or whatever) anymore. But they might just be the second coming of Don and Phil Everly and, trust me, that's something this tired old world needs.
The changes didn't come overnight. First, Geffen dropped them, which the brothers greeted as an emancipation. Then Warner Brothers signed them. On the advice of fellow songwriter Gary Burr, the brothers Nelson journeyed to Nashville in 1995. They were nearly through a new album of Modern Country when Warner decided that wasn't what they were looking for and shut the Nelsons down. It was just like a line out of their father's 1972 hit, "Garden Party". And, just as Ricky had done, they realized that "you can't please everyone so you got to please yourself".
Matthew and Gunnar founded their own label, releasing assorted music from the archives, live Nelson material, tracks and albums their label had quashed, a tribute album to their father, etc. They released the scuttled Country album, "Brother Harmony", in 2000. A solid album, by all accounts, "Brother Harmony" today fetches more than $200 on Amazon. Since then, Matthew and Gunnar have been finding greater and greater acceptance--especially with Country audiences. And, this fall, they plan to embrace that acceptance with a two-disc Christmas album with a strong Country flavor.
One disc from the Nelsons' as yet unnamed Christmas set will be entirely instrumental...the other, vocal. There's at least one original on the album, "This Christmas", featuring Alyssa Bonagura (whose parents are two-thirds of Baillie & The Boys). Matthew and Gunnar admit they likely would not be releasing the Christmas album this year (or at all) had it not been for the warm reception they received at last year's CMA festival. I'm intrigued. Aren't you?
T. Graham burst upon the national Country scene with the Top Ten single "I Tell It Like It Used To Be", following that one with a string of Country hits including 3 number ones. Although the music he recorded for Capitol was Country, there were still strong R&B influences. Given Brown's voice, its hard to see how there couldn't be. Capitol wasn't terribly fond of T. Graham's sound, in spite of the hits, and, once Garth Brooks joined the label, they provided precious little support. T. Graham asked for and got his release from the label even though staying would have netted him close to a million dollars.
After that, Brown learned how difficult it was to get heard and paid if you didn't have the clout of a Garth Brooks. Warner Brothers signed him and promised much, but delivered nothing. It was the same story at Sony. They kept Brown in a holding pattern for over a year and, when they finally let him cut some sides, Sony didn't like them and dropped Brown from their roster. Next came a string of small and independent labels. When records were released, there was no distribution and, therefore, no money. Just as often, companies would fold before the records could even be released. What made this especially frustrating was that Brown was recording all this music which no one ever heard and there wasn't a thing he could do about it since the labels owned the recordings.
The worst came in 1998. Brown had cut a Gospel infused number, "Wine Into Water", and released it independently. It took awhile but the song hit big on the Christian charts. When it crossed over to the Country charts, a powerful RCA executive called radio stations and had the song killed, telling them not to play it because RCA didn't want any independently released record hitting the charts. And Brown has been seldom heard on Country radio ever since.
There's more but, cutting to the chase, T. Graham eventually realized that doing things right meant doing them himself.
T. Graham Brown has been talking about recording a Christmas album for the past several years but, so far, all we've gotten is a digital single, "It Ain't Christmas", in 2011. That all changes October 2 with the release of "Christmas With T. Graham Brown". The album will feature both original music and what T. calls "fan favorites"--songs like"Jingle Bell Rock", "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Away In A Manger", and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree". One original I hope to see on the album is "Mary Had A Little Lamb". Brown wrote the song with his wife, recorded it with Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers in 2010, and pressed about 50 copies to sell at shows. They went quick. T. Graham had earlier said he wanted to re-record that one for the Christmas album and was hoping to have Fortune, Vince Gill, and Alison Krauss all join him on it this time (schedules permitting).
In addition to "It Ain't Christmas", T. Graham has a pair of holiday tracks recorded over a decade ago that turn up on various budget Various Artists compilations--"Jingle Bell Rock" and "Winter Wonderland".
One last piece of trivia for you. T. Graham's band is called--at their own request--The Mighty Rack of Spam. How can you not love that?
If you blow up this picture a little bit, you can see what the cover art might be and that the album title is "This Christmas" (not the new Nelson brothers original, silly. The Donny Hathaway track, obviously).
"This Christmas" from Danny Gokey is expected to include "White Christmas", "Mary Did You Know", and a Gokey original "Lift Up Your Eyes" (when I heard the title, I thought it might be Leeland's gorgeous worship anthem, "Lift Your Eyes Up"; oh, well, maybe he can do them both). And, obviously, a lot more. One persistent fan discovered (by digging through publishing records) that Danny has written (but not yet recorded) another original Christmas song--"Hey Santa". So....could be. Look for "This Christmas" in late October.
It might have sounded like a good idea in theory to release a Christmas EP each year for three years, but its possible it didn't seem so good in practice. While we don't yet know the fate of the originally expected third chapter of LeAnn Rimes Christmas trilogy, she did decide to do a full Christmas album this year. "One Christmas--Chapter Two" (or whatever she ends up calling it) is likely going to drop in late October. I could be wrong, but I figure a full album this year might mean no Christmas EP next year. That's the kind of gear change you do when you just want it over and done. FWIW, LeAnn says she's very proud of how it turned out.
We've listed the coming album from the former lead singer of Finnish Metal band Nightwish, even though it probably isn't really a proper holiday set. First of all, I love Tarja Turunen. And, second, I do consider "Ave Maria" a Christmas song. It took many years for me to realize there wasn't just one "Ave Maria" and many more years after that before I realized there weren't just two. Turns out there are over 400 different musical takes on "Ave Maria"--some using the traditional words of the prayer and others using a different text entirely. Tarja's coming album, "Ave Maria -- En Plein Air", features twelve unique visions of "Ave Maria" including one of her own. This is a Classical album, not a Rock one, so some longtime fans may want to take a pass. To be precise, this is Tarja's Classical album debut, though she was classically trained and many of her songs sound almost operatic. She is just an incredible vocalist, so I admit I'm curious to hear what she does on this one. The album is currently scheduled for a September 18 release and, unlike her other solo recordings, it looks like this one will get an immediate domestic release here in the states. Tarja did release a true Christmas album several years back, "Henkays Ikuisuudesta", and I, personally, loved it. That one isn't a Metal album, either, but it does include a fairly awesome cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", so there's that.
And there's no question that my favorite from Tarja's Christmas album is "You Would Have Loved This". It's definitely one of my Top Ten all time favorite holiday tracks and one that is a mandatory part of my personal Christmas playlist every year. Honest to God, I tear up almost immediately. Its such a beautiful song and it always puts me in mind of the people I've lost along the way, including Mom and Dad. And so that's what I'm closing with today.