A CHRISTMAS GARLAND Debbie Wileman (The Stander Group) ****
A different idea for a Christmas album. A Christmas Garland is Judy Garland impersonator Debbie Wileman imagining a holiday album that Garland herself never had a chance to make. It’s a mixture of nostalgia and warmth made to snuggle an icy Grinch-like heart like yours truly.
There are a pile of reasons I don’t really like Christmas that I won’t bore you with, but I still respond to the music that reminds me of the season when I was a kid, and A Christmas Garland covers that with some Broadway-style razzle dazzle. Wileman has Judy’s vocal mannerisms down to a T including that dramatic vibrato. “It’s always been surprising and a little disappointing that Judy never recorded a full Christmas album” she says. Creating this record was my chance to imagine what it might’ve sounded like, and to bring Judy’s magic to some of the more modern Christmas favorites that she never got to sing.”
The album is a mix of classic and more contemporary Christmas tunes, backed by lush orchestrations. Contemporary covers include Wham’s Last Christmas and Maria Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You with a sort of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy feel to it; I much prefer Debbie’s version. Garland was produced by Scott Stander with orchestrations by Steve Orich (the arranger behind Broadway’s Jersey Boys album) and the overall sound is luscious.
Ignoring the crass commercial greed binge that Christmas seems to have become, for us baby boomers it’s the nostalgic holiday music that helps bring back our fondest memories of massive holiday dinners and frantic Christmas mornings tearing open gifts under the tree. My small Christmas music library includes A Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas With the Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Burl Ives and Kenny & Dolly’s Once Upon A Christmas… so you can imagine A Christmas Garland fits in there well. This album isa available on all major streaming platforms.
https://www.scottstander.com/debbie-wileman.html
HOT TRACKS: All I Want For Christmas Is You, Last Christmas, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
MERRY, HAPPY, WHATEVER EP The Doohickies (40 Below Records) ****
If you want another traditional Christmas album, this isn’t it. Merry, Happy Whatever The Doo Hickies is a duo featuring Haley Spence Brown and Jack Hackett who, upon becoming tired of the holiday classics many of us love, decided the world needs more Christmas music. If you like country and have a sense of humour about this time of year, I’ve got something for you.
MHW is just 5 tracks with a joyous, irreverent spin that addresses this economically stressful time of year. With songs like Santa Needs A Beer, Put It On Credit and Santa Is A Stoner you gotta wonder if they have any Bing Crosby in their holiday collection. The songs are cheeky, the arrangements and production are faithful 70’s-style country, and as a singer Haley sounds a lot like Dolly, while Jack’s voice mixes with hers very naturally. Put up against more traditional holiday fare, this is refreshing.
If you don’t like country music Merry Happy Whatever might not connect with you and it doesn’t jibe with the more serious, heartfelt music we hear from shopping mall speakers at this time of year. HOWEVER… these songs are well-written, well-sung, well-played and offer a far less than serious message than, say White Christmas, and I think that’s the point. It’s festive, funny and a little bit naughty- a great stocking stuff.
https://www.thedoohickeysband.com/
HOT TRACKS: Put It On Credit, Santa Is A Stoner
FIRE & SOLITUDE EP Mercedes Nicole (independent) *****
Here is some holiday music to put a little starch in your stocking, to throw on when you and your significant other are in the mood to saw one off under the tree. Christmas music for making out? I’m not kidding. Fire & Solitude is short at just 4 songs, but Mercedes’ silky, sultry voice brings special meaning to the Yuletide season.
I have a couple of Ms. Nicole’s blues albums, and Fire & Solitude fits with what I was hoping to hear… that sultry, supple voice over some easy going blues grooves. She has a crack band in the studio with her that make the tunes sound effortless. It was recorded and mixed at David Lange’s, Bliss Studio and Spae Studio, and mastered at Ross Nyberg Mastering in Seattle. Like I said before there are only 4 songs, but Mercedes and her guys let them unfold at a leisurely pace. 3 of them are just over 5 minutes long, with the best version of Merry Christmas Baby coming in at 8:29. The other cover tune is Please Come Home For Christmas and 2 of Nicole’s originals complete the EP with the elegance and charm to stand next to those classics.
I don’t go looking for Christmas music but as an album reviewer it seems to find me every year, and this is one collection that really knocks my socks off. Get ahold of Mercedes Nicole’s Fire & Solitude and have yourself a very sexy Christmas.
HOT TRACKS: Merry Christmas Baby, Close
THE RIDE OR DIE OF… Dude Cervantes & The Panchos (Blind Owl Records) ***+
Here is some live guitar driven rock & roll. It’s another EP at just 6 tracks, but The Ride Or Die of Dude Cervantes & The Panchos is the reckless kind of stuff that Crazy Horse fans have been into for decades. It ain’t pretty but it’s mix of soulful and grungy elements that’s got attitude and swagger to spare. No halfway with this one… you’ll either dig it or not.
The members of his band are a clue as to what you can expect from The Ride Or Die; guitarist Dylan Donovan from the psych-rock band Sacri-Monte, Justin De La Vega from the punk/ metal trio Warish, and bassist Ryan Grenda. This EP has a raw energy that’s hard to resist, and a surprising cover of the Santana instrumental Samba Pa Ti rivals the appeal of the original, and I friggin’ love the original. Of this take it’s said that the guitars of Donovan and Cervantes are “like a soaring mescaline journey, while the rhythm section anchors with the complexities of Latin syncopation.” Further, Dude & The Panchos are compared to Los Lobos in the way that they combine their roots rock sensibilities with introspective lyrics.
Magazines like Rolling Stone say that Cervantes “oozes rock & roll swagger and few use it better”, and with that thought in mind you gotta admit you’re intrigued. A lot of Ride Or Die goes at 90 miles an hour as it heads straight for the wall but Billion Dollar Art which closes out the disc is a song of surprising depth and complexity, particularly given the 5 tracks I listened to before it. Surprising, challenging and ultimately rewarding, full of heart and soul and real on-the-edge-musicianship, The Ride Or Die Of Dude Cervantes & The Panchos is a life lesson in what real gut instinct rock & roll is all about.
HOT TRACKS: Billion Dollar Art, Samba Pa Ti
JUST A LITTLE MORE TIME Greg Nagy (independent) ****
Smooth, soulful and blue… that’s Just A Little More Time, the latest from Greg Nagy. More than just blues this is an appetizing mix of R&B, rock, gospel and soul. His voice is warm and inviting, occasionally sounding like the late Doug Bennett of Doug & The Slugs, his guitar playing elegant and expressive, but when he rocks out on a cut like Between The Darkness & The Light man, he really cuts loose. This is darnn good stuff.
Nagy can count people like Duke Robillard as a fan, so you know he’s doing something right. His debut solo release (Walk That Fine Thin Line) earned him a “best new artist” nomination from The Blues Foundation in Memphis as well as favorable reviews from hard-to-please big city critics. The Real You from last year, his last solo album before this one, caused Robillard to gush “The Real You is an R&B classic! All top notch performances and tunes, and what a soulful voice!” No doubt the new album is going to generate similar reactions.
There are too many musicians involved with Just A Little More Time to mention by name (18), but I can tell you the disc was produced by Greg Nagy with Josh Ford, who also engineered and helped Greg with mixing. The sound is warm, articulate and spacious, and the album is roughly half covers including classics I’m sure you know such as Rainy Night In Georgia, I’m In The Mood and a surprisingly effective rendition of Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed. There’s a sort of economy to the playing here, not minimalist exactly but nobody tries to overwhelm a song with theatrics or flashy solo runs. Everybody knows their place, and that’s so satisfying.
Even though Just A Little More Time is filed in the “blues” section of my album collection, it’s more truthful to call it soul/ light R&B. Lots of good stuff to chill to here, that’s for sure.
HOT TRACKS: Between the Darkness & The Light, Only Women Bleed, Rainy Night In Georgia
RECKLESS ABANDON VOL. II Orphan Jon & The Abandoned (Vintage LaNell Records) ****+
Some bands are at their best on stage, and despite my affection for Orphan Jon’s last studio record, I’d say the same is true for Jon and his crew here too. Much of the band’s popularity stems from their first live album recorded in November 2022, and so the label decided Reckless Abandon Vol. II was a good idea; and they were right. Shows recorded on 9/2/23 and 5/18/24, and this is the first album from those nights and it’s is some mighty fine rockin’ blues.
RAV II was recorded at a place the band calls home, The Red Shed in Hutchinson Kansas, 50 miles northwest of Wichita. With the success of their first live record from ’22 being recorded there, it was a savvy move. You can hear the audience having a good time but unlike, say, Kiss’s Alive the emphasis here is on the music. You can hear the band having fun too, it shows in the looseness of their playing, relaxed but never sloppy. They’re joined here and there by friends like Nick Schnebelen, Kris Lager, Eric “Dirty Red” McDaniels, O’Shaya Adams and Emmett DeWater. There’s some great guitar playing here for sure roaring over a nimble rhythm section and some blues-tastic Hammond B3 work too.
Most of the songs on Reckless Abandon are originals, but tasty covers include Clapton’s She’s Gone, Gary Clark Jr’s Bright Lights and the blues classic King Bee which features Dirty Red on vocals, but aside from that song the best tracks on the record are Orphan Jon originals. It was a live show and in those cases you gotta keep the crowd on their feet and dancing, and I’m certain Orphan Jon & The Abandoned have little trouble doing exactly that. Some consider the blues downer music, but Reckless Abandon Vol. II is about as lively and electric as it gets… wish I’d been there.
HOT TRACKS: Tight Dress, Sombrero Safari, King Bee
