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Cee Lo Green spreads yuletide magic. (Matthias Clamer) |
*** The Eastern Sea, "First Christmas" (Whitelab/Blacklab). The Austin, Texas, indie pop band fronted by singer-songwriter Matthew Hines pumps lots of rhythmic drive into peppy arrangements of 10 yuletide chestnuts and a pair of originals, the title track and "This Is Christmas." Imagination and humility are nicely balanced.
** Rita Coolidge “A Rita Coolidge Christmas” (429 Records). Coolidge’s dusky voice and soft-rock sensibility make for an excursion that’s easy on the ears—maybe too easy at times. Her low-key southern drawl and behind-the-beat phrasing help sustain interest given an overwhelmingly familiar song list, making her own contribution, “Circle of Light,” a welcome addition.
** 1/2 Mandisa, “It’s Christmas (Christmas Angel Edition)” (Sparrow). Glistening synths, shimmering choral support, popping bass lines, snappy backbeats and other trappings of contemporary gospel music infuse the fifth-season “American Idol” contestant’s holiday outing. Her lithe vocals are bigger on earnest enthusiasm than character. Includes a rare come-hither, slow-jam reading of “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
** Christina Perri, “A Very Merry Perri Christmas” (Atlantic). The “Jar of Hearts” songwriter and singer serves up modestly straightforward versions of the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling” and John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” on her five-song EP. Her own contribution, “Something About December,” is sweetly sentimental, and largely absent the melodrama of her career-making hit.
** 1/2 Earnest Pugh, “Christmas with Earnest Pugh & Friends” (EPM Music Group). The Memphis-based gospel singer enlists a cast seemingly of thousands on several tracks, playing fast and loose with melodies and rhythms in his quest to channel some real spirit. He succeeds more often than not, even over sometimes generic musical accompaniment.
** 1/2 Renee and Jeremy, “Sunny Christmas” (One Melody). This L.A.-based duo—Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback—makes children’s music and their thoroughly unassuming six-song EP lives up to the title. The chipper title track is accompanied by five secular holiday classics featuring Stahl and Toback’s winsome two- (and more-) part harmonies, reminiscent of She & Him.
** ½ The Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band, “A Fiddler’s Holiday” (Rounder). Ungar and Mason are the folkies behind “Ashokan Farewell,” which was featured prominently in Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” mini-series. Here they take the living-room folk approach to several originals and some off-the-beaten-path numbers that bring a fresh twist to the holiday genre. The use of an orchestra on several songs, presumably to flesh out the sound, sometimes overwhelms the simple charms of this band’s old-timey string band music.
** 1/2 Phil Vassar, “Noel” (Rodeowave). It’s admirable when any musician tries to add to the already voluminous canon of holiday songs, so this established Nashville writer and musician gets points for breaking up the well-trod classics with four new ones. The best is “Big Ol’ Texas Christmas” a lithe swing number he sings with Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, saluting the Lone Star State in everyone.
** 1/2 Edie Adams, “The Edie Adams Christmas Album” (Omnivore). The holiday selections crooned by the ‘50s and ‘60s pop siren, TV and stage star and showroom entertainer are drawn from December 1952 recordings of her appearances with comedian Ernie Kovacs on his “Kovacs Unlimited” TV show. She’s got a persuasive way with a song, and Kovacs chimes in on three. A period piece, in glorious monophonic sound, that her fans should treasure.
** Laurie Berkner, “A Laurie Berkner Christmas” (Razor & Tie). This veteran children’s entertainer brings sweetness and verve but not much interpretive panache to 15 holiday tunes that seem targeted to the preschool through second grade crowd.
*** The Sweetback Sisters, “The Sweetback Sisters’ Country Christmas Singalong Spectacular” (Signature Sounds). Swinging roots country of Brooklyn—OK, why not? Non-sibling singers Emily Miller and Zara Bode blend beautifully on a sprightly set of twanged-out tinsel tunes.
** Rick Braun, “Swingin’ in the Snow” (Brontosaurus Music). The jazz-pop trumpeter, singer and arranger is so smooth as a vocalist he sometimes comes off as Slick Rick on these 10 holiday staples. In many cases the big-band arrangements—many by Braun, solo or with collaborators--are the most interesting aspect of tunes handled more definitively by others.
Follow Randy Lewis on Twitter: @RandyLewis2