![]() MaCall's '70s trucking opus, "Convoy."Įver since the Hendrix estate finally (and deservedly) obtained the rights to their son Jimi's catalog a few years ago, the late guitarist's section in your local music store has been ever-expanding with previously unreleased live material and other lost treasures. I swear to God when I first heard it I thought she was doing the spoken word intro to C.W. On the other hand, Pam and Dodi's "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" is unintentionally hilarious and laughably awful, and Cherokee's hip-hop flava'd take on "Little Drummer Boy" is misguided at best. Jesse Powell's hauntingly sparse "O Holy Night" is a fine addition to the collection as well. Blige's "Someday at Christmas" sounds especially winning in context, as she's one of the few performers here who doesn't feel the need to completely over-sing her part, cooing subtly instead over a shuffling hip-hop beat. Highlights include Rahsaan Patterson's "Christmas At My House," which comes off as more of a supersexy slow jam - and a damn good one, too - than a Christmas tune and Mary J. One of the more mainstream discs to pop up in my mailbox is the generically titled My Christmas Album (MCA), a collection of traditional and original tunes (I don't seem to recall Perry Como doing a version of "Christmas Came to the Ghetto" on any of his Christmas specials) from R&B veterans ( Patti LaBelle, who's never sounded so annoying as she does here, and Gladys Knight) and new-schoolers ( K-Ci & JoJo, Mary J. A little sample of what the record store bins are offering this year: And this year's bounty offers up a little something for all, a holiday soundtrack for every family, no matter how dysfunctional that family might be. To this day, I still think the Bing Crosby/David Bowie version of "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" stands as one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded. (That's right, Virginia, some of us grow up without a single Christmas record in the house). But I use this true anecdote as my credentials: When I was probably 5 years old, I actually cried myself to sleep on Christmas night because I was so sad that it would be a whole year before I got to hear "Little Drummer Boy" again. ![]() ![]() I know what you're thinking: Why in the world would they get a Jew to write about Christmas music? (In case you hadn't noticed, the market isn't exactly flooded with Hanukkah albums). HEAR FOR THE HOLIDAYS: It's time again for our annual Holiday Album Round-Up, whereby I pore over all the new seasonal releases (or at least the free ones bestowed upon me by the record labels - y'know the season of giving and all that), and report to you, dear reader, which ones are worth blowing 15 bucks on.
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