Well, the holiday season is here again and that brings with it a plethora of Christmas music \u2013 everything from Michael Buble and the Carpenters to Perry Como and Blake Shelton. For those of you like me who get tired of the same ol\u2019 saccharine crap year in, year out, there are some alternatives. This record is one of the best of them.<\/p>\n
Beginning with the always-beautiful voice of Katharine Whalen singing \u201cWinter Weather,\u201d you know you\u2019re in for a real treat. Tom Maxwell ended up contributing two of the album\u2019s most stirring tracks. The first, \u201cA Johnny Ace Christmas,\u201d tells the true tale of R&B singer Johnny Ace who killed himself playing Russian roulette backstage at a Christmas Eve show in 1954. It\u2019s dark, heavy stuff for a Christmas record, but with Whalen\u2019s vocals leading the way, the song adds an eerie, less than stellar vibe to an otherwise cheery and holiday-ready collection. The second song \u201cMy Evergreen\u201d has long been a favorite of mine and is always a song I recommend to people looking for that different type of Christmas track. It\u2019s just so beautiful and moving; it\u2019s a song you will run back to over and over again.<\/p>\n
Other tracks, however, like the instrumental \u201cSleigh Ride\u201d and \u201cIndian Giver,\u201d never really seem to find their rhythm and don\u2019t work as well as something unique like \u201cCarolina Christmas.\u201d But the strengths on this record more than outweigh the weaknesses. Closing out the disc is a song written by the drummer\u2019s grandfather. \u201cHanging Up My Stockings\u201d is a great throwback to Christmases of one\u2019s youth, capturing all the excitement and activity surrounding Santa\u2019s arrival. It\u2019s a great track with loads of energy, great musicianship, and an all-around really, warm holiday vibe. There\u2019s even a special bonus track buried at the end of the track, so you need to keep your ears tuned to really enjoy it.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, this ended up being the last record done by the \u2018classic\u2019 version of the band, and for longtime fans like myself, it\u2019s something to cling to. For those who like their holiday music just a bit on the different side, then this is definitely the disc for you. Put down the Brian Setzer Orchestra and pick up something fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":32934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6381],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44708","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-squirrel-nut-zippers","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44708"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44708"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}