Disc sampling: Music choices bountiful this holiday season

Randy Martin

Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001 | 8:48 a.m.

It's the holiday time again and with it comes the latest spate of new Christmas CDs. This year B.B. King tops the list with a long-awaited disc full of blues surprises.

Also kicking up a lot of dust are a pair of female artists Deana Carter and Suzy Bogguss known for their commercial country work on Nashville labels, artists who have gone indie and come up so much the better.

Also on the racks are a few great surprises, including an album from the Sincere Ramblers that veers off into Brubeckian improv. And in keeping up with technology, both major labels and total unknowns are making special holiday work available on the Internet for free.

So after scouring the bins at your favorite record shop or putting that new CD-ROM burner to work, kick back with a warm mug of apple cider and get ready for some auditory ecstasy.

"A Christmas Celebration of Hope," B.B. King

At the age when most of his peers began to slow down, King keeps right on working. And unless King is as good an actor as he is a singer and guitarist, he still appears to be having the time of his life.

Seen recently in concert in Canada, the 76-year-old King divides his show into three segments. First there's the warm-up where King comes on as showman and host with a large, tight band.

Next comes King the singer with amazing pipes, sweet and soulful, down deep with bass notes and mighty growls. Then comes the serious music segment where King shows why he is respected as one of the living masters of the blues, guitar picking, stretching and stinging with delicious sustain.

King's new album, "A Christmas Celebration Of Hope," is much similar to his shows. There are warm and homey moments on such chestnuts as "Merry Christmas Baby," a bit of raunchy blues on "Back Door Santa," and some fine instrumentals to boot.

"Christmas," Sincere Ramblers

Mississippi's Sincere Ramblers may look like your ordinary bluegrass quartet but they pack a few more surprises. Bluegrass is just the launch pad for this collection of acoustic tunes that draws from such disparate sources as ninth-century Latin texts, 18th century German carols and a version of "Blue Christmas" that would make Hank Williams proud.

With 11 musical stops along its way the Ramblers -- Wendell Haag (guitar), Bryan Ledford (banjo/guitar/mandolin), Dave Woolworth (bass) and Caroline Herring (guitarist/mandolinst) -- split up the vocals. Musically the Sincere Ramblers know few bounds drawing from bluegrass, folk and country. And while this approach serves as backing on some numbers, others such as the instrumental "We Three Kings of Orient Are" start out sounding traditional and then blast off into "Take Five" territory.

"A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night," 38 Special

What a letdown it is to find that 38 Special sleepwalks its way through more then two-thirds of this new release, especially following the band's spirited guest spots on labelmates Lynyrd Skynyrd's 2000. Christmas album. With that disclaimer, it's best to program your CD player to skip right to track No. 4, "Hallelujah It's Christmas," where the band cranks up a Southern boogie barrage for a brief, three-song stretch that peters out after the lively title track.

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," Suzy Bogguss

Long ousted from the ranks of the major country labels, Suzy Bogguss goes indie with her own Loyal Dutchess label and turns in what is probably the best release of her career. How can a mediocre, squeaky clean, fashion plate such as Bogguss come back with such a gem? Hard to say. But one cold speculate that the pressure to produce hits on a major label caused her to turn in made-by-committee volumes that didn't represent her true talent.

That's not the case here, with the first surprise being that Bogguss can really sing and she does so with supple, beguiling finesse. Sure this disc is packed full of the usual suspects from the title track to "Rudolph" and "Jingle Bells." But for the first time, Bogguss proves to be the piper in charge putting a unexpected lift into "Two-Step 'Round the Christmas Tree" with a smile here and a dab of her own stylistic magic in just the right place. And, of course, the duet with country blues belter Delbert McClinton on "Baby It's Cold Outside" don't hurt none neither.

"Father Christmas," Deana Carter

Having already proved legitimacy with multi-platinum sales, Deana Carter, similar to Bogguss, goes indie with her own Deanatone label and a first Christmas album, "Father Christmas." It's an entirely different soundscape than either of Carter's best-selling albums for Capitol Nashville and features just her voice (often multitracked) with the acoustic-guitar playing of her father Fred Carter, Jr., a longtime Nashville session musician.

The songs are at once familiar, if overly so: "I'll Be Home For Christmas," "Silent Night," etc. The simple contexts the Carters put them in, however, makes everything fresh from the little girl quality of Deana's voice to her father's stylings that range from silky string stroking to songs with rip-it-up, rockabilly underpinnings. Both are showcased at their finest on the sole Fred Carter-penned tune "Johnny's Snowman." With this album as a teaser, one can only hope there's a volume two or a solo album from Fred in the offing.

"Our Favorite Things," Tony Bennett, Charlotte Church, Placido Domingo, Vanessa Williams

Four famous faces on the CD cover should get the registers ringing, but what a weird combination of talent this project draws together. Domingo attempting to "go cabaret" doesn't work, so skip his "Jesus De Nazareth."

Likewise whenever screechy Church comes on it's best to skip forward a track. Pairing Domingo with Williams, who fight each other for control on "I Saw Three Ships," is simply ludicrous: She sounds soulful while he huffs and bellows. This should remind everyone involved that opera singers, in accordance with their training, need fewer words and more space to sing them.

But before you use this silvery disc for target practice, bounce around to the Bennett and Williams solo stuff and their duets. That, backed by Bennett's venerable Ralph Sharon Quartet and the Vienna Symphony, is where the good stuff, and our favorite things on this disc are.

"Slaid Cleaves' Holiday Sampler"

Somewhere between the pumpkin patch and the Christmas tree singer/songwriter Slaid Cleaves of Austin, Texas, has cooked up a five-song EP with autumnal sentiments. He presents these to us, from the cover, as a box of chocolate creams. But that's a bit deceptive as the filings found inside are more somber. Things start out with a rousing twist on "Monster In Law" and the bouncy "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch." But the real Cleaves is much more contemplative and quickly surfaces on the melancholy "November Skies," and the simple, "You Don't Have To Tell Me" that says enough with just voice and steel.

"Christmas ... Just Remember," Fred Hammond

Pure gospel is singer Fred Hammond's goal on this most pious of holiday releases. A large man with a large, rough voice, Hammond sounds best when his songs are fleshed out with a full band and choir. Would that there were more of it on this record that tries too casts it net too into R&B, new age and hip hop. Those tracks sound overly processed and devoid of the spirit that jumps out when Hammond lets loose on the straight-ahead stuff such as "Go Gabriel" and "We Sing Glory."

Freebies:

Here's a twist: free Christmas music on the web from James Taylor. Simply surf on over to windowmedia.com to hear Taylor sing a streaming version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." It's a listen-only situation that cannot be downloaded, which Taylor recorded with guitarist John Pizzarelli and drummer Steve Gadd last spring.

Even more generous are the folks at fightcloud.com, who are making the entire album "My New England Town" free to all for downloading. It's not the hippest thing on the net, but Orange County, Calif., musicians Glenn Scott Lacey and Rick Juethe, joined by singers Brooke Ramel and Jason Joseph, at least have their supper club and studio hearts in the right places.

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