Observations From The Forefront-Christmas

I really haven't been much in a blogging mood lately. Some family issues, work issues and the typical crap we call December in Iowa, snow, cold and more snow cold and being sick didn't help things at all. Just not in a Christmas mood although I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music of late but not the overplayed stuff you hear on the radio. For some odd reason i did went out and buy REO Speedwagon-Not So Merry Christmas (Legacy/CMG) and if you like your songs Croninized, which means a lotta "alright" or Whoo and the melodrama that Kevin Cronin brings to this stuff. I did give up on REO in the 80's but their last album Find Your Way Home actually rocked a lot harder and so being the compulsive obsessive that I am bought the Christmas album. My favorite song wasn't none of the Cronin led stuff but rather Bruce Hall's country take on Blue Christmas. The odd thing is that REO has their most stable lineup, with only one person leaving but Cronin, Neal Doughery, Bruce Hall with Dave Amato and Bryan Hitt have been together for 20 years. Christmas albums are hit and miss, and I suspect Not So Merry Christmas would be a miss for me, however Kevin Cronin ends the record with a nice original I Still Believe In Santa Claus, which is on the reissue of NSMC and not the 2009 CD. So seek carefully.

Some interesting cutouts found were Christmas Greetings from Studio One (Heartbeat 2002) a hodgepodge collection of new and old reggae tunes. This is the followup to 1992's Studio One A Reggae Christmas, the original was better, the new tunes rely too much on casino keyboards and disco drums but when they go back to original ska songs from Toots & The Maytals and a White Christmas from Bob Marley & The Wailers you get the true Jamaica spirit and sound, even though I'm sure Jamaica never had a White Christmas like we do up here. Dan Fogelberg's 1999 The First Christmas Morning (Chicago/Morning Sky) sounds nice in the car on the way home from work and while I think people tend to rake him over the coals for his mellow music, Fogelberg has really sounded better with age. Or maybe I'm tired of what KDAT sticks down our throat.

I think the best Christmas albums for me remain The Ventures Christmas Album (Razor & Tie) or Christmas Party with Eddie G (Columbia 1990), a collection of obscure and different types of christmas music. When somebody puts together forgotten yuletide songs from the likes of Foghat, Fabulous Thunderbirds, NRBQ, Louis Prima, George and Tammy and my fave Cool Yule by Tony Rodelle Lawson. And there's comedy bits from Billy West (Futurerama, Ren & Stempy) as well. Thankfully I found a cheap copy at Amazon before it went out of print and cheap copies now cost about 20 bucks. Yuletunes (Black Vinyl 1990) is a collection of alt rock christmas songs that I found for 2 bucks that Crowded Closet in Iowa City and features power pop bands such as Shoes, Material Issue, Matthew Sweet and Madison's very own Spooner (Butch Vig who produce some band called Nirvana) doing their own christmas comps. I kinda hoped I could find Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper on CD but maybe we'll get that next year if we find it.

Other note worthy albums was Dave Allen & The Arrows Fuzz For The Holidays (Wicked Cool 2007), somewhat more in tune with Dave Hoey and loud guitar rather than the cool swing of The Ventures and tends to wear out its welcome very quick. Ben Keith-Seven Gates (Reprise 1994) is a all star record with the likes of Neil Young and Johnny Cash dueting on Little Drummer Boy. Keith who passed away earlier this year adds a nice slide steel to Silver Bells, Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Away In A Manger although my favorite of that album is Rusty Kershaw's out of tune vocal on Christmas Time's A Coming. Neil Young reissued this in 2008 on his own Vapor Label and retitled it Christmas At The Ranch.

So the forecast is supposed to be more snow Monday and Tuesday and we'll probably screwed out of seeing the lunar eclipse on the Full Moon in the process. I haven't done much christmas shopping this month, been sick most of last week and being stuck in Packaging most of the month has really zapped my energy in doing anything. I was really hoping this month we actually would break tradition and have a dry and warm December so that when my GF finally got down here we can go site seeing. She'll be here on Christmas day. It's supposed to snow again on Thursday and Friday. I figure she'll be occupying most of my time so won't be doing much blogging when she's here.

So that's the news right now. The Best Of 2010 blog has gotten over 100 views this month, the first blog that actually did top the century mark and much thanks go out to those who read it.