The Brantley Family Band have released their annual Christmas album. I've been looking forward to this one for quite a while now, and it does not disappoint. This year's release has four songs:
- " I Wish You a Merry Christmas". As far as I can tell, this one is an original. It's very upbeat, playful, and humorous.
- "Little Saint Nick". My initial reaction to this song was that it sounds like the Beach Boys; a quick check on Google for some of the lyrics revealed that it IS actually a Beach Boys song, so I think it must be quite well done. The vocal harmonies are great.
- "Christmas Time is Here". I never know if these guys are going to throw a disco metal breakdown or something into the middle of a song, so my first listen is always on the cautious side. This one turns out to be a straight cover of the beloved song from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and it's very well done.
- "White Christmas". A little bit of genre hopping in this one, going from a country sound for about the first two thirds of the song (including a very nice steel guitar section), and concluding with a headbanging rock outro.
In case you haven't heard of the Brantley Family Band before (I only found out about them last year), they've been releasing a little Christmas album every year since 2004. Fortunately, all of the past albums are still available from their website - in fact, you can download their entire discography in one big zip file. I really think that this is turning into (or perhaps already is) one of the best collections of Christmas music on the Internet. The mix of moods (e.g. straight up vs. humorous), sources (traditional Christmas carols, modern classics, obscure novelty songs, originals), and genres (just about everything, sometimes within the same song) make it an essential resource for anyone who loves Christmas music.
Happy listening!
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