Blues Blues Christmas 4 / Various

Volume 4 of the acclaimed Blue, Blues Christmas series from Document Records has been heaped with praise. "Blues, Blues Christmas Vol. 4" makes for a Merry Merry Christmas. I had the other 3 volumes of this series and this one just might be the best yet. Some real obscurities on here, from a wide range of American roots music traditions. A lot of great tunes played by energetic performers. Audio quality is darn good as well. Highly recommend" (Amazon Review). Once again Document dives dive deep into the well of Christmas music to gather some holiday gems from decades past. They continue to be progressively more ambitious in their selections, jumping between genres that include blues, gospel, jazz, rock, doo-wop and calypso recorded between the 1920's through the 1960's, many songs which have not been anthologized before. There are firm favourites like "White Christmas" from The Drifters, to Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer - from Cadillacs. There is, arguably, the first Christmas Blues on record to exciting obscurities from the like of The Qualities (an early incarnation of the legendary Sun Ra) and The Heartbeats. Calypso looms large in the collection putting a Caribbean slant on the Season with, favourites and obscurities alike from names such as Lord Executor, Sam Manning with The Melodettes - Felix Crazy Cats and The Mighty Spoiler. Vintage Country and Old timey fiddlers are here too with seasonal selections to get those feet tapping as you swig the Egg-Nog. Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without sublime gospel, and we have plenty of that too in the form of The Golden Gate Quartet, Middle Georgia Four and the swinging sounds of the wonderful Ward Sisters. No wonder these volumes are so popular with music lovers of all tastes. Armed with all four volumes the hours of music will be more than enough to fuel your next holiday bash.