Jingle Blues

1998 House of Blues/ Platinum Entertainment Release 1 Boogie Woogie Santa Claus 2 Santa’s Messin’ With The Kid 3 Santa Claus, Santa Claus 4 Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ 5 Santa 6 Empty Stocking Blues 7 Santa, Don’t Let Me Down 8 Let’s Make Christmas Merry, Baby 9 Christmas Celebration 10 Blues For Christmas 11I Want To Spend Christmas With You 12 Sam’s Christmas Blues 13 At The Christmas Ball 14 How I Hate To See Christmas Come Around 15 Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues OFR1 Blues JingleIt’s not often you get to hear Mabel Scott wail “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” and Bessie Smith pour it all out on “At the Christmas Ball” alongside Lightnin’ Hopkins’s blistering “Santa” or Amos Milburn’s classic “Let’s Make Christmas Merry, Baby,” but that’s the mile-wide shape of this good-times, 15-track compilation. Swingin’ Louis Jordan is likewise featured on “Santa Claus, Santa Claus,” while Kings Albert and B. B., John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Weatherspoon, and Lowell Fulson sharpen their axes for a mess of Christmas blues. Also included are cuts by Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, Floyd Dixon, and Eddie C. Campbell, whose “Santa’s Messin’ with the Kid” is as funny as it is rockin’. A fantastic showcase for blues guitar and vocals, this album should please any blues fan in your house. –Martin Keller