If you’re like a lot of people going into this holiday season, you might be looking for some new music to listen to are tired of the same old tunes, but also are worried that maybe the music you choose might not be “Doug Perkins / JGS Approved” with a “High Enough Holiday Hipness Quotient”.
Well, fear no more, because here’s your “High Enough Holiday Hipness Quotient Song Shopping List For 2023”. All of the following are from my personal iTunes holiday playlists, and that means that you can be sure that it will please the all Daddio-s and the Dudette’s in your musical entertaining needs.
Since this is a guitar oriented site, I will start with my recommendations for the groovy guitar type music, but will include many other styles as well – and if what you really want is to get better at guitar, you also might want to go here to sample the many amazing Guitar Masterclass video lessons we offer here: Use the code “JGS Christmas 2023” for a 10% discount available for all December 2023!
Click on images for links:
Cool Yule Guitar CDS:
The first one is for all the fusion fans out there, and is a great CD from Steve Lukather And Friends, the guitarist for Toto on the rocking, funking and jazzing “Santamental” – great playing from Steve and all of friends and very cool arrangements as well:
Looking for a snazzy retro-Christmas vibe: How about The Brian Setzer Orchestra giving you a rockabilly Christmas with “Christmas Rocks! – The Best of Collection” – I have it on CD and it looks to be just for streaming now, but this is a great collection of tunes:
Did you ever wonder what it might sound like if the Beatles had recorded your all of your holiday favorite tunes in their unique MerseyBeat style? Well this is the next best thing, the fabulous: The Fab Four: Hark! (Classic Christmas Songs Performed In a Beatles Style) You’ll hear voices that are as close to the original as you can get, and lots of little tidbits from Beatle songs woven into them, and you can all have fun figuring out what songs there are quoting and where:
Jazzy Christmas Sounds:
Here’s a sort of retro jazz collection including the likes of Chet Baker and Dianne Reeves and many more: Various Artists: Yule Struttin’ A Blue Note Christmas:
Folky & Pop Christmas:
“James Taylor – A Christmas Album” is probably my all time favorite Christmas CD, and it also features the great guitar of Mike Landau as well as the keyboard genius Larry Goldings of John Scofield fame:
Shawn Colvin: Holiday Songs and Lullabies
This is my SECOND favorite Christmas CD, because Shawn has such a great voice and besides the tradition tunes there’s some great originals from here and the great arranging and guitar etc playing of her producer John Leventhal:
And for those whose tastes run to the off beat “Far Side” of humor and music; there’s his fake “musical personality” which I would say is basically a patchwork of every truly terrible singer he’s ever had to back as he was coming up “Johnny BowTie Barstow”. This is one of those “you either love it or your hate it” kinds of things: If you just hate someone doing their impression of a uniquely terrible singer, then it’s not for you – but if you find a perfectly constantly moving through 1/4 keys vocal pitch that comes in wrong at the most hilarious places, you will be amazed at this. I used to put this on at parties after they’d been going on a few hours and there’s mostly musicians left, and watch everyone’s faces as they figure out that “it’s supposed to sound like that” and start to cry laughing – and there are tunes that aren’t Christmas songs here, and my all-time favorite is his “Girl From Ipanema” – word’s can’t describe it, you have to hear it to get it 🙂
Don’t say I didn’t warn you – here’s : Johnny “BowTie” Barstow: “A Bowtie Christmas”
So that’s it, whatever you listen to, I hope you’ve enjoyed the “High Enough Holiday Hipness Quotient Song Shopping List For 2023” – having a swingin’ Holiday, all you Cats & Kittens 🙂
Doug Perkins