From the Spanish Inquisition to that overblown Mel Gibson S&M flick, countless atrocities have been committed throughout the ages in the name of baby Jesus. And a great many of them have been set to music. Aren't the holidays stressful enough without being subjected to that tiresome dirge "Little Drummer Boy" every time you set foot in a shopping center?
Nevertheless, every year there is a small clutch of artists who manage to bring something new or inspiring to the Christmas-carol canon. For every hackneyed holiday cash-in like Kenny Chesney's All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan, there are noteworthy noels like Tammy Wynette's ham-fisted "Let's Put Christ Back into Christmas" (with a lyric requiring the First Lady of Country to pronounce the silent "t" in Christmas), or the charming 2003 seven-song CD Happy Holidays From: Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, which features the best rendition ever of John Denver's "Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk this Christmas)."
Discriminating Christmas-music fans in the Seattle area have two opportunities to enjoy songs of the season this week. First up, on Sunday, December 18 at Chop Suey, a host of singer-songwriters and indie acts will come together for A Very Merry Home Alive, a holiday-themed fundraiser to benefit battered women. The bill features Heather Duby (who is dropping a new album come January 2006), Some by Sea, Aaron Sprinkle, Argo, Key Note Speaker, and Sera Cahoone, plus others.
Although Cahoone says her primary motivation for signing on was to help Home Alive, she was also intrigued by the program's parameters. "I've never played a show where I had to sing carols, so it seems like a fun time," she says. Still, Sera didn't feel compelled to compose any holiday originals for the event. "I have enough trouble writing my own damn songs without trying to write a Christmas one." As for her set list... well, that's a mystery. "I'll be playing one tragic Christmas song that involves a reindeer hit-and-run accident, and one that will bring out the honky-tonk in everyone," she hints.
Dan Hicks is almost as seasoned a purveyor of Christmas music as Bing Crosby at this point. Although the singer-guitarist is best known as the leader of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, who have been around since 1968, he was also instrumental in the birth of the Christmas Jug Band in the 1980s. That ensemble would go on to record four albums that threw elements of western swing, alt-country, and blues into the wassail bowl.
From Tuesday, Dec 20 through Thursday, Dec 22, the Triple Door will be filled with the sound of Hicks's 2005 seasonal revue "Holidaze in Hicksville." Years past have seen Hot Licks' holiday hootenannies include their rendition of Buck Owens's "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" alongside originals like "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit." But don't worry about an overdose of seasonal sentiments; the West Coast lord of jive and jazz sprinkles plenty of nonholiday music throughout the show, too. Thank Christ.
