Bozo Mark's Hot Picks In The CD Player For December

I start playing Xmas albums the day after Thanksgiving, and stop on New Year's Day. Each year, as I listen to all the great holiday music, I think, "Why don't I listen to any of these CDs any other time of the year? This is fabulous stuff, and I could pop it in the machine in July...why not? Maybe this year I will..." Of course, I never do. Thanksgiving to New Year's, that's it, enjoy it while it lasts.

1. The Blue Hawaiians

Christmas On The Big Island

Restless

The Ventures meet Don Ho. This is pretty wild stuff, and far from the madding crowd of the regular Xmas fare. Probably not for your mom or Aunt Tilda. Needless to say, we spin this one almost daily...

2. The Chieftains

The Bells Of Dublin

RCA

Lovely. Numerous - and interesting - guest artists, including the McGarrigles, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Burgess Meredith (!), and Marianne Faithfull. Costello's St. Stephen's Day Murders and Browne's The Rebel Jesus are as good as anything they've ever done.

3. Various Artists

A GRP Christmas Collection, Vols. 1 & 2

GRP

A decidedly mixed bag, but with more candies than coals. Volume 2 is perhaps more interesting, if for no other reason than the idiosyncratic repertoire - all the expected tunes were used up on Volume 1.

4. Michael Martin Murphey

Cowboy Christmas

Warner Bros

This is Volume 2 of Murphey's three-volume Cowboy Songs series. It features cowboy poetry by Waddie Mitchell and very nice traditional country/bluegrass arrangements - no new Nashville here, hardly a drum set in sight. Candlin hates this one; I listen to it all the time whenever she's out of the house.

5. Nashville Mandolin Ensemble

Gifts

Columbia

Beautiful. Five mandolins, three mandolas, one mandocello, one pennywhistle, one guitar, and one bass - all combined into an indescribable sound. Sort of like a harpsichord, sort of like a hammered dulcimer. This one also features tunes off the beaten path.

6. Joe Pass

Six-String Santa

Laserlight

I have a fair amount of Xmas jazz, but this is one of my very favorites, mainly for its simplicity - two guitars, bass and drums, and more good taste than Grandma's Xmas dinner. This is the one for the candlelight and champagne Xmas Eve.

7. West Coast Saxophone Quartet

Sax For The Seasons

Cambria

Very cool. Twenty selections, nice charts, impeccable playing. Soprano, alto, tenor, and bari - I like the way sax quartet music never sounds like big band music, it's always more a classical string quartet sound. Okay by me.

8. Jimmy Smith

Christmas Cookin'

Verve

The funky side of the Xmas repertoire. Mr. Smith is a bitch. 'Nuff said.