VARIOUS ARTISTS – A Gulf Coast Christmas (Gulf Coast GCRX9028)

A Gulf Coast ChristmasI was delighted to review this album, A Gulf Coast Christmas for you. I love a Christmas album. I’m putting that out there right now. This release, full of bluesy guitar sprinkled with festive magic and sleigh bells, gets the party started perfectly with Mike Zito’s ‘All I Got For Christmas Is The Blues’, setting the scene for a Christmas album with plenty of seasonal swagger.

A smooth vocal from Kat Riggins for ‘It Ain’t Christmas’ could be a great slow dance for under the mistletoe, though I do worry about small details like gender balance and waiting until track seven to hear a female-lead contribution is a bit of a shame.

Love love love the Anderson duet for ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, such sass and fun- more of this ad-lib studio banter in festive records please! Performing alongside John ‘Blues’ Boyd, the Andersons are having a good time and you would have to be quite the bah humbug sort not to enjoy this recording.

LeReoux raised an eyebrow with his take on the nativity story ‘Who Da Baby Daddy’ that I wasn’t expecting, and Sayer and Joyce cover one of my favourites ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’ with heart.

Mike Zito is back in the sleigh (see what I did there?) for the last number ‘Run Rudolph Run’. Another sure-fire party hit which had me bopping around my lockdown living room. A Gulf Coast Christmas is out now and contains seven original songs as well as Christmas covers. I particularly like this combination, because I’m a fan of original new music as well as the old favourites, especially at this most wonderful time of year. Thanks to Gulf Coast Records for a great blues compilation for the merriest season.

Jodie ‘SheBeat’ Schofield

Label website: www.gulfcoastrecords.net

Sayer And Joyce – ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’: