Bloodshot Records' 13 Days of Xmas

We’ve had it up to the white trim on our red stocking caps with those damn dogs barking “Jingle Bells,” and, admit it, so have you. We’ve always wanted to do something about it, but for over twenty years, out of a combination of poor organizational skills and perpetual surprise at how quickly one year blurs into another, we never got around to releasing a holiday album. Until now!

Awaiting you within the grooves of Bloodshot Records’ 13 Days of Xmas is a tonic for the surfeit of mawkish Christmas tunes.  Free yourself from mind-numbing and soul-crushing drollery of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," "Wonderful Christmastime" and that accursed Mannheim Steamroller.

Featuring unique originals and faithful covers of traditional songs, Bloodshot Records’ 13 Days of Xmas collects holiday-themed material from label and non-label acts alike. It’s subversive AND heart-warming. The perfect stocking stuffer for the Santa-minded and cynic alike.

13 Days of Xmas has something to fit any mood, any occasion, for this sometimes-wonderful, sometimes-trying time of year. From the garage-soul of Barrence Whitfield and the Savages’ “Papa Barrence’s Christmas,” to the whistle-while-you-shop joy of Ha Ha Tonka’s “The List,” it’s obvious this is not the usual staid holiday fare. Recognizing the season is not all red-nosed reindeer and frosty snowmen—sometimes it’s red-nosed uncles and frosted hearts—is the Wall-of-Sound girl-group lament of Ruby Boots’s “I Slept Through Christmas” and Nashville-via-Pittsburgh songwriter Zach Schmidt’s update on the classic country weeper trope, “I’m Drunk Again This Christmas.”  Jim Elkington (The Zincs, Tweedy, Eleventh Dream Day) nails the English folk vibe, while The Yawpers celebrate the only way they know how on "Christmas in Oblivion."

There’s Kelly Hogan, curled up on the couch fireside in slinky flannels, a glass of eggnog in hand, crooning George Morgan’s “Blue Snowfall,” and Chicago's back porch blues heroes Devil in a Woodpile jigging by a bonfire, dressed in animal skins, drinking a flagon of ram’s blood on their own call to celebrate “The Pagans Had it Right.”  

There are some surprising twists on classics: Murder By Death, coming straight from the North Pole via Nick Cave, with their haunting and affecting version of ‘O Holy Night,” and garage rocker Ron Gallo’s disarmingly sweet country lounge take on “White Christmas.” All Our Exes Live in Texas gorgeously take the Australian Christmas-in-prison classic “How To Make Gravy” to ethereal new places.

Rounding out this eclectic bunch is the ever-jolly Jon Langford's hilariously touching "Christmas Carol Christmas Ray" and guitar hero Dex Romweber's somber instro "Dark Christmas."

At a time when the malls and airwaves are traditionally clogged by the dis-spiriting cash grab releases of Michael Bolton, Jessica Simpson, Justin Bieber, Kenny G, hell, even Roseanne Barr, Bloodshot’s 13 Days of Xmas will revive your belief in the spirit (and spirits) of holiday tunes that won’t make your back teeth ache.