Page 55 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2021

a brief look at some of this year’s Christmas blues release

ERJA LYYTINEN—SILENT NIGHT—www.erjalyytinen.com

This song is a fixture in Finnish singer and guitarist Erja’s set around
Christmas time, and it is good to have it generally available as a digital single
from her website. Her slide playing helps to create the gentle, warming and
festive performance as she takes it fairly straight, but very effectively.

HENRY ODEN—SANTA CLAUS GOT JACKED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT1piIRrs9c / Spotify/
Soundcloud/Apple Music

Set to a funky blues backing with a wailing lap steel prominent (played by the
legendary bluesman Freddie Roulette), Henry—former bassist with many
people including a lengthy stint with Joe Louis Walker—delivers a recitation
detailing his money woes and wonders who on his Christmas present list he is

going to have to tell there is no gift as “Santa Claus Got Jacked”. Now this is the blues at Christmas!

VIENNA CARROLL—MARY HAD A BABY—www.viennacarrollmusic.com

This is an excellent four-track CD EP and digital release from Harlem-based
Vienna, who sounds a little like Nina Simone on this varied release, with fine
festive blues, jazz and balladry alongside each other. Backing for Vienna’s
gospel-based vocals is from a classy trio of piano, bass and drums.

WILY BO WALKER & E D BRAYSHAW - LETTER FROM THE BLUE MOON
MOTEL, XMAS 1964 - https://wilybo.bandcamp.com/album/letter-from-the-

blue-moon-motel-xmas-64

The Uk’s Wily Bo and E D turn in a slow-ish country-tinged slab of Americana,
with pedal steel and a blues-rock guitar break over a subtle rhythm section
behind Wily’s grizzled voice. There’s the merest hint of Chris Rea’s ‘Driving
Home At Christmas’ at one point, and it might help push this onto radio
playlists.

Norman Darwen