Originally released in 1985 on Coyote as a 12-inch EP with seven songs, a 1993 CD re-release on East Side Digital ballooned it to 17 tracks, though it deletes another Stamey track from the original, "Something Came Over Me." For 2006, Collectors Choice reissues this CD with six new tracks. As to the album itself, it remains a fairly slapdash affair that evokes the spirit of the Beach Boys Party album, with a cast of characters that is mainly power popsters from the right coast: Stamey and his former partners in the dBs, Alex Chilton and his former band Big Star, Syd Straw, Caitlin Cary, Marshall Crenshaw, Don Dixon, Ryan Adams with Whiskeytown, and a number of other folks. The original EP had the feel of something that had been slapped together on Christmas Eve over double eggnogs, but the additional cuts detract from that feel a little bit. Still, if you were a fan of the dBs, this feels almost like a lost dBs album. Top cuts include the title song, the dBs' "Holiday Spirit" and their silly take on "Feliz Navidad," Big Star's "Jesus Christ," Cathy Harrington's girl-groupy "Sha La La" and Ted Lyons's "The Only Law Santa Claus Understood," a hilarious recasting of Santa as a Wild West reprobate. Syd Straw gets points for a Christmas pun in the form of a cover of Blondie's "I'm Always Touched by Your Presents, Dear." The new songs are "Lonely Christmas" by Marshall Crenshaw, "Home For the Holidays" by the dBs with Cary, "I Saw Three Ships" and "Christmas is Saturday" by Don Dixon, "Christmas Time Is Here" by Thad Cockrell and Roman Candle, and Whiskeytown's "Houses On the Hill." Some of the other tunes on here are a little too earnest to suit me, but the good cuts make it worthwhile. If it keeps growing like this, by 2052 it will be a box set and around 2200 or so it will have subsumed all the songs mentioned on this site. UPDATE: The reissue gives, and the reissue takes away. Missing from the West Side Digital release are Syd Straw's song, "Occasional Shivers" by Chris Stamey and "Silver Bells" by Kirsten and Brent Lambert.
Christmas Time, Chris Stamey and Friends (Collectors Choice)
Originally released in 1985 on Coyote as a 12-inch EP with seven songs, a 1993 CD re-release on East Side Digital ballooned it to 17 tracks, though it deletes another Stamey track from the original, "Something Came Over Me." For 2006, Collectors Choice reissues this CD with six new tracks. As to the album itself, it remains a fairly slapdash affair that evokes the spirit of the Beach Boys Party album, with a cast of characters that is mainly power popsters from the right coast: Stamey and his former partners in the dBs, Alex Chilton and his former band Big Star, Syd Straw, Caitlin Cary, Marshall Crenshaw, Don Dixon, Ryan Adams with Whiskeytown, and a number of other folks. The original EP had the feel of something that had been slapped together on Christmas Eve over double eggnogs, but the additional cuts detract from that feel a little bit. Still, if you were a fan of the dBs, this feels almost like a lost dBs album. Top cuts include the title song, the dBs' "Holiday Spirit" and their silly take on "Feliz Navidad," Big Star's "Jesus Christ," Cathy Harrington's girl-groupy "Sha La La" and Ted Lyons's "The Only Law Santa Claus Understood," a hilarious recasting of Santa as a Wild West reprobate. Syd Straw gets points for a Christmas pun in the form of a cover of Blondie's "I'm Always Touched by Your Presents, Dear." The new songs are "Lonely Christmas" by Marshall Crenshaw, "Home For the Holidays" by the dBs with Cary, "I Saw Three Ships" and "Christmas is Saturday" by Don Dixon, "Christmas Time Is Here" by Thad Cockrell and Roman Candle, and Whiskeytown's "Houses On the Hill." Some of the other tunes on here are a little too earnest to suit me, but the good cuts make it worthwhile. If it keeps growing like this, by 2052 it will be a box set and around 2200 or so it will have subsumed all the songs mentioned on this site. UPDATE: The reissue gives, and the reissue takes away. Missing from the West Side Digital release are Syd Straw's song, "Occasional Shivers" by Chris Stamey and "Silver Bells" by Kirsten and Brent Lambert.
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