Merry Blue Christmas, various artists (Fuel 2000)

This 2002 compilation is a quickie job, no liner notes and no marketing, and four of 12 cuts are all by Charles Brown. Very little art involved. Brown gets four cuts because he deserves them; as mentioned elsewhere, he's the godfather of rock holiday music with "Merry Christmas Baby," first recorded in 1947. He's got numerous others under his belt, including the smash holiday hit "Please Come Home For Christmas," along with "Christmas Present Blues" and "Christmas in Heaven." All these Brown cuts, except "Please," sound like they're from sometime in the late 60s and early 70s, though, suggesting the producers simply snapped up performances for which the rights were cheap. (One of the lessons this CD inadvertently teaches you is that blues artists often re-recorded their best-known songs in hopes the next company, unlike the last one, would actually pay them this time.) "Please" also gets a reprise at the end of the album in a version by Johnny Winter. Lowell Fulson's "Lonesome Christmas (Part 1 and 2)" is here, with the two sides of the single simply indexed together into a single cut. Also on hand are Big Joe Williams with "Christmas Blues, "Johnny Adams' soulful "Silver Bells," Smokey Hogg's ballad "I Want My Baby For Christmas," Big Joe Turner's vintage "Christmas Date Blues," Lightnin' Hopkins' "Christmas Blues" and Lester Williams' "Wintertime Blues."