Christmas Everywhere, Petty Booka (Weed)

A little research following on from the Annoying Music Show Holiday CD led me to this 2003 CD. This ukelele-plunking Japanese duo did a bluegrass "Material Girl" for that album, and that led me to their website and to their very own Christmas album. What seemed like inspiration of the slightly deranged variety on the above-mentioned song ends up being just mildly quirky when spread across a whole CD. Two Japanese women singing folk-country fusion in their second language ends up being a one-joke concept. Still, you will definitely enjoy their Latin-flavored (yes) "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and it's up to you whether to choose the version they sing in English or the one they do in Japanese. The pair likes to play around with Hawaiian music, so no surprise, they cover "Christmas Island" and "Mele Kalikimaka." The traditional "Christmas Coming" is done as a round, and they do Steve Goodman's "Colorado Christmas." I suppose this album's "Material Girl" would be their version of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison," in that its presence is incongruous compared to the rest of the material. Overall, it sounds mostly like a pop-country-folk thing in the Kingston Trio vein, except of course for the girls' distinctive singing and accents.