Jingle All the Way, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Rounder)

I was going to skip this one entirely, but I know a lot of folks with eclectic tastes really like Bela Fleck, and we've got a fair number of eclectic readers at this site. Nevertheless, we don't do jazz here, and this album is mostly jazz with a capital J. That said, it's still a revelation to listen to a guy play banjo the way people like Joe Pass or Pat Metheny play the guitar. There are a couple of classical workouts with bassist Edgar Meyer on hand, and the version of Joni Mitchell's "River" features Fleck playing banjo and piano simultaneously, according to the liner notes. At the very least, one cut from this will make an interesting change of pace on your holiday mixes. From 2008.