Takin' Care of Christmas, Randy Bachman (Avalon)

The title song from this collection has been knocking around for a few years now, an enjoyable retinseling of the 70s hit "Takin' Care of Business" by its creator, the former Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive guitarist, singer and songwriter. The rest of the album comes to us for 2008, a collection of classic carols and popular songs with one more original from Randy, "Shop Till You Drop," a nicely rocked-out anthem to the commercial side of the holiday. And though the rest of the songs reflect a fairly conventional take on the holiday, the journeyman rocker puts plenty of effort into it, keeping the whole thing nicely uptempo all the way through. "Frosty the Snowman" is a particularly driving number, and he puts a mild reggae beat behind a spaghetti-Western instrumental take on "Sleigh Ride." He even trots out "Merry Merry Christmas Baby" in a crunchy BTO-styled take on the old doo-wop classic. If you haven't thought much about Bachman since his big hit days, you'll pick up right where you left off with this.