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5.0 out of 5 stars
Have yourself a Ray Stevens Christmas, August 31, 2009
This review is from: Christmas (Audio CD)
As of this writing, Amazon doesn't have the track list available and so here are the ten songs that appear on this collection...
1. Let It Snow
2. White Christmas
3. Winter Wonderland
4. Silent Night
5. The Christmas Song
6. Blue Christmas
7. I'll Be Home For Christmas
8. Deck The Halls with Teardrops
9. Jingle Bells
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
This is the serious Christmas album that Ray hinted at doing quite a few years ago. He already issued a comedy Christmas album in 1997, using traditional Christmas instrumentation wrapped around hilarious lyrics. That collection has since become something of a classic, called "Christmas Through a Different Window".
This one is simply called "Christmas" and it features Ray's interpretations of 9 Christmas standards. The CD doesn't give a musician credit list so I don't know who's playing on the CD. The saxophone is featured quite a lot.
As you can see, there is one original song here. The rest of the songs are your traditional choices for a Christmas project. "Deck The Halls with Teardrops" is the lone original song...from the pen of Ray Stevens. It's in the category of sad Christmas songs. There's a harmonica solo that is heard throughout the song at various times wailing out the "Deck The Halls" melody.
His version of "White Christmas" features a unique arrangement. In it Ray blends the Bing Crosby style with the Drifters style.
"Let It Snow!", the CD's opening song, features a jazzy arrangement. In fact, one of the things you'll notice are the arrangements are almost all non-holiday sounding. The lyrics are Christmas, of course, but the arrangements are jazzy/big-band. "Jingle Bells" features a mixture of humorous Ray playing the part of the man riding the horse, calling out to the horse with the sounds of a whip in the background, "giddy up, horse! yee haw!!", but it's not a comical song.
One of the departures of the non-traditional arrangements is "Silent Night"...it conveys the religious sound throughout. "Blue Christmas" is did crooner style. "I'll Be Home For Christmas" is transformed into a talking blues style. Ray, if you ask, usually will tell you that he grew up listening to R&B and blues in addition to country and that's why a lot of the songs he's recorded always had a hint of R&B in them...especially the material of late. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" features an echo chamber.
So have yourself a Ray Stevens Christmas. These 10 songs plus the 11 on the other collection make for one big celebration over the holiday's.
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