Happy Holidays

Kelly Willis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 29, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B000H0M556
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,332 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This expanded reissue of Willis and Robison's 2003 EP does precisely what the best Christmas albums have always done: reinterpret, revive, and refresh the tradition, while remaining intensely musical. The rotating cast of players--including young Austin pals Andrew Nafziger, Eamon McLoughlin, and Warren Hood, as well as keyboard ringers Chip Dolan and Floyd Domino--serve every song with the right balance of grit and glow. The arrangements, even when stringed up on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," never cross the line into schmaltz and never overwhelm. The slowly swinging, jazzy opener, "Santa Baby," can't equal Eartha Kitt's definitive version, but Willis's restrained-but-sexy delivery comes close. While the band can't rock the twang quite like the Buckaroos, they still get a swampy romp out of Buck Owens's classic "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" and an elegant electric piano-driven waltz from "Blue Christmas," which Willis delicately transforms into a country-soul aria. Robison's lead singing has never been powerful enough to score on the charts; here, he's just playful and amateurish enough to undercut the cornpone of "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk" and scratchy and sincere enough to redeem the bathos of Charlie Louvin's "Shut In at Christmas." The closing Robison original, a live version of "Oklahoma Christmas," may never become a standard, but its honest and hilarious satire of homestead piety is classic--as is the whole album. --Roy Kasten

Product Description

Happy Holidays is classic Christmas with a cool country twist. From standards like "Baby It's Cold Outside" and "Santa Baby" to not so traditional tracks like "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk," Happy Holidays is a musical Christmas card from Kelly and Bruce to their fans. They celebrate their favorite family season with "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy," "Oklahoma Christmas" and the classic "Blue Christmas."

Stirring up visions of sugarplums and sightings of Santa on the roof, Happy Holidays from Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison is so festive it might just make it snow in Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Holiday Album In Years!!, December 16, 2006

By 

Kenji Zweygardt (Oskaloosa, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Happy Holidays (Audio CD)

I usually purchase 3 or 4 holiday albums each year. So far, I have barely listened to the other two new albums. Why? Simply put, this recording is excellent! The song selection is delightful ranging from up-tempo country to a "jazzy" version of "Have youself a merry little Christmas". In my opinion, this "jazzy" version is one of the best arrangements of the holiday classic. Also included is "Blue Christmas", of which Elvis' version sets the standard. Kelly Willis' version has to come in a close second to that of the King.

From a technical standpoint, this recording is fairly clean with limited background hiss or noise. Those songs recorded live maintain the live concert feel and are quite cleanly recorded as well. My only criticism is the total recorded time is only slightly over 38 minutes. Total play time aside, this recording belongs on everyone's CD changer!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great christmas CDs, January 25, 2011

By 

TM (Temple, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Happy Holidays (Audio CD)

I look forward to bringing this CD out again next Christmas, or maybe for Christmas in July as a preview.

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr and Mrs Robison deliver a Christmas cracker, September 7, 2009

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Happy Holidays (Audio CD)

On this album, Kelly and Bruce sing five solos each and unite for an excellent duet on Baby it's cold outside. While this album has a contemporary edge, it should appeal to most fans of traditional country music, because you'll hear steel guitar and fiddle on several tracks.

I've been a fan of Kelly's music for a long time and her contribution to this album only serves to enhance her reputation further, if that were possible. Kelly's five solos are all songs that I'm very familiar with, but they aren't the most obvious choices. Santa baby (originally recorded by Eartha Kitt but also covered by Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Lynn Anderson and others) makes a great opening to the album. Santa looked a lot like Daddy (a country classic written and first recorded by Buck Owens) is a fun song that Kelly clearly enjoyed singing. I was particularly pleased that Kelly recorded one of my favorite carols, In the bleak midwinter. Kelly is also in top form on Blue Christmas and Have yourself a merry little Christmas, which are probably the two songs here that come round most frequently on Christmas albums.

I've been aware of Bruce for a long time but never actually got around to buying any of his music until I bought this album, on which he shows that he is a fine singer. Like Kelly, he has avoided the obvious songs. A winter's tale, the first of Bruce's solos, is not a cover of the similarly titled David Essex song that Brits are familiar with, but a completely different song that I've never heard before, so it could be an original. Christmas waltz is a song that I don't come across very often, but I'm familiar with Peggy Lee's version and Bruce certainly does justice to this fine song. Please Daddy don't get drunk this Christmas, originally recorded by John Denver, is another song that I don't hear many covers of, though Alan Jackson included it on his first Christmas album. Even more obscure is the Louvin brothers song, Shut in at Christmas. Bruce's final contribution is a fun song that he wrote himself titled Oklahoma Christmas, in which he pokes fun at relatives who don't like his use of language.

Bruce and Kelly have combined to give us (well, OK, sell us) an outstanding Christmas album. Both deserve to be major stars, but probably prefer to record top quality music on their own terms, without the constraints and pressures that major labels put on their artists. And as long as they continue to make music of this quality, they'll have enough fans to enable them to make a living out of the music business.