The Boxmasters - 'Christmas Cheer'

Christmas Cheer Bottom Line

This isn't a disc for everyone. Quite frankly, if you like the Boxmasters' rollicking brand of hillbilly country-rock, then you'll like it; but if you're looking for something more traditional, maybe it's best you avoid this. Likewise, if you don't want to hear about the bad side of Christmas, you're better off with Bing Crosby. But if you like good, old-fashioned, finger-lickin'-good rockabilly with a little dirt under its nails and some songs that aren't afraid to look at the nasty underbelly of the holiday season, then this is the disc for you.

Some History:

For what's basically a brand-new group (this is their second album), the Boxmasters have a world-weariness to them which probably comes from the fact that you only have to look at Billy Bob Thornton's face to know he's lived a bit. There's a certain amount of cynicism in the way the Boxmasters perform, but of course, that's all part of the package. With their Beatles suits and their tongue-in-cheek deadpan expressions, they nonetheless approach music seriously, and present us with some solid, real-world, trailer-trash Christmas that might feel a little like a kick in the teeth, but does end up, overall, being a pretty nice evening in around the tree with a mug of hot cider (hard cider, mind you).

Christmas Cheer The Songs

The title of the disc becomes ironic, Christmas Cheer, when viewed song-by-song. Let's be frank. This disc is pretty awesome if you like the Boxmasters and that flavor of redneck, white trash rockabilly. But if you want pure Christmas cheer without having to think about the ragged underside of Christmas, the darker side, you shouldn't even try. You might get put off by the harsh reality of lyrics like "On the first day of December, Mama's eyes were black and blue. That seems to happen every time the rent is overdue. I asked Daddy why she always bumps into the door, he said that she was nervous, not to bother him no more."

Other originals, "Slower Than Christmas" and "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" touch that tender nerve, too, for people who actively fear the holiday. Plus there's John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" and the perennial "Blue Christmas."

But if you hang on, and like what you hear, you'll find things perk up a little. There's some nifty re-worked covers of "Silver Bells" and "We Three Kings of Orient Are." And not to worry, lefty rednecks like me; the Boxmasters end with a pretty sharp cover of the poignant John Lennon anti-war holiday tune, "Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)," showing that there are some of us rednecks who have a deep thought or two.

Release Date: September 25, 2008 - Label: Vanguard

Christmas Cheer Track List:

1. My Dreams of Christmas
2. Silver Bells
3. Slower Than Christmas
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
5. We Three Kings of Orient Are
6. I Won't Be Home For Christmas
7. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
8. Christmas in Prison
9. Blue Christmas
10. Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)