Need a jazzy blast of ‘Bah, Hambug?’ Grammy-winning bluesman will deliver at the Lyric

Keb’ Mo’

7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, 300 E. Third. $89. 859-280-2218. lexingtonlyric.tix.com, kebmo.com.

Leave it to a bluesman to summon a sobering portrait of the holidays.

The slice of blue Yule in question comes from the Grammy-winning Keb’ Mo’, who released a seasonal album in October called “Moonlight, Mistletoe & You.” The title suggests wintry warmth and romance. For the most, the record delivers just that. What greets you initially, however, is a jazzy blast of “Bah, Hambug” entitled “Christmas is Annoying.” The music is full of the kind of cheery flourish one might expect from a marque artist this time of year while the vocals practically skate along the song’s seasonal sheen. Then you get to the lyrics, a deflating realization that holiday wonderment from the singer’s youth has been dashed by relentless commercialism, maxed-out credit cards and a general sense of unyielding stress.

“Let’s apologize to Jesus for what went wrong,” Mo’ sings as the holiday spirit sags. You can practically see the record label board room dismay upon hearing such a popular and bankable artist open a new holiday album by singing, “It’s time to wrap this season up and leave it all behind.” Ho ho ho, indeed.

The rest of “Moonlight, Mistletoe & You” isn’t so playfully bleak. No sooner does “Christmas is Annoying” wind up than Mo’ slides into the string-savvy bliss of the album’s title tune, complete with a serene solo by veteran pop-jazz saxophonist Gerald Albright. Similarly, ‘70s and ‘80s hitmaker Melissa Manchester duets with Mo’ on a warm and fuzzy take on the Irving Berlin staple “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”

The acoustic shuffle “Santa Claus Blues” is about as close as Mo’ gets to his blues roots on the album (“Santa Claus is a good man and he rides the evening train”).” Elsewhere, “Moonlight, Mistletoe & You” is an invitingly lush recording that supplies a sly sense of holiday cheer, despite its dour opening.

The holiday record, which brings Mo’ back to Lexington this weekend for a performance at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, caps off a busy run for the singer that began in 2017 with “TajMo,” a collaborative album with blues/roots elder Taj Mahal. The record led to considerable touring and, eventually, a Grammy. Mo’s follow-up solo record, “Oklahoma” was released as recently as June and has been nominated for yet another Grammy, this time for Best Americana Album.

Blurring stylistic lines while maintaining his blues heritage remains a cultural calling card for Mo’ in a recording and touring career that has hardly taken a breath over the last 25 years.

“I find that it’s just the general nature of us, as human beings, to be creatures of habit,” Mo’ told me in an interview prior to a 2012 concert at the Kentucky Theatre. “But the thing is you always have to change. You may be, at first, met with resistance. That’s kind of a crazy quirk in our DNA. But over time, that changes. And with music, it eventually becomes, ‘Oh, I get it now.’”

Velvet Elvis/Rebel Without a Cause/Veljeeta/Boogie G and the Titanics

7:30 p.m. Dec. 22 at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. $10. 859-447-8166. theburlky.com.

The Scourge of the Sea/Italian Beaches/Small Batch

8 p.m. Dec. 23 at The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd. $10. 859-447-8166. theburlky.com.

Lexington rock ‘n’ roll goes reeling in the years during the Burl’s final two business nights before Christmas.

First up is a Sunday bill boasting two figurehead bands dating back three decades – Velvet Elvis and Rebel Without a Cause. The program, however, very much has a cause.

The performance, which also features R&B fave Boogie G and the Titanics and the Americana collective Veljeeta, will serve as a benefit for GreenHouse 17, the Lexington-based organization aiding victims of intimate partner abuse. The entire evening is being designed at as an awareness event for domestic violence.

The common denominator artist in three of the four bands will be guitarist/vocalist Dan Trisko (Rebel Without a Cause being the exception). Especially anticipated is a reunion outing by Velvet Elvis, which has only reteamed a handful of times since its post punk power pop music made national waves with a Mitch Easter-produced album in the late 1980s. The lineup for Sunday’s performance will feature the band’s original lineup of Trisko, drummer Sherri McGee and bassist John Clark.

Rebel Without a Cause, whose local roots are just as extensive, has been a reactivated unit for some time. Self-described as “Lexington’s second best cover band,” the lineup includes longtime local music vets Dave Butler, Billy Quinn and John Herzog.

A more recent past will be explored on Dec. 23 with the return of The Scourge of the Sea, the triumvirate of Robby Cosenza, Andrew English and Justin Craig. Highly visible in the region during the mid 2000s, the band’s fascination with a vocabulary of rustic pop inspirations (hints of the Byrds and Yo La Tengo, among others) resulted in a fine 2006 album, “Make Me Armored.” The three have maintained prolific careers of their own since then. Cosenza continues to play with multiple local and national artists, the most prominent being Horse Feathers. Craig served as musical director and multi-instrumentalist for the Broadway production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” English set his songs to a project called Englishman.

Two fine ambassadors of the current Central Kentucky scene, Italian Beaches and Small Batch, will open the Monday show.