Beyond Adele, Taylor and the Beatles: 13 Christmas gift ideas for music lovers
The sounds of the season are now upon us, whether we’re ready for them or not.
Yes, we’ve seen Christmas trees in stores since before Halloween. But with Thanksgiving now behind us and the dreaded Black Friday sitting in our laps, we offer a few sound suggestions of easy-to-give gifts sure to satisfy even the most Scrooge-imbued listener.
We’ve tried to ignore the obvious – namely, the fact that Adele’s “30” and Taylor Swift’s reconstituted “Red” likely will devour all commercial competition this holiday season.
We also passed on recent but very recommended archival box sets by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, having devoted an entire column to them in October.
Instead, here are a baker’s dozen of alternate recorded music recommendations. Some of the music is new. Some is borderline prehistoric, but is receiving new life through re-issues and box sets. All will light up any seasonal shebang. Happy holiday-ing.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: “Raise the Roof”
Over 14 years after the Grammy-winning “Raising Sand,” pop music’s quintessential odd couple further blurs the lines of Americana music and all the sub-genres and offshoots it encompasses. As before, the pairing of two wildly different voices set a generation apart creates magic from the music of Allen Toussaint, Merle Haggard, Calexico and more.
Brandi Carlile: “In These Silent Days”
From the way her voice cracks at the onset of “Broken Horses” to the hushed heartbreak flowing under “Throwing Good After Bad,” Carlile weaves a fabric of human frailty, force and faith for her seventh studio album. Comparisons (Joni Mitchell leads the pack) are inevitable, but “In These Silent Days” represents a voice that is wholly incomparable.
Bela Fleck: “My Bluegrass Heart”
Banjo great and one-time Lexingtonian Fleck stacks the string music deck with a double-disc of bluegrass instrumentals. By baiting key players from multiple musical generations (from Billy Strings to David Grisman) with original compositions of enormous technical daring, Fleck has created string works that would have made Paganini gasp.
Joni Mitchell: “Archives, Vol. 2 – The Reprise Years 1968-1971”
The new five-disc sophomore box set from the champion songsmith’s “Archives” series covers outtakes from her first four albums, peaking with the incendiary “Blue” from 1971. But the wealth of killer live material (particularly from Carnegie Hall in 1969 and the BBC in 1970) makes this the most essential Mitchell anthology ever.
The Daptone Super Soul Revue: “Live at the Apollo”
In December 2014, artists from Brooklyn’s Daptone Records took their new generational take on old school soul to Harlem’s famed Apollo Theatre. This long-delayed concert souvenir offers two hours of brassy, jubilant and immediately infectious soul, highlighted by performances from the now departed Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley.
The Kentucky HeadHunters: “That’s a Fact, Jack”
The pride of Metcalfe County is still lighting a fire with a charge that’s more country in feel than sound. Its 12th studio album is a blast of electric joy – a celebration of roadhouse rock gusto and bluesy intuition that comes out roaring through 11 band originals and drummer Fred Young’s crunchy take on Rick Derringer’s 1973 gem “Cheap Tequila.”
John Coltrane: “A Love Supreme - Live in Seattle”
A stunning find for the jazz crowd, this archival recording of “A Love Supreme” (one of only two known live documents of the classic suite) was cut in October 1965 but wound up lost until 2008. The original studio album becomes the blueprint for a 76-minute free-jazz cyclone that winds into the gorgeously contemplative “Psalm.” Heavy stuff.
My Morning Jacket: “My Morning Jacket”
The longtime Louisville favorite and co-headliner of this year’s Railbird festival serves up a stylistic grab-bag for its first collection of new studio music in over five years. Part psychedelic, part pop, part funk and a whole lot of everything else go into a strong, Jim James written/produced work that reflects the sound of a band reborn.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram: “662”
The Manchester Music Hall show by this much-heralded new-generation blues star got pushed back into 2022, but the fall still gave us his stunning sophomore album. “662” expands Ingram’s guitar vocabulary far from what many may view as the blues into areas of rock, soul and more. Whatever the destination, the music packs an atomic punch.
Billy Strings: “Renewal”
“Renewal” confirms guitar dynamo Strings to be as essential to the current progressive bluegrass generation as David Grisman was to his. Here, he and his band reveal a masterful but tasteful command of compositional and improvisational prowess. Tradition is respected, but the jazz and jam friendly accents ignite this deliciously modern music.
Jethro Tull: “Benefit”
The first 13 studio albums by the longstanding Brit folk/prog/psychedelic rock troupe have now had their 40th (and in, this case, 50th) anniversaries marked by box set reissues. “Benefit” is special, though. Aside from being one of Tull’s best records, this new edition comes packed with discs and DVDs of two 1970 concerts full of hazy, bluesy mayhem.
Johnny Cash: “Johnny Cash at the Carousel Ballroom – April 24, 1968”
Every cosmopolitan pop merchant with a cowboy hat passing himself off as a country star needs to listen to this astonishing archival find. Part of psychedelic era sound engineer Bear Owsley’s “Sonic Journals” series, it opens with a double shot of “Cocaine Blues” and “Long Black Veil” that presents Cash at his unapologetic finest.
Neil Young: “Carnegie Hall 1970”
The latest in a flood of archival Young recordings offers a two-disc document of a solo acoustic concert given just after the release of “After the Gold Rush.” Though reproduced from a bootleg, the sound quality is splendid, as are the performances. A starkly animated document of everything that made Young’s early 1970s music so vital.
This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 6:00 AM.