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A Tav Falco Christmas

Tav Falco solo mini-album official Black Friday Record Store Day release November 24, 2017. Rrecorded July 6 - 9, 2017 Sam Phillips Recording Service, Memphis. Limited ed. of 1000 Red Vinyl.

Although I have performed “Blue Christmas” onstage now and again with my group, Panther Burns, I’ve had the notion of recording a solo Christmas mini-album for quite some time. I pitched the idea and a play list to record labels, but labels come and go while the songs themselves seem eternal. Familiar Christmas tunes were tossed in the punchbowl - evergreens from genres of pop, jazz, and ghetto funk. In large part these were songs that I listened to as a young boy around Christmas time. The classic ones made a merry backdrop as I ran my 1947 American Flyer steam locomotive on an oval track around our Christmas tree freshly cut in the backwoods of Arkansas where we lived. The music and the clickety-clack of the tiny wheels under the rustic freight train made a montage of sounds that will ever conjure the jaunty bonhomie of Christmas for me. Because I grew up alone on a farm with my parents, the train and the songs were my best friends. It was later that I got into the jazz and funk selections.

“Santa Claus Is Back In Town” This is blues, jumpy and sexy that makes you want to stay up all night until Santa comes sliding down that chimney - because the Christmas stockings he’s bringing are long, silky ones for pretty legs.

“White Christmas”   The Christmas classic that for a singer is challenging in its simplicity and evocative in its images of whiteness, the writing of Christmas cards by hand, purity of the driven snow, the Christmas warmth that children know so well.

“Jingle Bell Rock” What hasn’t Rock & Roll wrapped its saucy song around and infused with its frenetic beat? Christmas is no exception, and the motif of sleigh bells jingling on a one-horse sleigh mixing with the beat of horse’s hooves and muffled, snowy laughter is irresistible.

“Blue Christmas” Every Christmas needs at least one Christmas dirge, and this is it. My heart was drenched to the bone in mood bluer than blue; then it was hung out in the cold to dry.

“Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” In 1939 Johnny Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, created the character Rudolph as an assignment for Montgomery Ward, and Marks decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. The Gene Autrey hit version of 1949 is the height of Christmas cheer and refinement. “Christmas Blues” This tune is bluesy beatnik jazz from that fleeting period of the very early 1950s when wistful tonalities and melodic cascades transported the senses into realms hitherto unknown. Here fractals of snowflakes shower the lonely shopper with remorse and tawdry tinsel.

“Holly Jolly Christmas” Kisses under the mistletoe, cups of frothy cheer, boughs of holly waxy green and prickly, rosy salutations to everyone you meet, and it’s the best time of the year. What more can you ask for?

“Soulful Christmas” So let’s tip on outta here with a wink and a nod doing the flâneur’s old soft shoe, 2-step hustle. It’s gotta be a soulful Christmas, funk and flash. You've been so nice to me down through the years, and I'll always remember you. I'll never forget. You came to see my show, and that's why Tav Falco loves you so.

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