BLUES SHAKER : Chapter 41
From the Vault : Bad Santa aka xMas Specials
Traditional “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
Jake Zaitz . guitar
Artie Zaitz . guitar
Jamie Lawrence . fender bass
Alessandro Cinelli . drums and percussion
Captured live @ The Alley Cat in Denmark Street, London on December 21st 2016
Chapter 41
This time of every year a bunch of xmas related music starts lurking about and just like for most musically inclined folk it is almost impossible to avoid those ancient jingles. For others, it presents a great excuse and unique opportunity to spice things up and venture out in their dusty old pompons. That would be me. Blues Shaker has been at it for a long time. Both myself and Artie would carry on this family folklore since his babyhood (oh if you could only see what’s in the Snakestone Archives). Here we have a nice take on one of the classics carried through a jam filter and contaminated with a profane and disgustingly dancy New Orleans second-line meter. ’t was Junior’s idea to de-waltz it and turn it into a rolling parade, and then in a typical Shakers’ fashion we turned it into a ba-dass santa groover retaining the original melody and sticking to the crude but snug harmony. Bad Santa is on the loose.
To be continued…
word about the music:
As the legend goes “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” was passed on through generations, originating in the West Country of England sometime in the XVI century. Somewhat this festive ditty stayed under the radar for centuries only revamped in early eighteen hundreds and further still in 1935 by a lecturer from Bristol Arthur Warrell, who arranged it for his singing chorus and subsequently published in a collection of West Country trad songs. In the 1950s the carol made it into the popular songs catalogue, first recorded by a bunch of folkies and eventually becoming a Christmas hit appearing in everyone’s seasonal repertoire. I am familiar with a couple of cool versions and highly recommend a listen. The Ventures from 1965 album “Christmas Album” released on Dolton Records (Cat♯ BST-8038), and souled reading by Booker T. & The M.G.’s recorded a year later on their “In The Christmas Spirit” on Stax (Cat♯ S713).