I'm Dreaming of a
BLUE CHRISTMAS

The XMAS Page

Yeah, it's that time of year again, and you're stuck for a gift for your blues honey or dude. Here are a few things that might make your baby's bo go all diddley around the holidays.

One book should be on every blues lovers' lists. It's the All Music Guide to the Blues (Miller Freeman Books, $17.95). The editors, all noted historians and writers, profile facts and figures on more than 500 musicians and 2,600 recordings. There's plenty in these pages -- old and new -- to keep you going until it's time for the update.

While not specifically about the blues, a great addition to any music library is Classic Guitars of the '50s (Miller Freeman Books, $29.95). The electric guitar changed music, including blues, forever, yet it was less than 50 years ago that the first Fender electric guitars came off the production line.

Virtually all the great electric instruments were created in the '50s: Fender's Telecaster in 1948 and Stratocaster five years later, the Gibson Les Paul model in 1952, with many others following in their wake. This coffee-table-sized tome, abundantly illustrated with pull-out pages that show every detail of the most famous guitars, offers a unique look at the predominant instrument of blues.

For the more literary-minded, there's Paul Garon's Blues and the Poetic Spirit. First published in 1975, it's gotten an update (City Lights, $14.95) that includes a new chapter and foreword. Garon's book is considered essential for any blues-o-phile. It's more a look at the lyrics and their implications than the music itself, but Garon's insights are worth reading, arguing and discussing amongst yourselves.

If you know a music lover who travels a lot, pick up Fodor's Rock & Roll Traveler USA ($16.50). You'll have to put up with the rock'n'roll hot spots, but to its credit, the book does a good job on blues-heavy areas like the Memphis/Mississippi Delta, New Orleans and Chicago. And though it came too late to review, B.B. King's autobiography, Blues All Around Me (Avon Books, $23.00), written with David Ritz, should be in the stores by the holidays. As should Nolan Porterfield's biography of pioneering folklorist John Lomax, Last Cavalier (University of Illinois Press, $34.95).

On the audio end of the spectrum, LaserLight Digital has come up with a package that promises to drown out that damned little drummer boy. Christmas Blues & Shout is a specially priced three-disc set that reissues albums produced by Rod McKuen (!) and originally released in 1969.

Christmas in New Orleans is pretty straight fare, familiar seasonal songs performed by Fats Domino, Charles Brown, Victoria Spivey, Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington and other jazz artists.

Christmas Through the Years is all Satchmo and includes some hip holiday favorites like "Cool Yule," "Zat You, Santa Claus?," "Christmas Night in Harlem" and "Santa Claus Blues."

The original Christmas Blues & Shout disc includes little presents from Johnny Otis, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Fats Waller, Ellington again, Lena Horne and others.

If your Christmas sweetie has even less traditional tastes, that barnyard humbug the Red Rooster highly recommends Jorma Kaukonen Christmas (Relix). The erstwhile Jefferson Airplane and occasional Hot Tuna guitarist has created some wonderfully mutant versions of time-honored tunes alongside sure-to-be-classic originals that propel the spirit of the season light years forward into newer, bluer and softly psychedelic dimensions.

	Christmas in New Orleans is pretty straight fare, familiar seasonal songs performed by Fats Domino, Charles Brown, Victoria Spivey, Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington and other jazz artists.
Christmas Through the Years is all Satchmo and includes some hip holiday favorites like "Cool Yule," "Zat You, Santa Claus?," "Christmas Night in Harlem" and "Santa Claus Blues."
	The original Christmas Blues & Shout disc includes little presents from Johnny Otis, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Fats Waller, Ellington again, Lena Horne and others.