Category: country sort of

Lisa Biales leads the marching band with “At Christmas“. Bluesy rock tells us what she wants with you near the fire. Resistance is yule-while

Refusing to learn punctuation–preferring possessives, Stephen Cuthbert belts out “Baby Your Mine” with mad honky tonk piano and weak sauce western jazz.

Obsessively fixated, Bird Mancini maintains that “Because It’s December” your memories won’t let him go. Indie sinister.

Lilting parang so much that it becomes kidsong, Ian Spencer heralds Jesus. “Because of You” he sings, it’s Christmas. It’s a prayer, it’s a dance number, it’s a problem.

Mopey Bobby Braxton is aw-shuxing his way to opening his heart in “The Best Gift is You“. He’s willing to give up fame for you. If it’ll stop this corn pone country….

Boosting misery with talent, Mindi Abair & The Boneshakers insist “The Best Part of Christmas” is you. Unplugged country, the best kind.

Joni (feat. 24K) apply disco-ed R+B to the problem of being “Alone” at Christmas. Should be makin’ love.

Hollering alt-rock Skindred hates being “Alone This Holiday“. Not sure who’s to blame in this brouhaha, but he’s getting the final word.

Sneeze-Guard goes PA shopping center announcement mode to declare “Alone On Christmas” is the new normal. It’s a wellness check with punk flavored pop.

Winter is naturally “Lonesome“. Flooded Cellar commiserates in garage folk.

Stuart Churchill has made a small enterprise for the topic “I Don’t Want to be Alone This Christmas“. It starts here with this Marty Robbins tribute in rockabilly. Then he tries out Roy Orbison with “Another Lonely, Lonely Christmas“. Slow country with a chaser of alcoholism. Whoa, buddy. Join a bowling league or sumpin.

An indie appeal: “Let’s Get Together at Christmas (It’s Better Than Drinking Alone)” brings The Green Pajamas together with promises of swinging. Psychedelic rock.

3SMJ proves that AI pop was a futile gesture just a year ago. “No Longer Alone” does its algorithm best to pop up the party. I’m sitting this one out.

Yacht saves us, musically, with the New Wave pop of “Christmas Alone“. Do the robot!

A Harris and Hart Holiday take on “The Lonesome Christmas Blues” with an ironic jut to their jaws. It’s not you, it’s Covid19.

Back to that Macauley movie. The Not Fur Longs croons smoothly “Make It Home Alone“. It’s a wry summary with country undertones. The Bell and The Hammer cover it even more flirtatiously.

Alayna Kaelyn warbles “Alone at Christmas” while a piano keeps time to her unhappiness. She appreciates family and love, but it’s not in the cards. Pop indie.

Beane hates being “Alone Another Holiday“, so he folk indies memories of the ones he misses. The happy imageries makes his missed opportunity with you worse.

In snowy Manhattan, but missing Oxford, Lewis Watson insists he has “christmas eve alone this year“. He rallies to a traveling mode, but as of yet: no friends. Might be your deodorant, man. Moody indie.

Lowell Fulson won’t be home this time, as his blues explicates in “Lonesome Christmas” parts one and two. It’s so gnarly, i smell delta.

Also on the move, Lori Triplett is on her way. But her boo bowed out. So it’s “Coming Home Alone“. Rent one at the airport, girl. Country pop.

L&R rap over the metal of “Single Guys Need Food But Stores Are Closed“. It’s a Christmas reference for those bros who need routine to lead fulfilled lives.

Lloyd and Debby Lytton embody the existential angst of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with their blues ballad “Show Me the Light“. Does anyone know this ’98 cartoon movie?

The Christmas Cards rhyme Christmas with loneliness in their slow-mo pop “Christmas Present“. Sentimental pop leaning into easy listening.

The Eggnog Crew present a “Christmas Miracle” when brandy begins to speak to the loneliest drunk ever. Experimental blues a la Tom Waits. Funny, in a horrible way.

Promising he’s on his way home, Sanford is impelled by you being “All Alone on Christmas“. It’s country pop with just a skoosh of blues. Hope it helps.

Static Cadets make a shaggy dog out of “The (new) Christmas Song“, a slow burn of misery and distractedness. Intimate, confessional indie.

Swamp Ass and the Meat Sweats scream up a metal storm when they’re “Alone for the Holidays“. They burn out quickly (with cautious bleeping), so you can breathe after.

Cowboy country time. Dave Dudley makes maudlin with “Lonely Christmas Again“. Some overlap with last month’s without you theme, so let’s make the distinction clear. Missing you is a singular thing. Loneliness is every[one]thing.

Slowing the moodiness, “Alone For The Holidays” pits Adrian Glynn, Nat Jay against the void. More country, now with western. He’s cryin’; she’s bitchin’.

Kelly Long drawls “My First Christmas without You” with extra twang. Seems clingy even for country.

There’s some question who you is in “There’s No Christmas Without You“. Kirk Franklin and the Family might be singing about Jaysus, but what could they have done to rid themselves of His Grace?–surely not this gospel singalong.

Showing us how to mope, Flooded Cellar spiral with their folk “Without You“. Bemoaning the single set of footprints in the snow and on the floor, they don’t know what to do. Wait, is this bereavement?

John Cedrick synths the R+B with his lack of you. Apparently “Santa Didn’t Hear” that you needed to be with him. Scary, you think about it.

More rockabilly, STAT! Darrel Higham riffs out the high stepping dread of “Our Last Night” and all i can do is snap and clap along. Oh yeah.

Angry Johnny and The Killbillies get maudlin in “Winter’s Here Again“. It could be that this tinkling country ballad hides a secret: he made you go underground, with his shovel. Shivers.

Junior Walsh covers Elvis’s “It Won’t Seem Like Christmas (Without You)” with significantly more country and less throaty misery. (It’s nasal here.)

Similarly titled, “It Won’t Seem Like Christmas Without You” tasks Stan Davis and Friends with making a 1920s style bomb. They succeed.

Dissolving all the aspects of Xmas one at a time, like he was wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, Barry Keenan takes us through “It Wouldn’t Be Christmas Without You” with a powered monotone. Disaffected easy listening kinda nails it.

Brooks & Dunn do that shaggy country shinging to convince you of their woe in “It Won’t be Christmas Without You.”

Dr. BLT is antsy looking at you packing a suitcase. “What Have You Got Up Your Sleeve (This Christmas Eve)” he folk/demands. Baby, please don’t go.

Dan + Shay cry over the “Break Up On Christmas” because of all the money already spent on presents. Snide pop country with just a skoosh of reggae.

Jerry Lee Lewis is perhaps not so serious when he warbles “I Can’t Have A Merry Christmas Mary (Without You)” in his honkytonk boogie woogie way. But it’s a good time.

Using retro pop to sing the blues, Make Like Monkeys seem not to be “Getting Over Xmas Without U“. Any other holiday….

Saint Etienne covers Claudine Longet’s “I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You” with slightly less accented English. Sounds like a threat in this punchy pop.

It’s a group effort in GamjaMusic’s “Christmas Without You“. Sultry pop with an uncanny valley of emotion.

Bri Kaye ASMRs “At the Same Time” about the contradictions of a world without you. New Age indie with dynamite vocals.

I enjoyed the hell out of Mark Arnett’s “I Miss You Most at Christmas (Now That You Are Dead)” without sharing the whole skit. It’s not as asskicking as the slow country ballad, but there’s a punk outro i love.

I Don’t Know How But they Found Me lean into the heavy alt rock of “Christmas Drag” missing you. Take it or leave it. But, miserable. Seriously. Oh well.

“Christmas Just Ain’t Christmas (Without You Baby)” is rock elongated by New Age mystic alt by Tod Got Overexcited! It’s the brass that does it for me.

Vince Vance & The Valiants has some sultry dame singing the boogie woogie blues in “Christmas Just Ain’t Christmas Without You“. It’s a powerhouse of emotional vulnerability.

When she purrs “Miss You At Christmas“, Loren Schaffer appears to weigh her options. The bouncing about octaves does not mark this pop as desultory.

Charming ragtime-influenced indie, “Together Again” celebrates the imminent reunion for We Love Christmas (Patrick MacManus). Ahh, hope. I knew ye.

“Kiss Me Arse (And Go Away For Christmas)” by Ol Billy Bob Boy is not exactly blue alert, but the guy has a weak country point: you’re not a jet ski.