I know I’ve been severely lacking in Christmas Stories posts this year. It’s not because I’m not having trouble getting into the season, but I am having trouble writing posts about getting into the season. Also, turns out I’ve written about a lot of this stuff already, which makes sense because we watch most of the same movies and listen to the same records every single year.

But, I did get a few new Christmas discs that I’m pretty excited about. The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Dig That Crazy Christmas from 2005 has been on my radar since it came out, but it wasn’t until Amazon sold the digital version for $5 (it’s $8.99 now) that I added it to our collection. I’d been a fan of Setzer’s since the swing revival of the late 90s. After getting Dirty Boogie along with the rest of the world, I also went back and got Guitar Slinger and later picked up the one and only ’68 Comeback Special disc. I really dig the rockabilly sound Setzer produces and thinks he really utilized his band. There’s also a lot of surf rock elements that I really enjoy.

Thankfully, all of those elements are on Dig That Crazy Christmas and it makes for a really fun holiday sonic adventure. There’s a great mix of standards like “White Christmas” and “Let It Snow” as well as blues and swing based tunes I hadn’t heard before and even a couple of original songs.

One of my favorite tracks on the record is the noodly mostly instrumental version of “Angels We Have Heard On High.” It’s already such a big and powerful song, which is both exemplified and amplified by the combination of the Orchestra and Setzer’s chops. And that’s really what I’m looking for in new Christmas albums: new takes on old favorites. Usually I’m the guy that wants new inserted into most things and that’s occasionally the case when it comes to Christmas music, but I usually want to sing along and if you can’t do it better or in a different way than Bing Crosby, Dean Martin or Peggy Lee, don’t bother. Setzer and company make these songs their own and thus give a nice rocking take on the songs I know and love.