ALBUM REVIEW: Ben Levin’s Holiday Blues Revue Offers a Bevvy of Cheer
Grant Britt
Posted On December 23, 2024
Little drummer boy been beating you ragged? Silver bells on every street corner driving you nuts?
Tired of hearing what Mariah Carey wants for Christmas? There’s relief in sight. Ben Levin has some new presents for you. The Cincinnati bluesman pianist assembled a bevy of cheer for the holidays with a collection of mostly original songs that don’t travel on the same old worn out sleigh tracks.
Lil’ Ed Williams whips out his raucous slide for some hardcore Chicago blues on “Candy Cane.” Even without the backing of The Blues Imperials, his backing band for the last 30 years, Lil’ Ed still scorches the Christmas tree with his Hound Dog Taylor-style bottleneck licks as Levin adds rollicking barrel house piano to the mix.
In the spirit of Charles Brown, whose “Please Come Home For Christmas” became a holiday staple, Lil’ Jimmy Reed delivers “Lump Of Coal,” the saga of a man who’s been bad all year long, knowing there’ll be no presents under the tree for him. But as he plods along, ruminating on his sins, he finds a Christmas solution: “Gonna change my ways before I grow to old/ I have something sweet in my stocking and it’s not a lump of coal.” Pleased with the outcome, “That’s all right,” he says with a chuckle on the outro.
Levin gets his licks in on the second line parade strut “Santacon,” as Mr. Claus protests that he’s surrounded by impersonators everywhere he goes in the holiday season. Popping into his favorite dive for a Christmas libation, all he sees are Santa pretenders with fake beards who smell like alcohol. He nearly succumbs to a bevy of pretty women, telling them “I’m the real Santa, baby -send me your letter!” But he resists temptation: “I came here by myself, I better leave alone,”) only to find that Mrs. Claus is entertaining a surprise guest for the holidays. “I peep through my window/Something made me pause/ I saw another Santa dancin’ with Mrs. Claus.”
It’s nice to not be wallowing in the same old tinsel and treacle, Levin letting Santa jingle and rock off the beaten path for a change. Merry Christmas, indeed.
Ben Levin Presents A Holiday Blues Review was released on Oct. 25 on Vizztone Records.
