Billed under the banner of "Charles Brown and Friends," Fuel Records' Merry Christmas Baby (2000) is really a compilation of blues and soul recordings made by various artists (including Brown) for the Jewel, Paula, and Ronn family of labels during the 1960's and early 70's. Despite the presence of some blues legends, the album simply isn't that great, as most of these artists were either past their prime (Jimmy Reed, Big Joe Williams) or recutting earlier hits (Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson). That's not to say Merry Christmas Baby doesn't contain some (pardon the pun) jewels. Brown's update of the title track is a gas, punctuated by funky, wah-wah guitar. And, Fulson's rendition of his classic "Lonesome Christmas" nearly stands up to the 1950 original he waxed for Swing Time Records. Even Louis Jordan's "Santa Claus Santa Claus" - recorded in 1968 when he was 60 years old - packs an impressive a wallop. (By the way, that's an entirely different song than the "Santa Claus Santa Claus" recorded by James Brown the same year - go figure.)

Actually, the album's lineage stretches back to 1985, when Jewel Records compiled an LP also titled Merry Christmas Baby (never reissued on CD). Then, in 1991, the company (this time under their Paula imprint) packaged the same material on a CD with another handful of holiday tracks, releasing it as (yet again) Merry Christmas Baby. This digital edition casts a wider net, picking up a variety of recordings both old and new - mostly obscure and eccentric, some of dubious quality, others quite cool. Most notable are Johnny & Jon's unbelievable "Christmas In Vietnam" (read more) and the super bad, extra funky "Black Christmas" by Hot Rock Mays (whoever he is...).

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