This Warm December: Brushfire Holiday's, Vol. 1

Editors’ Notes This Warm December stuffs your stocking with the luminaries of Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records roster. It opens with the soft-spoken surfing serenader turning Stevie Wonder’s hopeful “Someday At Christmas” into an acoustic coffeehouse jam that would go great with sipping an eggnog latte while huddling in beach blankets next to a campfire on the sand. Breathy bard Neil Halstead strips down Fountains Of Wayne’s “The Man In the Santa Suit,” brilliantly transforming the quirky carol into a wistfully nostalgic number. Another awesome cover comes from Rogue Wave, revamping the Who’s “Christmas” from Tommy into a lo-fi musing warm enough to fog up the horn-rims of even the most jaded indie kids. The festive funk of Money Mark’s smile-inducing “Stuck At the Airport” and ALO’s upbeat “Christmas Time” keep the compilation from sounding too one-dimensional, as does G. Love’s rootsy and harmonica-heavy “Christmas Baby.” ALO frontman Zach Gill’s whispery rendition of “Silent Night” will warm your insides like mulled wine.