1989 Shoney Bear Christmas Songbook.

More Vic Lockman work for you here. He had the presence of mind to sign this one, so I didn't have to bother my friends with thinking it was drawn by someone else.

Did "Jingle Bells" get the center spread every year? I only have 2, and you've seen both of them now.

Maybe my favorite Christmas record

I don't know anything about this record. Nothing. I know that you can buy it from some individuals on that popular stuff-buying website named after a river, but I am pretty sure it's out of print. But, again, I don't know.



I'm not sure what it is about this collection of R&B material that, when you really pay attention to it, is sort of sad. I mean, who has the blues during the most wonderful time of the year? Everybody, probably. I mean, that's what happens on Christmas, right? Man, I'm being a real buzzkill about this Christmas thing. Sorry, dudes.

What I'm trying to say is that this record is awesome and you should listen to it now. Over and over again. It's what I'll be doing.

Merry Christmas, baby!

1987 Shoney Bear Christmas Songbook.

Because you have to have something to look at in November and December when you've colored your placemat, eaten your Junior All-American and are just sitting in that booth waiting for your dad to finish one more trip to the Soup, Salad and Fruit Bar so you guys can get back on the road to Grandma's house, right?

Although this is unsigned and I initially though it was by Gospel Blimp creator Al Hartley, Devlin and Dave set me straight. This work is actually by Vic Lockman. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but we'll see more of Vic's work around these parts really soon. In the meantime, your Dad's asking for one more cup of coffee, so I suppose you ought to get to singing...

Some Christmas Cards for you!

Two Christmas Cards and some lens tissues.

Christmas In America

If you're anything like me, you like the Christmas music, but you're always left disappointed because the singers don't have a thick enough German accent.

This record will solve that problem for you.

Here you go.

The Coctails - "Winter Wonderland" EP

Welcome to December, when everyone starts puling out the Christmas music and decorations (unless you work where I do...a place where this happened on the day before Halloween for some reason. Seriously...).

Anyway...The Coctails are really good. I always forget that I have this record until after Christmas when it is too late. So I'm putting it here so I (and hopefully you) will not forget about it. Hey, did I just tie the title of this "blog" into an entry? I think I did!

The Coctails played in Athens only 1 time, I think. The Woggles opened for them. I had recently recorded some saxophone stuff on the Woggles "Hang Loose" record and I played a couple songs with them during their set. I was really excited about opening for The Coctails. I had talked to them before the show and they were all really great guys and I loved their records and I couldn't wait to finally see them live. They played a couple of songs and one of the band members (I cannot remember which one) got very sick. The show was called off, and they never made it back to Athens. They did a reunion show in Chicago a couple years ago, but I'm still waiting on that Athens show...

I have included front and back cover scans, label scans and a scan of the 1994 Hi-Ball Records catalog.

I promise this isn't going to become all Christmas all month, but I'd be a fool to share this with you guys. I hope you enjoy it.

Winter Wonderland.