GEORGE BAILEY

For anyone needing reasons to live despite all that Christmas mediocrity, sensuality and fun abound in alt-country couple Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison's Happy Holidays (Boars Nest), even if titles like ''In the Bleak Midwinter'' and ''Please Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas'' don't always promise joy. And country stars like Alan Jackson share nylon strings with bluegrass heroes like Rhonda Vincent in A Very Special Acoustic Christmas (Lost Highway), one of the few in the ''Very Special'' series to merit the name. Lawrence Welk and Capra's postsuicidal hero would agree: Wunnerful! Both: B+

THE CHRIST CHILD

What Christmas album would Jesus listen to? Believers and non-might concur that this year, it'd be the Blind Boys of Alabama's Go Tell It on the Mountain (Real World). Guest stars either counter the Boys' gospel grizzledness (Chrissie Hynde, Shelby Lynne) or sound similarly septuagenarian (Tom Waits, George Clinton), with players like John Medeski turning up the spiritual-blues simmer. Go tell it on the mountain, or, failing that, at Tower. A-

Originally posted Dec 19, 2003 Published in issue #742 Dec 19, 2003 Order article reprints
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