Blue Yule is without question one of the hippest collections of rhythm & blues Christmas music ever assembled. The disc boasts the likes of Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, the gospel-powered Pilgrim Travelers, and Johnny and Edgar Winter, as well as the likes of Detroit Junior ("Christmas Day") and Canned Heat ("Christmas Blues"). Lengthy even by contemporary CD standards, this 18-tracker also includes Charles Brown, Big Jack Johnson, Roy Milton, and the inscrutable Lightnin' Hopkins wishing you both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year." But perhaps the set's greatest gift is also it's strangest--Sonny Boy Williamson's "Santa Claus," a rousing midtempo blues-rocker with a biting harp break and weird, funky lyrics about Sonny Boy going through his wife's drawers. --Martin Keller