Lisa Biales: a voice with abundant sunshine, carrying her songs’ weight with ease
By David McGee
AT CHRISTMAS
Lisa Biales
Big Song Music
There are many good things to report about Lisa Biales’s first holiday album. For starters, her voice—a warm, sturdy, a bit flirty instrument right at home with blues, swing and folk, and somewhat reminiscent of the young Maria Muldaur, not only in timbre but in its assured attitude—is supported by a most empathetic and tasteful combo of veterans including the redoubtable Tony Braunagel (who not only produced but sits in on drums, percussions, background vocals and jingle bells); Johnny Lee Schell on guitar and background vocals; Jeff Paris on piano, Hammond organ, glockenspiel and background vocals; Chuck Beghofer and David J. Carpenter on bass; a horn section comprised of Mark Pender on trumpet, Jerry Vivino on sax, Joe Sublett on tenor sax, and Garrett Smith on trombone. Doug Hamilton adds violin and Michael G. Ronstadt is on cello. Maxayn Lewis rounds out the background chorus. Much of this stellar cast gets in on the action right away, on the deep, swaying, swampy second-line groove informing the leadoff track, “At Christmas,” in which Ms. Biales promises her man a most enticing bundle of gifts from Santa—“hugging and kissing, sitting by the fire/Santa gonna bring you what you most desire/at Christmas”—with Pender’s trumpet and Paris’s Hammond engaging in spirited dialogue along the way, setting the stage for a rousing finale in which Schell’s guitar and the horn section send the festivities out on a rousing note. It only gets better from there.
‘At Christmas,’ album title track written by Jerry Paris, Tony Braunagel and Lisa Biales, performed by Lisa Biales
‘Shake Hands with Santa Claus,’ a Louis Prima hit from 1951, performed by Lisa Biales on At Christmas
The aforementioned tune, “At Christmas,” is noteworthy in being one of nine new original tunes out of 10 on this disc, all but one of these being collaborations between Biales and her mates. One original novelty, Lisa’s own “Lulu Magoo,” is a swinging, good-natured ode to, it seems, her dog (perhaps the dog pictured on the back cover of the CD sporting a Santa hat and gripping a stogie in his mouth) that couldn’t be a more cheerful seasonal moment. Swinging, rocking, good natured celebrations define the album’s prevailing mood, and Ms. Biales has the abundant sunshine in her voice to carry that weight. The lone cover reinvigorates a Bob Hilliard-Milton DeLugg gem from 1951 that Louis Prima made hay of back in the day (and which sounds like a no-brainer to join the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s repertoire one day), “Shake Hands With Santa Claus,” and Ms. Biales, with a robust horn section working out behind her, puts glide in the song’s stride, as her playful way with the lyrics is matched by the horns’ exuberance and incisive interjections by Schell’s guitar and Paris’s piano. Johnny Lee Schell contributes a cool bit of holiday perspective in his “That’s What I Like About Christmas,” fueled as it is by Braunagel’s muscular drumming, a fierce tenor sax solo from Sublett and background vocals complementing Biales’s matter of fact reading of Schell’s lyrics in which he admits to not really liking some of the season’s classic signifiers (instead of turkey, he goes for red beans and rice; instead of fruit cake, better an enchilada plate; and Santa descending from the chimney with presents is a non-starter) but getting into the proper spirit when it’s “just my baby and me rockin’ around the Christmas tree.”
‘When the Snowflakes Fall,’ written and performed by Lisa Biales, from At Christmas
‘Christmas Record,’ written and performed by Lisa Biales, from At Christmas
Still another admirable quality about At Christmas comes in the form of another Lisa original, “Christmas Record.” As it unfolds as a piano ballad, very cabaret-ish, with moody instrumental interludes, rather comical, courtesy violin and cello, her lilting pop voice is assertive and assured as she sings what is possibly the first song ever about making a Christmas record. The backstory is one of her vow to rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of a bad breakup but it always comes back to actually making this record in L.A. in September: “How do I pick myself back up again/I’m heading to L.A. to make a Christmas record” she laments in the second verse.
Throw in a beautiful, albeit bittersweet, moment via the Biales-Braunagel slow blues, “When the Snowflakes Fall,” in which the singer reflects on a family’s hard times, exacerbated by a father’s drinking and wanderlust, eventually leading to the home being repossessed. Schell’s twanging guitar solo and Paris’s low humming organ lay on the hurt, the silky background vocals soften the blows but can’t disguise the ache Biales’s vocal projects. Beautiful and touching, this one, nicely done in understated fashion. Another Biales original, “Christmas Cheer,” closes the disc on an upbeat note, as Biales sings “my heart’s full of joy/and my head’s full of Christmas cheer…Merry Christmas everyone…” against a southern rock-inspired backdrop with Schell wailing on slide guitar and Paris rocking the 88s (and adding some hefty organ to the ambience to boot), all leading to a final 40 seconds of Leon Russell-style gospel-rooted raveup with voices and instruments weaving a rich tapestry of spirited improvisational wailing until it winds down with Lisa offering a warm “Merry Christmas everybody!” at sign-off. At Christmas is destined for Yuletide evergreen territory, where it will become essential to keeping Christmas well in our time ahead.
