Reverend Horton Heat – We Three Kings

We Three Kings
Reverend Horton Heat
Yep Roc

It might just be that it's hovering around 80 degrees in our nation's capital, but the first couple of spins of the Reverend Horton Heat's new Christmas CD, "We Three Kings," didn't fill me with Christmas cheer.

That's not to say that it's bad. In a couple more months, when I'm more receptive to celebrating the Baby Jesus, this one will probably be spending a lot of time in the disc changer and in my truck. My hangups aren't over what the disc is, but what it isn't.

If you've never seen the Reverend Horton Heat, well, I just feel a little sorry for you. The hard-working, hard-touring Texas trio consists of the Reverend (Jim Heath, guitar), his long-time partner in crime, Jimbo Wallace (upright bass), and Scott Churilla (drums). What sets them apart from many other rockabilly bands is their harder edge and sense of humor in their music. Some call it punkabilly. Some call it psychobilly. I don't know what to call it, but it sounds like fun.

Part of the fun is the irreverence. This is the band that, in the course of touring a couple hundred nights a year, brought us tunes such as "Nurture My Pig," "Wiggle Stick," and "Love Whip."

These guys deal in tongue-in-cheek humor and double entendres the way your run-of-the-mill bar band deals in 12-bar blues. For the most part, though, that's missing from this disc. Who am I to argue? If Santa's making that list and checking it twice, that's probably a good call. It sounds like the Reverend, but somehow it doesn't feel quite like the Reverend.

There's only one original on the disc, "Santa On The Roof," so what you're left with is 12 Christmas classics. There's "Frosty the Snowman," and instrumental "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer." The arrangements on those tunes rock, but at times the band plays it mostly straight. "Silver Bells" and "Pretty Paper" get the traditional crooning treatment.

Though it's not up to the Reverend's usual standard of edginess, it's far from dull. He throws in a guitar quote from the "Batman Theme" on "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." The band also revels in the glory of Chuck Berry with the familiar boogie beat on "Frosty" and the cover of "Run Rudolph Run."

The good Reverend always offers plenty for the guitar fans, and this disc is no exception. Heath draws from rockabilly, blues, jazz, hillbilly and good ol' rock and roll. For 40 minutes, these styles are sprinkled all over like snowflakes, pretty and no two exactly alike. The prowess is evident on the instrumentals "What Child Is This" and "We Three Kings," which is an adventurous excursion from laid-back jazz to galloping country and back.

The real gem of this disc, and the cut truest to the Reverend's off-beat sense of humor, might be the tip of the cap to rockabilly's country roots in a cover of Buck Owens' "Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy." The child narrating the song notices Kris Kringle's resemblance to his father. He also can't help but notice how cozy mom and Old Saint Nick are getting: "Santa put his arm around mama / And mama put her arm around him / So if Santa Claus ain't daddy / Then I'm a gonna tell on them."

"We Three Kings" is less naughty and more nice. But at least it still believes in the power of mistletoe.