All I Want for Christmas

This post might seem a little early, but I've been on my annual CD moratorium for 19 days, which has given me plenty of time to start thinking about my Christmas list. Compiling such a list of completely unnecessary goodies that I'd like to find under the tree has long been an enjoyable project. My first memories of Christmas lists are of sitting down with lined notebook paper and the Sears catalog, jotting down some kick-ass toys for my parents' shopping pleasure. Maybe I'd even put down a pair of Toughskins or something like that so they'd think I was being at least a little practical. After a while, in the 6th or 7th grade, I started to pay more attention to the scantily clad ladies in the front of the book who were modeling bras and panties. Life has gotten more complicated since I began noticing the fairer sex. But making a Christmas list has remained relatively simple. No matter what you have, there's always something that you want.

Here are some of the items that have my attention this year:

CDs
"Johnny Cash at San Quentin" – There has been kind of a glut of Cash material in the marketplace since his death in 2003. On Nov. 17, Columbia/Legacy is adding another reissue of one of Cash's most beloved albums. Originally a 10-song LP in 1969, when it spawned the single "A Boy Named Sue" and shot to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, it was expanded to 18 tracks by Columbia/Legacy in 2000. Now, in time for the holiday season, consumers will be treated to a 2-CD, 1-DVD set that adds a Cash/June Carter Cash duet on "Jackson," more material from Cash and Carl Perkins, and more material from the Carter Family. The DVD will include the documentary, "Johnny Cash in San Quentin," which originally aired on British television. I hate to keep re-buying material I own already (yes, Mr. Springsteen, I am talking about you and your 6-month anniversary edition of "Seeger Sessions"), but this one is pretty high on my wish list.

"American Music: The Hightone Records Story" (4-CD, 1-DVD box set) – Before there was an Americana Movement (or at least before it had a name), there was Hightone, the Oakland, Calif., label dedicated to bringing fans of American roots music quality releases in the blues, rock, country and singer-songwriter/folk genres, and that's how the four CDs on this set are broken down. The lineup is impressive: Robert Cray, R.L. Burnside, The Blasters, Joe Ely, Dave Alvin, Buddy Miller, Big Sandy, Dale Watson, Hot Club of Cowtown, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Chris Smither, Tom Russell and Ramblin' Jack Elliott are but a handful of the artists representing this outstanding label on this incredible, organized set. With the addition of a DVD containing videos from some of these fine folks, few box sets will rival Hightone's this year.

One set that rivals the Hightone box, though, is "Sugar Hill Records: A Retrospective," a 4-CD box that I like to think of as the "unplugged" to Hightone's largely electric offering. Sugar Hill has a year or two on Hightone in terms of label history, and their roster over the past 25 years reads like a who's who of acoustic-based roots music: Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Peter Rowan, Marty Stuart, Mike Auldridge, Tony Rice, New Grass Revival, Chris Hillman, Hot Rize, Doc Watson, Tim O'Brien, Townes Van Zandt, Del McCoury, Nickel Creek, Scott Miller, Darrell Scott and Guy Clark – and that's only scratching the surface. If Santa doesn't leave me this one, I'm going to have to hope that I make a little Christmas cash-ola ... the gift that keeps on giving.

Books
"The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia," by Michael Gray; and "Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: 1960-1973: The Early Years," by Paul Williams – Gray's book, which has been getting a lot of buzz the past couple months, is the kind of exhaustive work that wouldn't necessarily be enjoyable to read cover-to-cover, but would be a real treat to just open to a random page and see what turns up. I really enjoyed this encounter from the amazon.com description: Neil Diamond challenges Dylan to top him as he comes offstate. Dylan's reply: "Waddaya want me to do – go onstage and fall asleep?" Few performers have been as enigmatic as Dylan, and there are hundreds of factoids in this book that factor into his complicated equation. I wasn't at all familiar with Williams, who as a teenager founded Crawdaddy! magazine, until his work recently was recommended by a friend. I did a little digging around on the Internets and found out that this guy is widely praised as the authority on Dylan's live work. Since Williams focuses on Dylan's career as a performer, much of the material covered is from unauthorized "field recordings," meaning that only diehards are likely to have the discs to compare with the writing. I think it would be worth reading anyway; anything that provides insight as to the inner workings of Bob is time well spent.

"Nashville Radio: Art, Words and Music," by Jon Langford – Maybe you know Langford from his work with The Mekons. Or the Waco Brothers. Or as a solo artists. Or maybe you're more familiar with his art, some of which graces the cover of Jim Lauderdale's new CD, "Bluegrass." However you may (or may not) know Langford, this book gives you the best of both worlds: More than a hundred reproductions of Langford's art, along with writing and a CD of Langford performing songs that are described within. I held this book in my hands at a Tower Records liquidation sale yesterday, but put it back because I didn't think we could swing it this week. That's what I would call being nice, Santa. Let's offset that naughty ledger a little bit, huh?

"Photographs of Johnny Cash by Leigh Wiener" and "Johnny Cash: The Biography," by Michael Streissguth – I mentioned that plethora of Cash material earlier, but the items released recently have mostly been worthwhile. Wiener, who apparently had quite a career as a photojournalist and who photographed every president from Truman to Reagan, here presents a collection of portraits taken of Cash in Los Angeles in the early '60s. I get the feeling that Cash was being pretty honest in "Cash: The Autobiography," but I also get the feeling that Streissguth, who also wrote "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison," will give me even more insight into the conflicts that made the man The Man in Black.

"R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country," by Stephen Calt, David Jasen, R. Crumb & Terry Zwigoff – Crumb, an internationally famous cartoonist and illustrator as well as old-time music fan, produced the artwork for this book, which combines the portraits with short bios of the artists. Crumb also compiled a 21-song CD comprising some of these artists, including Charley Patton and Dock Boggs.

DVDs
"6 String Belief: Son Volt Live" – Having been pretty much blown away by seeing Son Volt on the 2005 tour behind "Okemah and the Melody of Riot," I'd love to have this representative document, which was recorded in Asheville, N.C. I can just see my baby girl in about 10 years getting a look at this and saying, "Daddy, what is this? It sucks." I can also imagine her in 25, maybe even after I'm gone, taking a second look and saying, "Thanks, Dad."

"Bryan Sutton's Secrets for Successful Flatpicking" – I've already been frustrated beyond belief by my Homespun Tapes instructional videos from Doc Watson and Tony Rice. Time to let the next generation of astounding flatpickers simultaneously inspire me to practice harder and quit playing forever.