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Christmas CDs are not for the artistically pure. Many artists--a few I admire a lot--refuse on principle to record a holiday record. Fortunately, the Asylum Street Spankers are as unprincipled as they are hilarious, making/taking the opportunity to taunt the season in much the same vein they poke fun at everything else fortunate enough to find itself in their field of fire.

The Spankers did their homework, selecting a set list featuring the best of catchy lounge-ready holiday tunes from the 20th century, with the possible exception of Santa Baby (closed out by Madonna in the late eighties, anyway). Setting aside my Santa Baby quibble, cabaret diva Christina Marrs covers everything else I would expect to hear from her on a Spankers Christmas title, (especially) including a Baby, It's Cold Outside duet with Wammo, who mocks both Dean Martin and Tom Waits (imagine Martin morphing into Waits in a single phrase).

Elsewhere, Wammo renders his unique and personal gem, 12.25.61, and a Hookeresque reading of Rudolph's theme in Red Nosed Reindeer Blues. There's also a semi-serious tip o' the party hat to Vince Guaraldi with an improv-flavored rendition of the generation-defining Linus and Lucy.

From from blues to swing to jazz to easy listening, the Asylum Street Spankers poke fun and pay tribute to some of the best forms of the last century. Their Christmas CD is required listening for aficionados.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2002)

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From the liner notes:

Who are the Asylum Street Spankers?

They're a swing band, a camp act, and a fixture on the Austin scene since the mid-nineties. Tongue at the ready, these cheeky posers have assumed the throne, abdicated in recent years by the venerable Austin Lounge Lizards, as reigning madcaps on the local scene, albeit with more swing than twang.

On A Christmas Spanking the Spankers are Guy Forsythe, dobro; Mike Henry, snare, percussion, MC; Christina Marrs, vocals, ukulele, musical saw; Brent Martens, string bass; Django Porter, lead guitar; Korey Simeone, fiddle, dobro, vocals; Kevin Smith, string bass; Stanley Smith, clarinet, vocals, guitar; Wammo, vocals, harp, washboard, whistle.

Asylum Street Spankers

A Christmas Spanking

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Track List