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I have never been to the Delaware Valley, and in fact had never heard of the Delaware Valley. And meaning no disrespect, but who knew the Delaware Valley had such a vibrant music scene? This CD I am listening to, WSTW's Hometown Heroes Presents Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, is one of the best surprises to come my way all year. I am pretty sure this package was sent to me by Paul Janocha, a guy who has been sending me the annual Yes Virginia EPs almost every Christmas since we opened the site back in 1997, he but he usually gives me a heads up there's a package in the mail and like I said, this latest give was unheralded.

Everything is explained if one waits long enough, but part of the mystery here is how one would actually get a copy of this CD. I can find no mention of it on either the Ken-Del Studios site or on the WSTW 93.7 Web site. So, I'll just plunge right ahead and explain what's so good about it.

At 72 minutes and 21 songs by a variety of what I presume to be mostly all local Delaware Valley artists, the producers have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. I'm not quite to the end but so far I've heard a variety of pop and rock musicians, both solo acts and groups. I've heard a few traditional carols, a few holiday rock standards, even a couple of nice new originals. The quality of the recording is excellent, with beautiful sound quality coming out of my iPod, even from the crummy little "near CD quality" mp3 files I use for my listening room. I've heard a lot of recordings come out of similar settings in Austin, but I don't remember hearing such a beautifully recorded set of songs as these.

After I reached the end, I went back and looked at everything I had given five stars. There's The Autumn Affair's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, with Brad McClain's grungy, distorted guitar and Paul Lewis's angst-driven vocals. I also liked Marcus Christoph's clever new renditioning of old Doc Seuss's You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch. Christoph sings and plays all the instruments on this, which seems quite an accomplishment to me, as I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, a simple trick one should never attempt while in Singapore.

There is Mary Arden Collins with a cool new original Christmas Dream, a romantic new singer-songwriter tune that even format radio could love. Outset performs a nice alt rock arrangement of George Michael's Last Christmas, another nice pop tune making the rounds in recent years.

I also enjoyed the forceful vibrato of Phil King's performance of The First Noel, ably accompanied by Bill Kintzer on guitar and with various synth effects. With vocals that brought to mind Henry Rollins, multi-instrumentalist Steve Ketterer impresses with Blue Christmas.

There were no obviously weak tracks on the disc, and opinions surely will vary over which are the greatest. These are just the ones that stood out for me in the brief time I have to comment and move on, in my annual feeding frenzy. But WSTW's Hometown Heroes Presents Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is the kind of record that is difficult to move on from, is all I'm saying.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2006)

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From the liner notes:

This album is dedicated to the Spirits of Peace, Joy and Hope. Many thanks to all of the musicians that have lent their talents to this project to help bring the joy of the season to those less fortunate. Thanks also to the corporate sponsors who helped make this CD happen. Special thanks to Ed Kennedy, Bob Trimble, Peggy Pennypacker, Tracy Files, and, of course, Mark Rogers for his tireless support of the Delaware Valley music scene.

Cover art: Keyleigh Janocha
Manufactured by Ken-Del Productions, Inc.

Listed sponsors:
93.7 WSTW
Hometown Heroes
Gymboree Learning Center
Sunoco Home Comfort Services
Ken-Del Studios
Toys for Tots

Various Artists

WSTW's Hometown Heroes Presents Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Artist link

Track List