Truckers' Christmas (Sundazed, 2004)

Like Buck Owens, Red Simpson was a practitioner of country's Bakersfield sound. He's best known for his truck-driving songs, particularly the top-five hit, "I'm a Truck."

This is a reissue of his lone Christmas album, a 1971 release that, fittingly, is all about trucking around Christmas time. On "Blue Blue Christmas," he can't make it home for the holidays, but on "Dad Will Be Home for Christmas" and "Gone Home for Christmas," he does. On "Out on the Road for Christmas," the trucker is happy to be on the road and have his truck for company at Christmas. "Santa's Comin' in a Big Ol' Truck" tells the kids that even though it hasn't snowed out west, Santa will make it via alternate transportation. Alan Jackson teamed up with the Chipmunks to remake this song on his first Christmas album in 1993.

The album includes a couple of Bakersfield-sound instrumentals as well, with staccato electric guitars trading off licks with tinkling pianos. Simpson is not a particularly gifted songwriter, but his sympathetic, sometimes humorous storytelling keeps the album entertaining, despite the narrow subject material. For fans of old time country, this is a pretty good choice.