Setzer offers new songs

Christmas Comes Alive!

There is Christmas music for somber meditation, but there is also room at holiday time for Christmas party music, too. And The Brian Setzer Orchestra's "Christmas Comes Alive!" was created for the latter category. Setzer particularly makes Christmas alive and lively during Boogie Woogie Santa Clause, which features a swinging big band arrangement, highlighted by a wonderful trombone solo. And if you like this one, you may also dig Stray Cat Strut/You're A Mean One, Mr. ...

Wolfgang's Big Night Out

Some artists like to prove their range, hopping over the course of a career from hard-core country to bluegrass to trip-hop. Brian Setzer likes to mine niches until he masters them. Known for reviving rockabilly in the early 1980s with The Stray Cats, Setzer has more recently worked toward melding those '50s guitar sound with big-band and swing music. But his newest effort takes things a step further - and it wouldn't be an insult to say back. This puts a swing-band lens over some ...

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Blazing away with every guitar trick at his command, Brian Setzer has crafted the hardest rocking album of his career. Forgoing by-the-letter reliance on specific genres, the former Stray Cat employs a bold, creative approach sure to alienate purists. There's hardly a guitar-based style that Setzer doesn't turn inside out. The greasy antiauthoritarian raver "Everybody's Up to Something" echoes Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," and the punky cacophony of ...