For new technology to thrive in the marketplace it must either perform an existing task in a smaller space or have a pornographic application.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s keep our pants on.

I can stack two dozen forty fives on my thumb. I used to think that was enough when I was going to someones’s house for a platter party. Then, cassettes allowed me ninety pocket-sized minutes. The CD gave me a little less time, but you could slip it under a door. Currently, the iPod has shrunken my entire record collection and fit it where we used to carry our cigarettes when we were allowed to smoke.

It’s hard to believe that much music could ever fit in a smaller package. The Mighty Echoes, however, have been ahead of the curve for years. They contain no hard drive, no flash memory, no click wheel, amplifiers or gear. Yet they offer an inexhaustible bounty of music presented in pristine quality. The overly melismatic acrobatics of American Idol and the cruth of pro-tools post-production has blinded us to the joy of the natural voice.
Rediscover is with the Mighty Echoes.

They can walk into any room and using the same telepathic teamwork evident in bowl winning ball teams and fill the space with song. A simple sound. Simple and profound.

I’ve been lucky enough to hear the Xmas songs on this current release and perhaps the most wonderful thing about it is that it continues the great tradition that the Mighty Echoes have etched out in their twenty year history-- freeing doo-wop from the tyranny of its short life span’s repertoire. Aside from time correct influences such as Vito and the Salutations and The Spaniels, you’ll hear echoes (for there is no other word) of such seeming anachronisms as The Temptations and even John and Yoko.

War Is Over seems especially appropriate, both politically and musically. John Lennon obviously had a lot of love for original doo-wop. He cut more than one classic from that era and I’m guessing he would’ve looked fondly at one of his songs being adapted in this manner.

You will also hear a loving tribute to a Katrina-less Yule in New Orleans and witness the pure nerve of building a wall of sound without the myriad of instruments that Mister Spector employed.

Most of the songs in this set are familiar holiday standards. A collection like this doomed to failure unless the artists bring something remarkable to the performance.

Or are naked.

I believe you will find this disc remarkable. And the Mighty Echoes kept their pants on the whole time they recorded it.

Enjoy it and have yourself a merry little xmas.
eddie gorodetsky

Eddie Gorodetsky is an Emmy Award winning writer who is currently the co-executive producer of the hit series Two and a Half Men. He has too many records with an inexplicable emphasis on Yuletide selections.

Produced, Arranged, Engineered and Mixed by Tommy Dunbar

Additional Arranging by The Mighty Echoes
Additional Engineering Ed Monsef
Recorded at The Hacienda, Toluca Lake, California
Additional recording at Mole Man Studio, Sacramento, California
Mastered by Brad Blackwood, Euphonics Mastering, Memphis, Tennessee

The Mighty Echoes are:
Bass: Charlie Davis - Lead on 2,4 and 6
Baritone: Harvey Shield - Lead on 3,5 and 11
Second Tenor: John Lathan – Lead on 1,8 and10
Tenor: Jon Rubin – Lead on 2,6,7 and 9