Christmas Spanking
For those who like their holiday spirits on the saucy side, Austin's  foremost purveyors of acoustic swing, naughty blues, and retro hipster jive  deliver a good spanking to an eclectic selection of seasonal fare. Recorded at a  couple of different Texas concerts,A Christmas Spankingis more playful  than polished, with "Red Nosed Reindeer Blues" taking Rudolph on a ride throughMuddy Waters's  neighborhood, whileVince Guaraldi's cartoon  classic "Linus and Lucy" turns into a romp from flamenco through scat. Standards  from the songbooks ofCharles Brown("Merry  Christmas, Baby") andMel Torme("The Christmas  Song") mix with original material such as "12.25.61," in which the band's  frontman Wammo pays birthday tribute to himself. The torching vocals of  Christina Marrs shine brightly through a ukulele-driven rendition of "Blue  Christmas." Though there's plenty of novelty fare, the interplay of clarinetist  Stanley Smith, guitarist Django Porter, and fiddler Korey Simeone is nothing to  laugh at.--Don McLeese