Bloodshot Records know their way around a good compilation album and this year they’ve put together 13 tracks to celebrate/survive/bemoan the December festive period.

13 Days of Xmas has something to fit any mood, any occasion, for this sometimes-wonderful, sometimes-trying time of year. From the garage-soul of Barrence Whitfield and the Savages’ “Papa Barrence’s Christmas,” to the whistle-while-you-shop joy of Ha Ha Tonka’s “The List,” it’s obvious this is not the usual staid holiday fare. Recognizing the season is not all red-nosed reindeer and frosty snowmen—sometimes it’s red-nosed uncles and frosted hearts—is the Wall-of-Sound girl-group lament of Ruby Boots’s “I Slept Through Christmas” and Nashville-via-Pittsburgh songwriter Zach Schmidt’s update on the classic country weeper trope, “I’m Drunk Again This Christmas.”  Jim Elkington (The Zincs, Tweedy, Eleventh Dream Day) nails the English folk vibe, while The Yawpers celebrate the only way they know how on “Christmas in Oblivion.”

There’s Kelly Hogan, curled up on the couch fireside in slinky flannels, a glass of eggnog in hand, crooning George Morgan’s “Blue Snowfall,” and Chicago’s back porch blues heroes Devil in a Woodpile jigging by a bonfire, dressed in animal skins, drinking a flagon of ram’s blood on their own call to celebrate “The Pagans Had it Right.”

There are some surprising twists on classics: Murder By Death, coming straight from the North Pole via Nick Cave, with their haunting and affecting version of ‘O Holy Night,” and garage rocker Ron Gallo’s disarmingly sweet country lounge take on “White Christmas.” All Our Exes Live in Texas gorgeously take the Australian Christmas-in-prison classic “How To Make Gravy” to ethereal new places.

Rounding out this eclectic bunch is the ever-jolly Jon Langford‘s hilariously touching “Christmas Carol Christmas Ray” and guitar hero Dex Romweber‘s somber instro “Dark Christmas.”

Preorder CD and red or green translucent vinyl HERE

Bloodshot Records’ 13 Days of Xmas track list:

1. Murder By Death – “O Holy Night”
2. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages – “Papa Barrence’s Christmas”
3. Jon Langford and His Men of Gwent – “Christmas Carol, Christmas Ray”
4. Ruby Boots – “I Slept Through Christmas”
5. Ha Ha Tonka – “The List”
6. James Elkington – “Christmas Is Now Drawing Near at Hand”
7. Dex Romweber Duo – “Dark Christmas”
8. Kelly Hogan – “Blue Snowfall”
9. Devil in a Woodpile – “The Pagans Had It Right”
10. Zach Schmidt – “I’m Drunk Again This Christmas”
11. All Our Exes Live in Texas – “How to Make Gravy”
12. Ron Gallo – “White Christmas”
13. The Yawpers – “Christmas in Oblivion”