Chicagoland’s Blue Road band has a holiday offering that will fill the void for some soulful, bluesy, but rockin' Christmas tunes! This CD single has two keepers from this popular Chicago blues/rock band for your holiday playlist - modern versions of White Christmas and Merry Christmas Baby recorded live with a great party atmosphere. Blue Road features soulful vocalist Jimy Rogers – first famed with the 1960’s white Soul band, The Mauds. Veteran session guitarist Gary Gand handles the six strings, Joan Gand is on classic Hammond B-3 style organ, Graham Nelson guests on blues harp and vocals, R Kelly alumnus Joel Treadwell drums, and soul veteran Steve Nevets plays bass and adds vocals. Merry Christmas Baby has been covered by James Brown, Lou Rawls, and many other artists throughout the years. It is a straight blues, but vocalist Rogers injects it with power and intensity. Gand's guitar playing is a a must for guitar fans to hear, reminiscent of Clapton, Beck, and Albert King. Joan Gand plays blues piano on this cut, tickling the keys with dynamics and soul. This cut is live with no edits and captures the holiday mood of the evening. White Christmas features the live track as it was originally done, but with an extra track of vintage Hammond B3 added in the studio to give it an extra coating of "soul sauce." Jimy Rogers starts it off on vocals, and after the guitar and keyboard solos, bassists Steve Nevets adds his sweet smooth vocal sound to the mix. And if you like this one, check out Blue Road's "Live at Gabe's Backstage Lounge" - a full 11 song live disc from the same concert. On a sad note, vocalist Jimy Rogers passed away in December of 2010 from cancer.