Just Because It Was Christmas

by Rough Shop

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1.
Just Because It Was Christmas 03:23
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2.
Big Man Under the Tree 02:20
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3.
How to Make Gravy 05:01
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4.
Lullaby Child 02:35
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5.
This Silent Night 03:54
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6.
One Special Gift 01:51
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7.
Once Upon a Christmas 03:12
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8.
Christmas One More Time 04:21
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9.
Little Wrapped Gift 02:56
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10.
Santa's Last Stop 02:10
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11.
Happiest New Year 02:13
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about

Just Because It Was Christmas
(Perdition Records)
By Christian Schaeffer / Riverfront Times

Amid the jingling bells and blinding lights, it's easy to forget that Christmas is a holiday of contrasts: darkness into light, cold into warmth, solitude into togetherness. This strand of earthly fatalism runs through the best carols: From "Silent Night" to "White Christmas," it's what makes the Christmas songbook some of the most resonant, emotionally loaded music around. Local trio Rough Shop understands the myriad joys and occasional heartaches that come around this time of year, and Just Because It Was Christmas outlines the season's promise and possibility with expertly played folk rock.

Springing from the band's annual Christmas concerts), the album contains a few dusty cover songs and no well-known classics, but it's the original material that shines brightest. Andy Ploof's title track, propelled by a Byrds-y twelve-string guitar and buoyed by spot-on harmony vocals, is a wonder: The song is hopeful, nostalgic and cheery, but with a real-world wisdom that keeps it from being cloying. Later in the disc, his spare "Lullaby Child" is such a tearjerker that, if there's any justice, Emmylou Harris will record it for her next holiday album. The whole disc is worth picking up, but these two songs are stellar.

Like all good Christmas parties, this disc is made merrier by the hosts' hospitality at letting their guests take the mic. Toby Weiss contributes "Little Wrapped Gift," her jangly rewrite of the Nightcrawlers' "Little Black Egg," and Kate Eddens sings about a cross-dressing, spliff-smoking, Schnapps-shooting Santa in the jazzy "Big Man Under the Tree." The Love Experts' Steve Carosello fits perfectly on this disc, and he takes guitarist John Wendland's "This Silent Night" out into the bitter cold. Even bleaker is bassist Anne Tkach's haunting reading of Low's "One Special Gift," which has the nihilism of a junkie's last prayer. Though the forecast occasionally looks bleak, Just Because is ultimately a celebration of the season's mysteries, both big and small.

credits

released November 15, 2009

Produced by Rough Shop and Jack Petracek.
Tracked at Sawhorse Recording Studio (St. Louis)

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Rough Shop St Louis, Missouri

Rough Shop is a band from St. Louis, featuring songwriters John Wendland and Andy Ploof, formerly of One Fell Swoop, along with the voice and bass of Anne Tkach, a veteran of Hazeldine, Nadine and Magic City. Together they perform as an acoustic trio and as an electric outfit featuring Spencer Marquart on drums. Released in 2012, "Beneath the South Side Bridge is the band's fourth album. ... more

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