Loose Cattle Share Their Xmas Favorites Before Their "Christmas Wrecktacular"

From Loose Cattle’s “Seasonal Affective Disorder” cover

The Americana band’s Kimberly Kaye lists some of her holiday favorites, none of which will turn up on all-Christmas radio any time soon.

In 2017, New Orleans’ Americana group Loose Cattle released Seasonal Affective Disorder, a collection of Christmas songs for those whose holidays are less than idyllic. They covered Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis,” Merle Haggard’s class-conscious “If We Make it Through September,” and such woozy favorites as “A Truck Stop Christmas,” “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas),” and Robert Earl Keen’s classic “Merry Christmas from the Family.”

“Kim described [the album] really accurately as the musical equivalent of getting your friends and family together for the holidays in all the complexity and joy and difficulties that entails,” Loose Cattle’s Michael Cerveris says

On Friday, they literally get the friends together to play their “Christmas Wrecktacular” at the Maple Leaf Bar at 7 p.m. with a host of musical guests including Alexis & the Sanity and Jack, Luke Spurr Allen and Arlo, John Boutte, Debbie Davis, Joanna Divine and Andre Michot, The Iguanas, Maggie Koerner, Lilli Lewis, Lola from NOLA & Bruisey Peets, Anders Parker, Paul Sanchez, and Edward Carter Simon.

Kimberly Kaye of Loose Cattle shares some of the Christmas songs that speak to her, none of which exactly deliver the warm fuzzies.

“Back Door Santa” by Clarence Carter

Fantastically, funkily filthy. Stacked horns herald the arrival of a swaggering neighborhood lothario visiting “all the girls,” a dude so shameless he gifts pennies to the kids “so that we can be alone” while dad’s out. Also, a tune so cool Run-DMC sampled it for their now classic “Christmas in Hollis.”

“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues

One of the greatest drunken singalong songs ever written, full stop. Visions of drunk tanks, cold and worn out hustlers, and pithily dysfunctional romances get driven into a frenzied chorus by Celt-punk instrumentation. “I could have been someone!” “Well so could anyone.” Iconic.

“Cool Yule” by Louis Armstrong & The Commanders

Big, brass band energy, catchy horn licks, and a Louie trumpet solo. A straight dopamine hit that doesn’t even register as a “holiday” song unless you’re really listening to the lyrics.

“Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles

Sleigh bells, witchy four-part harmonies, and a shredding guitar riff? Simon & Garfunkel painted the original lyrical landscape of chilly, leaf-covered ground and hazy winter skies, but The Bangles made it rock hard enough to become a Solstice anthem Millenials and Zoomers love as much as their predecessors.

“River” by Joni Mitchell

Peak musical storytelling which perfectly communicates the waves of melancholy, regret, and brutal introspection which crash into many adults during the darkest, coldest months of the year. Joni confesses “I’m so hard to handle—I’m selfish, and I’m sad,” and millions of us feel it in our marrow. Us too, girl.

Tickets to the “Christmas Wrecktacular” are on sale now, and we wrote about Seasonal Affective Disorder in 2017.. Loose Cattle appeared on our Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast, as has Debbie Davis.