No matter how quickly you get sick of hearing Christmas music, a number of those who helped lay the foundation of rock as we know it managed to whip up some of the most timeless holiday LPs ever. Johnny Cash’s The Christmas Spirit begins with a haunting, spoken word title track, and almost half of the other songs on the album are at least co-credited to Cash. And Elvis Presley’s holiday material is just as recognizable as the music that put him on the map in the first place.
Chris Isaak—well-known for heavily taking after our heroes on Sun Records—just released his second holiday album, Everybody Knows It’s Christmas, and quite like his sold-out Wednesday night gig in downtown Clearwater, it’s loaded with moments that’ll make you laugh, raise your eyebrows, and remind yourself that maybe holiday music isn’t so bad after all.
The 66-year-old—dressed in a black, sequin-dusted suit, with a head still packed with neat hair, and wielding a white Gretsch—along with longtime band Silvertone came onstage about 10 minutes late, but immediately swung into the Isaak original “Christmas Comes But Once A Year.” Any iteration of Elvis’ Christmas album is almost guaranteed to feature “Blue Christmas,” so you’d better believe he squeezed that one in as well, performing the rockabilly classic in Elvis’ original key.
“Somebody’s Crying” was Isaak’s first non-holiday-themed original of the night, and some lyrical improvisation was a wink at his bandmates. “I know when somebody’s drinkin’, somebody’s guzzlin’,” he sang, following an organ solo from keyboard maestro Scotty Plunkett.
“Without you, then I’m just wandering around Clearwater in this suit, with little kids pointing at me as they drive by going ‘Mommy! A figure skater!’” Isaak jabbed during his opening remarks. Before Wednesday night, it had been almost four years to the date since Isaak stopped in Clearwater, so needless to say, he had some serious catching up to do with everyone.
“I got nervous more than usual coming out here tonight, because every audience is different, and you never know. It could be a mob tonight,” Isaak admitted. I can’t say for sure if he was talking about the probability of Scientologists showing up at the Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, but he was so comfortable with this audience that he left the stage and started walking up and down the stage left aisle while singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and even made his way up to the mezzanine, and onto the armrest of a female fan’s chair. “I’ll be back,” he promised in-jest.
Isaak mentioned how the local fire marshal had apparently come in earlier that day while the band was rehearsing, and for reasons unrelated to safety, wasn’t too pleased with how “Put Out Your Hand” included guitarist Hershel Yatovitz and bassist Rowland Salley dancing during the instrumental segments. Isaak decided that not only would his band get down with it, but he too would swivel his hips ala Elvis for a few seconds.
He got “Wicked Game”—which received a standing ovation—out of the way only eight songs in, and once he was done holding high notes on that, and admiring Yatovitz’ frenetic ending solo on “Go Walk Down There,” the comedian in Isaak returned.
He was apparently feeling a bit self-conscious about his outfit, hoping that no one would judge the sequins. “I have found kindred spirits. You’re all freaks like me,” he declared. “I don’t care what your pronouns are. I was an English major in college and didn’t really know what a pronoun was. But I always thought of myself as a dangling participle.”
Not long after, the stage was set for an acoustic bit, which saw Isaak switch out his Gretsch for an acoustic six-string with his name on it. He then said that he is apparently a massive John Prine fan. For one thing, the late Gulfport resident covered “Killing The Blues,” a song written—and performed Wednesday night—by Rowland Salley. And when Isaak was chatting about where Everybody Knows It’s Christmas came from, he mentioned that in one of the rooms Isaak and friends recorded in at RCA Records, there was a white Christmas tree, in the middle of summer, mind you. He initially thought that it was encouragement from the studio, but apparently, Prine put it up himself not long before he passed, solely because he just loved the holidays.
A few ugly tears and a few lyrics of Prine’s “Christmas in Prison” later, Isaak lightened the mood with “Dogs Love Christmas Too,” a “goofy” song from his new album, followed by his own, bluesy twist on “Winter Wonderland,” a holiday song many of us wish we could relate to as our December weather continues to fail at holding a candle to winter.
After returning to electric mode to finish the main set with “Blue Hotel” and “Notice The Ring,” Isaak returned to the stage for an encore in a suit drenched in disco ball mirror tiles. He threw his own guitar solo, which included the James Bond theme song into “Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing” and closed up shop with a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper,” sung by drummer Kenney Johnson, who takes care of many of Isaaks high harmonies.
If only Mr. Prine could see him now.
