Rockford guitarist Steve Laputa has put together a CD whose title both does a great job of getting you ready for the music within and also is a nice creative twist. The cover is much a similar twist, and both of these things fit very well with the music contained within. Laputa works guitar magic around Christmas favorites, both old standards and more modern rockers. The end product is one that will be a nice addition to your holiday celebration.

A lot of instrumental music these days gets a little boring. Laputa definitely avoids this (although, technically this isn't an entirely instrumental album because one track has vocals) by changing up the style drastically from song to song. Make no mistake, Laputa's guitar rules the day on all the tracks, but he shows a mastery of a number of varying musical textures that lends a variety to the disc that works well. He also shows a strong dedication to creating songs rather than extended guitar solos - another trap that much instrumental rock runs into.

The music here wanders between good old-fashioned rock and roll, rockabilly, hard rock and even country. The result is a CD that will have you both in the Christmas spirit and stomping your feet along with the tracks. Laputa is responsible for all the guitars, basses and song arrangements on the disc. Todd Greenwood (drums) and Linda Greenwood (vocals) are both featured on Laputa's take on "Run Rudolph Run", while Kurt Wiesend handles the percussion on the rest of the disc.

Laputa takes on a number of newer Christmas classics (the aforementioned "Run Rudolph Run" being one of those) including the immortal John Lennon penned "Happy Christmas / War Is Over," and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." Looking back to the older music he puts in performances of "Winter Wonderland," "Little Drummer Boy," "Jingle Bells" and others. There is even a cool "hue" duo of "Blue Christmas" followed by "White Christmas."