Season for a Smile 2022
This time of year, it becomes clear that a team needs the leadership of a good quarterback for success. Back in 2015 Kevin Tock founded Team Bryce (teambryce.foundation/events/season-for-a-smile), the foundation dedicated to “facilitate improving the lives of children with special needs and their families by helping them achieve their full potential through participation in sports and other activities.”
The organization was inspired by Tock’s son Bryce who is disabled. Kevin Tock also happens to be a music fan, so he took the natural next step. His idea was a holiday-themed album chock-full of local talent and he has led Team Bryce in organizing a rare chance to see an impressive collection of Milwaukee talent on one stage at the album release concert.
Team Bryce Foundation Presents: Season for a Smile @ The Cooperage, 5:30 p.m. Saturday, November 26. All children with disabilities and special needs are welcome, free of charge.
As a fan and friend of local music, Tock took a wide approach to holiday music, both obscure and familiar, in curating the new compilation, Season for a Smile, available digitally (teambryce.bandcamp.com/album/season-for-a-smile), on CD and vinyl. Of the 11 artists on the album, only Ggoolldd will not perform at the event, due to a prior commitment.
The Songs
The album kicks off with a welcome return from KEEDY who offers her take on “Little Drummer Boy.” The Band Squirrel, update the traditional “Ocho Kandelikas” (“Eight Little Candles”): youtube.com/watch?v=0Z59cFoVFGs, a tango sung in Old Spanish language of Ladino, celebrates Hanukkah, celebrating lighting the candles of the menorah.
The Grovelers deliver a kickstart for any holiday soiree with a perfectly unhinged take on Chuck Blevin’s “Sleigh Bell Rock”: youtube.com/watch?v=JOLQVceyVeA. Testa Rosa’s selection, “The Peace Carol” was originally a duet by the Muppets and John Denver in 1979: youtube.com/watch?v=iP5MwVdu3c0.
Betty Blexrud-Strigens has fond memories of the song. “It's been a favorite since I was a kid and I remember playing it on guitar when I was still learning how. As a band, we've played it live in various incarnations over the years, often with Mark Waldoch at our holiday shows. When Kevin mentioned it was also a favorite of Bryce's we knew that was the one. Bryce may even be playing tambourine with us the night of the show!”
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London USA, who are reuniting for the event, deliver a tune that transports the listener back to the power ballads of the ‘80s. Their track “All Alone on Christmas Day” is the only original song on the album. With “Christmas Wrapping,” The Quilz recall the ghost of Christmas past and the late Patti Donahue with The Waitresses’ blasé, groovy ode to holidaze stress: youtube.com/watch?v=nud2TQNahaU that resolves with a “very happy ending.”
Palm Ghosts will be making the trip from Nashville for the concert; there is a sense of reverence in “It’s Always Christmas.” Lack of Reason’s tightly wound “Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas” is a nice contrast to The Carolinas jangly take on Big Star’s “Jesus Christ,” the pastiche Alex Chilton admitted cobbling together from a pair of hymns. Jack Rice of The Carolinas, who is on the foundation’s board of directors, said there is “confusion if it was really a Christmas song. It was a natural choice for The Carolinas.”
Modern Muse’s “Wintersong” ends the album on the exactly perfect note, a blend of somber and quiet optimism. Here’s hoping for a volume two.
