Last month I reviewed My Window Faces The South, a charming album of Western Swing and trad jazz from Sweet Megg, who has been recently splitting her time between Nashville and Brooklyn. Around this time last year she released a marvelous jazz only session with Ricky Alexander, called I'm In Love Again. These are both must have albums form the newest traditional jazz label on the scene, Turtle Bay Records. Around the time they were promoting I'm In Love Again last fall they recorded an album worth of Christmas music in Turtle Bay producer Scott Asen's Manhattan apartment.
“We had Jon [Atkinson] from Big Tone Records come in and bring all his old recording equipment from the 1940s,” Sweet Megg (aka Meaghan Farrell) said in a press release. “We recorded everything live to tape. It was so fun to work that way. This music comes from an acoustic era and the warmth of these older recording techniques suits it well.”
My partner, who knows not to knock while I am hammering out reviews, just stopped in to ask if she could keep this album when I'm done with it as her "first good addition to my Christmas music collection in years." We discussed the analog sound, which another reviewer felt flattened the depth of Megg's range, while gushing over her vocals on studio albums and the band's clever arrangements. I did an A/B test, showing her cuts from both of Megg's other records for T
