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One of the real pleasures of this Christmas reviewing job is the occasional receipt of a CD like Kevin Kane's Christmas Leftovers. It is almost like found art: it just washes up on the beach and presents itself to me in all its glory.

These "Christmas leftovers" are a fun set of songs written, originally, to help enliven cheesy Christmas toys. And although the production values are pretty basic, and the singer doesn't hit every note, these songs are instantly endearing. Each is a tiny Christmas vignette, a new and sometimes twisted take on a familiar Christmas image or cliche: the Elves celebrating and cutting up after Santa has ridden away on his sleigh ("That Little Fat Man"), or a man's lonely lament on Christmas day over the absence of his son and ex-wife ("Home For The Holidays").

I enjoyed the entire set. There was an immediacy and a poignancy to these songs, like watching reality television and seeing through the game to notice some truth about one of the characters, something the character and the producer did not really intend. This is Christmas.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2004)

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From the liner notes:

The last couple of years I've done some work for a company that makes toys that sing and dance when you touch them. Most of the toys I've been working on lean toward Christmas. I've written songs for melting snowmen, dancing santas, elves, reindeer and jiggling Nativity Sets. The songs I write are optioned for use for one year and then rights revert to me. And so what am I going to do with a bunch of Christmas demos? Send them to my friends and neighbors a week before Christmas? That seemed appropriate. And no matter what you hear, there is not an irreverent word in any of these little songs of the season. There are expressions of joy and wonder, a sampling for your holiday pleasure, songs originally written for lesser reasons.

Kevin Kane

Christmas Leftovers

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Track List