Holiday album in works

You've probably spent this month in a sweltering funk, trying to get through the dog days of August. But Jeff Carroll has spent this summer getting into the Christmas spirit. He's putting together a local-artist compilation album, "Have a Holly, Raleigh Christmas," which will be out in time for this year's holiday season.

"It's been very strange," Carroll says. "Not just for me but for all the artists, to be working on this in the middle of summer. Just getting people to think about it has been sort of like pulling teeth. But it sounds really good -- like the holidays."

Carroll runs Bluefield Mastering in Raleigh, applying post-production touches to recordings. The Christmas project began gestating last year when local singer/songwriter Dan Bryk enlisted Carroll to master a song called "Love Me for Christmas."

"I was working on that and it hit me, 'We could do a whole compilation of Christmas music from Raleigh artists,' " Carroll says. "So I put out some feelers around the new year. There were only a couple of responses at first, but a few months later one of the bands asked if I was still doing the Christmas compilation. So I started asking again, and it went from there."

Bryk's "Love Me for Christmas" is on the 14-track album, alongside originals from the Rosebuds, Milagro Saints, Kenny Roby, Schooner, Overproof, Terry Anderson, Rob Watson and others. And it's even multicultural: Nathan Asher contributes "Dona," a traditional Yiddish folk song that Asher busts out around Hanukkah every year.

"Have a Holly, Raleigh Christmas" will be released Nov. 18, the same day as the annual downtown Raleigh Christmas parade. That date is not a coincidence. The album's proceeds are earmarked to finance scholarships for area high school musicians who march in the parade and need new instruments.

The Greater Raleigh Merchants Association is paying for its manufacturing costs, with copies to be sold at GRMA retailers.

Stamey's 'Christmas'

Also on the holiday front, Chapel Hill pop icon Chris Stamey has been busy this summer preparing an expanded version of his 1985 album "Christmas Time." Credited this time to "The dB's and Friends" and retitled "Christmas Time Again," the new version comes out Nov. 7 on Collector's Choice.

The 21-track set includes earlier songs by Stamey, the dB's and Big Star. New additions include contributions from Whiskeytown, the reunited dB's, Don Dixon, Marshall Crenshaw and Thad Cockrell with Roman Candle.

Writing for Sugar Hill

Barry Poss, founder of Sugar Hill Records, describes his ability as a writer thusly: "I have perfection in taste, but not the skill to go with it." The thing is, he's writing a lot lately.

Poss assembled and wrote liner notes for "Sugar Hill Records: A Retrospective," a four-disc box set covering highlights of the Durham-based label's first 25 years. Nickel Creek, Ricky Skaggs, Dolly Parton, Robert Earl Keen and all of Sugar Hill's other big shots are present.

"A Retrospective" comes out on Sept. 12, which is 10 days before Poss will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Americana Music Association. The ceremony happens at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, with New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint and guitarist Kenny Vaughan also to be honored.

"The coolest thing about that is I'll be onstage with Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello," Poss says. "How great is that? I'm supposed to do some kind of acknowledgment, but I don't know yet how extensive."

Poss agonized over the box set's liner notes for years, lacing them with anecdotes about the performers and his time running the label. That's one reason it's coming out now instead of 2003, Sugar Hill's silver-anniversary year.

"I had a hard time getting this project going," Poss says. "Emotionally, it was much more difficult than I had originally anticipated. Making the selections was no fun because every one I'd make meant there were several more I was not making.

"Then the notes became a major issue. I didn't want to do the conventional, dry thing of, 'Here are the musicians, what they're known for, who did what.' I wanted to tell the story of what it was like to be involved in an intimate way with artists and the rest of the business."