For my contribution the Reader‘s daily 12 O’Clock Track last week, I posted a biting version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” by the great Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence, noting that I don’t possess the same knee-jerk, absolutist aversion to holiday music as many of my colleagues. In fact, I sometimes really enjoy it, a clear vestige of warm childhood memories. On Saturday my wife had the car radio tuned into WBEZ and we listened to the annual Sound Opinions show with guest Andy Cirzan, the Jam Productions vet whose appetite for holiday music is hard to match. He focused his selections this year exclusively on soul music, playing not only well-known classics like “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway and “Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto” by James Brown, but lesser-known gems like “Snow Flake” by J.J. Barnes and “Winter Man” by Clarence Reid (aka Blowfly).