You’re forgiven for believing that James Robert Webb’s musical endeavors are glorified moonlighting. His career as a respected Tulsa, Oklahoma musculoskeletal radiologist certainly pays more and arguably has a more tangible impact on other’s lives than his music can hope to achieve. You’re forgiven – for being wrong. There’s nothing about his recent single “Gentlemen Start Your Weekends” or his new single release “I Just Wanna Be Your Santa Claus” that denotes either song as a throwaway. The same commitment to realizing his talents manifests itself in his music as it does in his professional life, albeit under a very different context, and the commitment pays off with memorable work. It has an impact. We come to his work able to forget about our troubles for a while.
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He has a prodigious talent for casting that kind of spell. His innate playfulness runs through the entire song, though he’s wise to not interject that into every line. He picks his spots instead and shows an unerring instinct for when listeners are likely to respond. The overall mood of the song is, naturally, positive and Webb further accentuates it with canny phrasing that delivers a lift in his voice during key lines of the lyrics. He keeps things on a relatable level for the audience, his focus never wavers, and he’s audibly having a good time. It’s an easy bet that this song would have an even greater impact performed in a concert setting.
Where it does show a bit more ambition than you’d expect is in the instrumentation. It has a solidly classic FM country radio sound, yet never comes off as dated, and the mix clearly defines disparate strands overlapping to form a continuous thread. Piano pops up with recurring flashes that help further develop the melody. Electric guitar plays a perhaps unexpectedly prominent role as a short yet potent solo after the song’s midway mark should make a deep impression on listeners.
Webb has a quality few performers possess naturally – presence. You hear his musical influences when you listen to this song, they’re inescapable, but he establishes himself so fast with the audience that, ultimately, you don’t care about anything borrowed or echoed in his music. It is, furthermore, difficult to believe that he’s essentially a part-time performer and recording artist. Even if the subject matter is light, “I Just Wanna Be Your Santa Claus” sounds like he’s been doing this all of his life and nothing else matters. That’s an impressive feat to pull off.
The whole package is an impressive experience. He isn’t changing the world with this song, no one will say that, but in its small yet meaningful way, perhaps “I Just Wanna Be Your Santa Claus” does work on that level, but in individual lives rather than occupying a grand stage. One listen to this song and you wouldn’t have it any other way. James Robert Webb’s “I Just Wanna Be Your Santa Claus” is one of the Christmas holiday’s best singles in recent years.
Garth Thomas