Marilyn Scott has invited you to a party, her party. And we’re not talking cheap seats in the back; it’s an all-access pass to the premier musical bash of the season to Get Christmas Started! While other collections this time of year (and from seasons past) may have their moments, Marilyn has crafted the first-ever actual holiday party album, and one with an all-star backing cast to boot. Like any great hostess, Ms. Scott has prepped meticulously for the celebration. Marilyn consciously began adding a new holiday tune into her Christmas season sets each year, the best of which form the heart and soul of Get Christmas Started. Drawing on sources far and wide, including Broadway legend Frank Loesser, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Leon Russell, and Motown hitmaker Anna Gordy Gaye, Scott takes time-tested holiday standards and does what she does best: reinvents them in her own instantly-recognizable style. Nearly half a century after the late Vince Guaraldi co-wrote “Christmas Time is Here” for A Charlie Brown Christmas, Scott has laid her stamp on the modern classic, aided by some super soulful sax accompaniment from Brandon Fields. Her mellow sophistication on the lead-off single from Get Christmas Started brings out the tune’s essential wistfulness, warm and sweet like an Irish coffee on a cold winter’s night. But not to worry: Marilyn closes out the album with a kick-out-the-jams version of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” that blazes through that winter night even more luminously than the reindeer’s famed nose. “We all enjoyed the lighthearted, and soul-wrenching, songs of the season,” says Scott. “Now that’s the way to start the holidays.”