It's getting to be the time of year when the holiday air is filled with the strains of Dr. Elmo's hearty perennial, “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.”

That little chestnut has sold more than 10 million copies since he recorded it in 1979, and it keeps Dr. Elmo, aka Novato's Elmo Shropshire, in demand for more personal appearandes than the fat man himself.

But Shropshire doesn't just pop out from under the Christmas tree every holiday season, arriving like “Grandma's Killer Fruitcake,” another of his seasonal smilers. He's a legitimate Bay Area bluegrass musician, playing banjo, singing in a high Kentucky wail and fronting his band, Wild Blue, featuring guitarist/singer John Pierson, bassist Larry Carlin

and, on this CD, mandolinist Dana Rath (of the Modern Mandolin Quartet) and Berklee School of Music alum Kenny Blacklock on fiddle.

Shropshire gives his fans their money's worth with 20 bluegrass, country and pop songs. He can't resist including a couple of novelty tunes, the dark humor of “Dr. Kevorkian” and “Wild Dogs of Kentucky,” complete with snoring, snarling and you get the idea.

Band members trade lead vocals and join in three-part harmony on tunes like Don Reno's “He's Coming Back to Earth Again” and Tim O'Brien's fine “Walk the Way the Wind Blows.” Carlin's keening tenor gives the harmony an authentic bluegrass sheen.

Pierson's lead guitar solos stop the show on

several tunes, and Shropshire's banjo playing gives Steve Martin a run for his money.

Dr. Elmo is always going to be known for the “Grandma” song, but “Wild Blue Grass” shows that Elmo Shropshire is more than a one-hit wonder.

Buy It: “Wild Blue Grass,” Dr. Elmo & Wild Blue, Laughing Stock Records, $12, www.dr.elmo.com or carltone.com.

— Paul Liberatore

Tell us about your band! If you're a musician or band from Marin or Sonoma with a recording that readers can buy or download, send your CD and contact information (if you have an upcoming gig, let us know that, too) to Press Play, P.O. Box 6150, Novato 94948-6150.