The Boxmasters

Billy Bob Thornton has been so busy with his band the Boxmasters this year, it's getting a little hard to remember the erstwhile Mr. Woodcock is also an actor. The Internet Movie Database only lists one 2009 credit for Thornton, a comedy we never heard of called Manure. However, click over to www.allmusic.com, and there's plenty. This spring, Thornton — who drums and sings for the trio as "W.R. 'Bud' Thornton" — and the Boxmasters released the double-disc Modbilly, one disc populated by the keen-witted ne'er-do-wells of "Reasons for Living" and "That's Why Tammy Has My Car," the other by covers of seminal '60s artists the Rolling Stones and Mike Nesmith and honky-tonk jukebox nuggets like "The Lord Knows I'm Drinkin'" and "A Dime at a Time." And that's not even the most recent thing the Boxmasters have released — that would be last month's Christmas Cheer. We'll pass on the band's iTunes-exclusive cover of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)," but there's plenty of other holiday goodies to be had, from Thornton's hardscrabble memoir "My Dreams of Christmas" and dysfunctional family album "Slower Than Christmas" to covers of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" and a "Folsom Prison Blues"-like take on "We Three Kings."