CHRISTMAS 2020: Santa's Pandemic.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by cgoodwin22, Nov 4, 2020.

  1. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    It is not too often that a modern Christian rock act gets my attention, but for King & Country sure did last year when they appeared on the CMA Country Christmas Special. I am looking very forward to their brand new Christmas album and here is the studio version of Little Drummer Boy. The little drummer boy in the video is Luke's actual son.

     
  2. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    These are YOUR words:
    "Yes, the late-'50s/early-'60s is where most of you find your "comfort zone" in Christmas music, but...look where you are now, simply re-purchasing those same old titles in newer CD and LP re-re-re-re-releases."
    Well, I ain't got the money to re-re-re-re-repurchase anything, haha!
    By the way, I'm a veteran of at least 55 Christmases!

    I appreciate you took the time to respond.
    Peace!
     
  3. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Okay, I'll own up to that; however, you should be aware, I was referring to the group as a whole, of course I don't know about your specific buying habits. My apologies for you thinking it was directed at you, but we tend to quote others who spike our own conversation points, and that wasn't clear, my mistake. But...yes, so many on this forum who are buying Christmas albums, are doing nothing but re-purchasing their old memories, and hoping to take care of them better this time. They share that with the rest of the forum, and I see percentage-wise, relatively little interest in more contemporary music for the holidays, which as I said, is their right to seek their own comfort zone. The evidence of this is overwhelming.

    The real question should be put to the forum...how many times have you re-purchased A Charlie Brown Christmas, compared with the number of fresher holiday albums produced within the past decade (I myself have two - one mono, one "corrected/re-balanced" stereo...from which I have made my own custom corrections even further on my own software, to pull out glitches, dropouts and improve the fidelity even further, for radio play). But, I stopped re-purchasing my nostalgia years ago, and happier for it...but, that's me.

    Yeah, I'm a "veteran" of 63 Christmases myself...the 35+ I referred to, were the ones where I spent the time on-air, under headphones, either taking liberties with programmers' formatic suggestions, or following the consultants' wishes under penalty of coal in stocking.
     
  4. Tornado Red

    Tornado Red Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnipeg, Canada
    [​IMG]

    Vince Gill - Breath Of Heaven on DTS-CD in surround.
     
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  5. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    One of my very favorite holiday albums by a female vocalist is Lorrie Morgan's Merry Christmas From London. Though primarily known as a country singer, Lorrie was more than capable of singing in other genres with her fine phrasing and versatility. Her Secret Love album was also a great tribute to the Great American Popular Songbook. Lorrie's arranger for her holiday album was the very gifted Charles Calello, primarily known for his fine work with Frankie Valli as well as Frank Sinatra (Watertown). Here is one of my favorite cuts from this splendid Christmas album below:

     
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  6. streetlegal

    streetlegal Forum Resident



    Maddy Prior gives me chills.

    Got to number 14 in the UK, Christmas 1973.
     
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  7. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Can anyone recommend an album of a brass band playing Christmas songs? I love hearing brass bands play at Christmas market, and not intending to sound cheesy, I think the sound of trumpets etc. perfectly captures the joy and melancholy of the whole season.
     
  8. Tornado Red

    Tornado Red Forum Resident

    Location:
    Winnipeg, Canada
    You might try Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band: A Big Phat Christmas Wrap This
    Also, you might like Herb Alpert's The Christmas Wish from a few years ago.
     
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  9. noirbar

    noirbar Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Antone
    Same here!! Stumbled on this release from Sia last year. Not necessarily nostalgic, but nice retro feel with some beautiful written and sung new Christmas songs that kept the Holiday Cheer going in our house through the season.
     
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  10. Pierino

    Pierino Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canonsburg
    I like the Canadian Brass Christmas albums. This is a good one:

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Piiijiii

    Piiijiii Hundalasiliah

    Location:
    Ruhr Area, Germany
    Just discovered this. What a superb cover of the old Charlie Brown Christmas classic!
     
  12. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    You might also try A Festival Of Carols In Brass by the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble, which was a side project of Eugene Ormandy's great orchestra in Philly. This is my go-to for a full on brass holiday.

     
  13. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Sia is such an amazing writer and a pretty gifted singer as well. I got her album as well when it came out last year and I need to revisit again. It is really hard to make a holiday album featuring all original tunes, but she gave it her best shot. I like some of the Phil Spector style influence as well, and of course his holiday album is widely acknowledged by many as the best rock 'n' roll Christmas album ever, along with Elvis's first Christmas album in 1957.

    The only holiday album of all original material that I place really high on my top list of Christmas albums is June Christy's This Time Of Year, which features all original songs by a husband and wife songwriting duo. The smooth, but jazzy arrangements are by the very gifted arranger, Pete Rugolo, well known for his updated arrangement on Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song (which borrowed heavily from the great Nelson Riddle's original fuller string score on the previous version). The musicianship and quality of June's singing is just second to none on this gem of an album.

     
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  14. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Thanks @Tornado Red @Pierino @RSteven for those tips, I’ll try to find them all on YT tomorrow and give them a listen.


    I just bought this 7” on vinyl yesterday and it sounds superbe, red vinyl with green labels and the cover art updates to put the characters in COVID masks :laugh:
     
  15. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I am trying to balance out my recommendations for holiday music between my favorites from the Golden Age of Christmas and some newer contemporary choices that have impressed me in the last few years. Here is a brand new release that just came out in September from a truly iconic country legend that I think deserves to be in anybody's collection of great holiday music; Carrie Underwood's My Gift is an absolutely gorgeous collection of standards with a few terrific originals thrown into the mix to spice it up a bit. The incredibly gifted and multi-talented musical arranger Greg Wells (Adele, The Showman Soundtrack, Taylor Swift) handled all the production and arranging work for Carrie's first full fledged Christmas album, along with the magnificent conductor David Campbell.

    I would like to think I played a small role in getting this holiday album to come to fruition finally as I pestered Carrie for the last few years every time I saw her at her VIP Meet & Greet to make a Christmas album after all these years. She told me she had one planned about four years ago, but somehow it got moved to the back burner. Well, the wait has been absolutely worth it as her first full fledged Christmas album is just stupendous. There are a whole lot of musical highlights on the album for me, including her charming duet with her young son on The Little Drummer Boy, the magnificent duet on John Legend's original brand new song, Hallelujah (no not the Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley song), but for me personally, the greatest moment might be her majestic version of O Holy Night, which I would put up against any other well known version in history. Just listen to the way that producer Greg Wells slowly builds the orchestral arrangement towards Carrie's operatic climax. This version never fails to give me goosebumps.

     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2020
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  16. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The J.D. McPherson album is amazing! Anyone who loves music and plays that album will like it. I can’t say enough good things about it, absolute classic that I hope will gain more and more traction with each Christmas. Given you’ve recommended that album you clearly have great taste so that’s enough for me to check out your other recommendation.
     
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  17. Scourge

    Scourge The Contagion in Nine Steps

    Location:
    US
    I've pre-ordered an album by Jamie Cullum, with whom I'm not familiar, but the single is cool:



    [​IMG]
     
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  18. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Two of my very favorite retro sounding Christmas albums are very recent releases, well in the last couple of years. The J.D McPherson album has great musicianship and features all originals, and let me tell you, it is a hoot, and it will surely put a smile on your face. Joel Paterson's Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar features all covers, but it essentially does the same thing, and it sounds like it might have been recorded in the 1950's. I actually used the Paterson album during my holiday album release party as guests entered my house for the John Klein A Christmas Sound Spectacular CD release in 2018. I was getting dressed for the event and debating what I should play first as guests arrived and my gal said, "Oh, you've got to play that great rock 'n'roll guitar album you are playing now on the stereo."
     
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  19. Tom M

    Tom M Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ
  20. Scourge

    Scourge The Contagion in Nine Steps

    Location:
    US
    I'd also like to put a plug in for the two Mack Avenue albums that came out recently, It's Christmas on Mack Avenue which is a comp of label artists, and then Warren Wolf's solo Christmas Vibes album.

     
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  21. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    This looks like a cool indie release and one I expect I’ll get once I’ve had a chance to preview a few tracks:

    Lost Christmas - A Memphis Industries Selection Box - Vinyl LP - Five Rise Records

    Tracklisting: Lost Christmas – A Memphis Industries Selection Box
    Vinyl LP

    1. Field Music – Home For Christmas
    2. Haley – Like Ice and Cold
    3. Warm Digits – Good Enough For You This Christmas
    4. Rachael Dadd (with Rozi Plain and Kate Stables – We Build Our Houses Well
    5. Stats – Christmas Without You
    6. The Phoenix Foundation – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
    7. Francis Lung – To Make Angels In Snow
    8. Jesca Hoop – White Winter Hymnal
    9. The Go! Team – Look Outside (A New Year’s Coming)
    10. The Cornshed Sisters – Have a Good Christmas Time
     
  22. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I like the song and the album cover. I just ordered the CD with the black/marble vinyl and signed piano card from Jamie's UK site. Thanks for the heads up.
     
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  23. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    He’s British and was pretty popular here about 15 years or so ago and since then I think he has a jazz radio show and plays live a lot but I haven’t heard any of his music for over 10 years. He got popular around the same time of Katie Melua. I really liked one of his CDs so will check this out too.
     
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  24. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    ; ) funny!
     
  25. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Heard that the other day, and thought it was a terrific single, which will probably barely get heard here; our loss. Seems the Brits always do a great job of getting their contemporary artists a shot at exposure at the holidays, and not with the same tired coals we rake over and over. I thought last years' Oh Wonder release was promising, and I always seem to see some sort of fresh release from Auntie Beeb that makes me wish I were still running my online station, and exposing adults to something other than what they've come to expect by not expecting better. I mean, every country's got their classics, but not every country showcases their contemporary creativity with the same zeal in which they shove our nostalgia at us over and over.

    Considering how much larger our artist base is than Britains', I would expect more, not less, in the way of fresher holiday music getting a decent spotlight in-between the Bings and the Burls.
     
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