| Those American Idol folks have been relatively quiet this Christmas, but not the rest of the reality show talent competition people. Olivia Millerschin is a former quarter-finalist on America's Got Talent. She's written and recorded a new Christmas song called "Bring You Back Home". It's a pretty little Folk Pop thing and it's free from Noisetrade along with two other non-holiday tracks. | |
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One of these years, I'm going to get to listen to this before Christmas. But obviously not this year. "Ho Ho Ho Canada" is in it's sixth year, now, and Line of Best Fit continue to show that they are the true masters of putting together a large Christmas compilation. I love The Burning Hell (Did you know they had a Hanukkah song a few years back? They did.) and Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers does a great job with "Last Winter". And I have the Good Lovelies Christmas CD and "Under The Tree" is not on it, so that's cool. And I only just learned that that CD, "Under The Mistletoe" was released on vinyl a couple of weeks ago. You can find it at Six Shooter Records.
You can download "Ho Ho Ho Canada VI" at Soundcloud, but I recommend you get it at the Line Of Best Fit website where you'll find a one-click zip file under the playlist.  Austin's Melat (does anybody in that town have a job that's not part of the music industry) is driving towards stardom and made great strides in 2014. She combines Soul with Alt Pop for a distinctive sound. Her Christmas songs are drenched in sincere sentimentality, which is an awkward way of saying they're gorgeous. "I'll Be Home For Christmas" was her 2013 Christmas gift. 2014's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" was even more beautiful, but "Home For Christmas" is a free download and "Merry Little Christmas" isn't. I hate streams, but, since we do have one download, I'll include Melat's 2014 Christmas song as well. You can find them both on Soundcloud.  Sugardrum is the performance name for the Britain's Indie Acoustic performer Nigel Bunner. Bunner is a multi-instrumentalist but, for his annual Christmas gifts, he tends to go solo guitar. On his Soundcloud feed, you'll find a few of his past Christmas efforts--"Winter Wonderland", "Silent Night", "Let It Snow"--but here's the thing. All played together, you kind of drown in that mellowness. Some times, that's a good thing. But, for mixtapers, you're likely going to want to use just one song. And Nigel's approach and sound worked best for me on this year's free download "Last Christmas" (a slightly different mix is also further down the Soundcloud feed). Anyway, that's my opinion, for what it's worth. And slowing the song down, as Sugardrum does, is much more in keeping with the subject matter of the lyrics.
So Paste decided to put out a Christmas collection this year after all. Normally, the "Paste Holiday Sampler" comes out the tail end of November. And it's normally got a lot more music on it. But I can't complain. It's free. How can you complain about free?
Let's see. I already bought the excellent Swear and Shake single, "Santa, My First Love". If you didn't, get it here because it's excellent. Over The Rhine has a sampler of their own on Noisetrade (and I'd already bought the CD). You should have read about that one on Lie In The Sound. They also filled you in on The Oh Hellos and James Apollo, as did Christmas A-Go-Go (and we were going to mention Apollo ourselves and likely still will). Mistletunes featured Field Report recently, although, at the time, it was only a stream. And Sinclair's "This Christmas" was part of that mammoth Amazon "All Is Bright" playlist. That leaves four that I haven't seen written about. "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" is a devout Indie acoustic hymn from Dwayne Shivers. River Whyless pretties up "Jingle Bells" about as much as anyone can. Odessa's "Silent Night" is pretty straight forward Indie Folk/Americana. And Powerkompany's Indie Pop Rock "I'm Sorry About Last Christmas" sounds sincere enough but is full of snarky lyrics. I'm tired, so I'm not really giving this my best effort. But, make no mistake, this is all good stuff. My highlights would be the tracks from Swear and Shake, Sinclair, James Apollo and Powerkompany, if that means anything to you.  This Synth Pop group from Moscow wrote me over a week ago. And I really did like them. Not just this song, either. I watched the videos, listened to the songs on their Soundcloud feed. I really dug the group. But I just never got around to posting "Just Another Year". And, after a day or so, it got picked up and posted by everybody else. So then posting it seemed a little superfluous.
But I really did dig it. And I just wanted the members of Bigundi to know that I did. I like their sound. "Just Another Year" is more of a Pop Vocal/New Romantic number than some of their other stuff. But its well worth posting. Even at this late date (I'm gonna call it a New Years song. Yeah, that's the ticket.). And the video is super cool. I do want to know what is it with European bands and animal masks? And what does the Fox say? And whatever happened to Barman's Fault? Just askin'. Hope to hear more from Bigundi in the future. "Just Another Year" is free at Bandcamp or Soundcloud.  Canada's Indie Pop darling (as she should be) Hannah Georgas is feeling the holiday spirit and just laid a beautiful rendition of "White Christmas" beneath our trees. The song gives us a more classic version initially then kicks into a Drifters inspired Doo Wop. Hannah's "White Christmas" Doo Wop may be the tenderest, sweetest, and most lovely Doo Wop ever put to wax, er, tape, um, bites of digital informa---whatever. Its lovely. And it's free from Hannah on Soundcloud.
A Philly based Indie Rock/Indie Folk band, the Accents have been together since 2010 and they've done quite a few Christmas songs over that time, though not always as the Accents. As soon as I heard their cover version of Lady Gaga's "Christmas Tree", I recognized it as something we shared in 2010 (I even had it on the inaugural "Stubbys House Christmas"). That song (as well as "How The Grinch Folked Christmas") were on a free digital EP and billed as being by Cast Before The Break. Loved it then, love it now. "An Accents Family Christmas" is one of those "growing collections" of Christmas songs, where they just keep adding to the set. The newly recorded song for 2014 is "Mele Kalikimaka", which is mighty fine. But its even cooler hearing Folk Pop versions of Justin Bieber and Darlene Love that I hadn't heard before. And covering Kermit The Frog is pretty cool, too. Grab this fine collection from the Accents, free from Noisetrade.
I was talking with a close friend earlier who lost a friend of hers not long ago. About my age. She said that we've reached an age where the loved ones we are losing are our peers. It's not just the older crowd anymore; we are the older crowd. I lost my mother earlier this year. Another friend lost his father. Christmas can, for many, be a difficult period of adjusting and coping with loss of friends and family members. Day to day can be tough enough, but Christmas can be doubly so.
Philadelphia Christian Folk singer / songwriter Mark Giacobbe admits his new song might not be for everyone. But, for those who have recently suffered a loss, he hopes "Christmases Like These" brings them comfort.
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The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 FREE List Categories
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