Category: Alt Jazz

RICKIE LEE JONES - CHRISTMAS IN NEW ORLEANS

12/18/2015

I'm pretty sure we gave you the heads up earlier this year that Rickie Lee Jones' new album, "Other Side Of Desire", contained the song "Christmas In New Orleans". Well, Rickie Lee is including that song with two other of her Christmas recordings as free downloads from her web site. The other two--"Oh Holy Night" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"--have been around a while longer, so we gave the title above to the new one (and, yes, "Oh Holy Night" is the one recorded with the Chieftans). Rickie has been offering her Christmas songs off and on for years ("Christmas In New Orleans" bumped "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"). At one time, you could even buy a physical disc (a CD-R, IIRC) of the Christmas tunes from her web site. Now the thing to remember with Rickie's free Christmas downloads is there is no set schedule for their availability. They might be gone by the time I post this or they could last through Christmas. Some years Rickie has offered them for just a couple of days (like, honestly, two days) and then they're gone. So, if you don't already have them, head to Rickie's web site without delay. The version in the video was recorded at/for WFUV. The free download is from the album.

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VARIOUS - A NOTROCK HOLIDAY COMPILATION, VOLUME 7

12/7/2015

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1. Hides A Well - Decorations
2. Sally - Christmas Isn't Over
3. Young Legs - First Day
4. Borrasca - Snowed In
5. Please Exist - Bleed Christmas Dry
6. We Have Ghosts - I Wish it was Christmas Today
7. Zack Frank - Winter Weekend
8. Nicole Grogan - Christmas Present
9. Deja Gravy - Yule
10. Joe Egan - I'll Be Home For Christmas
11. straight creep. - All I Want For Christmas Is A New Cellphone
12. John Fisher & Molly Farrell - Black Christmas
13. Murph - Memory Lights
14. We Use To Love - 12-31-????
15. The McCarthyists - Merry Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Whatever You Like to Call It
16. Tabitha Booth (feat. Jesse Hardy) - Winter Blues
17. Joe Egan - Play Your Flute For Grandma
18. Ezra Lowry - True North
19. Awjita - Linus & Lucy
20. Eric K - It's Time To Go

NotRock is a New Jersey DIY label and this their SEVENTH holiday compilation. They just put out the call--to anyone, really, and artists submit their Christmas songs. Hey, its DIY; that's how its done. So you get a little bit of almost everything, here--from Indie Folk to Punk. Twenty songs is a bit much for me to digest this time of year (I don't even want to think about the other six volumes), and there's actually plenty, here, that doesn't work for my head. There are a bunch I really kinda like. And there are TWO tracks from this collection I am in love with.

One of my two faves is the one represented in video (it does kind of bug me that Bandcamp comp players will just keep going, not stopping after the one song you want to feature; there must be a way to fix that, but I haven't figured it out yet). Awjita proves nothing less than the genius of Vince Guaraldi, as his "Linus & Lucy" sounds absolutely brilliant in this Psych Jazz cover. In general terms, it reminds me of the great jamming bands of the late 60s (Greatful Dead were the kings of it, but everyone was doing the free form thing at the time). Awjita, here, does remind me of a specific band, but I can't put my finger on it. Anyway Free Form Psych Jazz is about as different as you're going to find anywhere. And I like different.

My other fave is Nicole Grogan's "Christmas Present", a Lo-Fi Indie tune with a cool melody, some great guitar work, wonderful lyrics, and miles and miles of attitude. And, from that, you might think I was describing some raucous Metal or something. But, no, the song's genius is in its laid back self assurance. It reminds me a lot of the early days of Indie on the Internets, when some very talented people were making beautiful sounds that, at the same time, were simple, low tech and Lo-Fi.

Some others (the ones I "really kinda like") are Sally's Indie Pop "Christmas Isn't Over", Borrasca's "Snowed In" (also Indie Pop), "All I Want For Christmas Is A New Cellphone" (Pop Punk from straight creep), the atmospheric Alt Rock/Pop Punk New Year's tune from We Used To Love ("12-31-????"), Tabitha Booth's "Winter Blues" (still working out how to categorize that one--sort of a Bluesy Dream Pop...or maybe Shoegaze...or maybe all of the above), the Indie Folk of Zach Frank's "Winter Weekend", and Joe Egan's Alt Jazz/Ambient Electronica "Play Your Flute For Grandma". So that's not bad. I liked half of it. You might find yourself drawn to some of the others. But the two that (IMO) make venturing to Bandcamp for the free download are the tracks from Awjita and Nicole Grogan.

There were hard copy CDs of "A NotRock Holiday Compilation, Volume 7", but they were for the artists and the release show. If any are left over, I'd assume they'll turn up at NotRock's online shop where it looks like they still have copies of the first three at stupid low prices ($3 for a 22 song CD? C'mon, that's like stealing). The download versions are all loaded at Bandcamp and "name-your-price".

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The FREE List

Here 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.

RICKIE LEE JONES - CHRISTMAS IN NEW ORLEANS

VARIOUS - A NOTROCK HOLIDAY COMPILATION, VOLUME 7

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