Category: Netherlands

HIDDEN AGENDA DELUXE & CARTER SAMPSON - CHRISTMAS FROM AMSTERDAM TO OKLAHOMA

10/17/2018

1. I'll Be Home For Christmas (Carter)
2. Coming Around (Eric & Carter)
3. For Saviour's Sake (BJ)
4. Driving Home For Christmas (Sjoerd)
5. Hard Candy Christmas(Carter)
6. Snow (Eric)
7. Blue Christmas (Carter)
8. Xmas in Oklahoma (Carter)
9. I Shall Be Released (Eric, Sjoerd, BJ, Carter)
10. Xmas Eve in Amsterdam (Eric)

HIDDEN AGENDA DELUXE WEB SITE
CARTER SAMPSON WEB SITE
NAME-YOUR-PRICE AT BANDCAMP

We introduced you to the Dutch Americana band Hidden Agenda Deluxe in 2016, when a tour with Oklahoma's own Carter Sampson resulted in a somewhat impromptu Christmas album, "Christmas From Amsterdam to Oklahoma".

As Hidden Agenda Deluxe prepares to release their second holiday effort, "Angels In The Snow" featuring Canada's Oh Susanna, that first beautiful album is currently available as a "name-your-price" instant download via Bandcamp (no email required).

No further words are necessary. Except to say this may be the best free Christmas download you'll get all year. Waste no further time. Head straight to Bandcamp and download "Christmas From Amsterdam to Oklahoma" from Hidden Agenda Deluxe & Carter Sampson. And, if the track above didn't win you over, here's one of my favorites from the album, Carter Sampson's rendition of Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas".

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FEEST DJ MAARTEN - KERSTMIS OVERAL

9/12/2018

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I've always said Christmas joy is contagious. And "Kerstmis Overal" by Feest DJ Maarten could easily be Exhibit A.

Feest DJ Maarten (Party DJ Maarten) is Maarten Schelvis, a Dutch entertainer. And he really is more of an entertainer than a singer. Not that he hasn't had enormous success on the charts in the Netherlands, with such hits to his credit as “Ik ben een kikker“ ("I'm A Frog"), “Wat een lekkere kont“ ("What A Nice Ass"), and “Alle idioten zingen over boten“ ("All Idiots Sing About Boats"). No, seriously, those were actual charting hits. But Maarten is a party dude. He's never met a party he doesn't like. Weddings, Bar-B-Ques (I presume they have Bar-B-Ques in the Netherlands), live stage shows, parties of all kinds. He likes to have a good time and he wants people to have a good time at his shows. He's not afraid to be complete silly or to turn things (including himself) on their heads. He has a philosophy that there is no such thing as bad music...just music that hasn't been properly infused with joy.

"Kerstmis Overal" ("Christmas Everywhere") expresses Maarten's joy of the season, using the Christmas tree to express the wider analogy. It's a classic love story, really. Man sees tree and falls in love, man makes tree his own, delights in the smell of the tree, dresses tree in the finest apparel, loves his tree, and man and tree are very happy together. And, if you think there are implications of something a bit too close in this relationship between man and plant, Maarten is not unaware as he throws in, "Oh, but that would be very wrong".

The chorus goes something like this:
Because it is Christmas everywhere, the trees come out of the barn.
Do me just a Christmas ball, they are not that expensive here.
T'is finally Christmas again, I have been waiting for this for so long.
And everyone is happy, and everybody laughs.

Rough translation, obviously. But, for we idiots that never learned another language, what really sells, here, is the music. Even though I don't understand a single word, "Kerstmis Overal" is so filled with childlike exuberance, it makes me feel like Christmas when I was young. You can't help but tap your toes. You can't help but smile. What can I say? Happy people make me happy. And that's kinda Maarten's whole schtick.

So cheers to Feest DJ Maarten for so successfully capturing part of the magic of the Yuletide with the bouncy "Kerstmis Overal". Technically released overseas in 2017, this has just been listed at Amazon and CD Baby, but you can download it free from Soundcloud.

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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.

HIDDEN AGENDA DELUXE & CARTER SAMPSON - CHRISTMAS FROM AMSTERDAM TO OKLAHOMA

FEEST DJ MAARTEN - KERSTMIS OVERAL

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