Category: Second Line

VARIOUS - THE CHVRCH OF SANTA

12/11/2018

Late in every season, all these great free comps come out and I almost never have time to listen to them all the way through. Well I listened to "The Chvrch of Santa" all the way through. It's the latest in a long line of annual Christmas offerings from Friends Friends Friends Records. The Nova Scotia "label" evolved from the Raw Rock Militia. That's why "The Chvrch of Santa" is only Friends Friends Friends IV, even though there are Christmas comps dating back to 2010. These days, the Raw Rock Christmas project works like this: early in November, they send out a call to anybody and everybody to send in their Christmas tunes. A month later, they've got an album. It's worth noting that, most years, a limited edition CD will follow (given the turnaround time and all, the CDs usually get listed a few days before Christmas).

1.   Whisperhawk - Merry Christmas (I'm Sorry)
2.   Rawrwar - Christmas Miracle
3.   The Holly Jollies - Daddy's Really Santa Claus
4.   Up n Adam - Snowglobe Inverted
5.   Blue Acres - If We Make It Through December
6.   Alex Babineau - First Christmas Alone
7.   Brett Redshaw - Christmas Is The Best
8.   Rawrwar - Cuba
9.   Nicholas Burgess - Santa Planet
10. The Super-Krewe - Xmas Potpourri
11. Katie King - Gingerbread Man
12. Alex Babineau - Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
13. Jeremy Waterman - Father Christmas
14. Sprout - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

DOWNLOAD FROM BANDCAMP

Although I listened all the way through, I'm not going to do a track-by-track. But this year's set is a good one. There's our old friend Nicholas Burgess with "Santa Planet". And I'm always happy to see Katie King on these; I love her stuff. The Holly Jollies go all Neo-Beach Boys on "Daddy's Really Santa Claus". There's an acoustic "Father's Christmas" from Jeremy Waterman, a straight-up Folk cover of "If We Make It Through December" by Blue Acres, some very nearly Punk Country from Alex Babineau covering Buck Owens, and even some Second Line Jazz from The Super-Krewe, "Xmas Potpourri". But beyond Nicholas and Katie, my favorites were the two tracks from Rawrwar and the Indie Pop tune up top, Whisperhawk's "Merry Christmas (I'm Sorry)". Importantly, there wasn't a single track where I was even tempted to pick up the virtual needle and move on. Great work, as usual, Friends Friends Friends. Find "The Chvrch of Santa" on Bandcamp.

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MIRANDA DODSON - EARLY ON ONE CHRISTMAS MORN

11/12/2016

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You may or may not recall that we introduced you to Miranda Dodson last year. And, in addition to all the excellent holiday tune-age, we discovered that Miranda's collection "It's Merry Christmas Time" is a living collection. That means she's going to add to it each year--sometimes a single new track and sometimes more.

For 2016, Miranda has added a cover of "Early On One Christmas Morn" (originally titled "Christ Was Born On Christmas Morn"), which I know we've talked about more than a few times. The song was recorded in the 20s by the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers featuring Frankie Half-Pint Jaxon and is widely considered the most jubilant Christmas song ever recorded. As these things will do, it slipped away into obscurity for decades and was resurrected as a bit of an oddity, since Half-Pint was known for much bawdier music (so it was weird that he'd recorded this single hallelujah come-to-Jesus Gospel side and never another). I ran across the song in the eighties on a collection of similar early Gospel Christmas tunes. But the track didn't really break into most people's consciousness until it was included on a Dust To Digital holiday compilation around 2004 (at least not that I noticed). As more people discover the song, more people record it. It is, after all, widely regarded as the most jubilant Christmas song ever! Who wouldn't want a piece of that action?

The song has a natural New Orleans feel to it and Miranda takes full advantage of that, although she infuses her own personality into it, too. "Early On One Christmas Morn" by Miranda Dodson can be had as a name-your-price download via Bandcamp. Or, if you missed out last year, grab the whole "It's Merry Christmas Time" collection. And don't forget to check back periodically to see what new Christmas joys she has in store.

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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.

VARIOUS - THE CHVRCH OF SANTA

MIRANDA DODSON - EARLY ON ONE CHRISTMAS MORN

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