Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! What are you doing here? Well, since you stopped by, here are a few things to think about.
Thanksgiving is kind of like "the new Christmas" in that a bunch of the creative types have decided that Christmas music and TV is played out, so they're turning to Turkey Day for fresh inspiration. There is now more Thanksgiving music out there than you can shake a drumstick at. Maybe one day, it'll all seem "classic". Right now it just seems overcooked. At the end of the day, you only need one song for your Thanksgiving Day soundtrack--Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant".
But if you're looking to build a Thanksgiving soundtrack or library--to amaze or annoy your family, perhaps--we can point you to a few items to investigate. You know, while your dinner settles. First up, we mentioned a few selections last year and, I gotta say, I'm still digging "The Mall Parade" from Texana Dames as an excellent choice...one not a lot of folks would think of.
Also last year, we had a freebie up (though we found it a bit late) from The Kopecky Family Band, big favorites around here. And, as luck would have it, they just emailed to remind me that "Thankful? Why, Yes!" is still available as a free download. Grab it using the widget below.
Thanksgiving is kind of like "the new Christmas" in that a bunch of the creative types have decided that Christmas music and TV is played out, so they're turning to Turkey Day for fresh inspiration. There is now more Thanksgiving music out there than you can shake a drumstick at. Maybe one day, it'll all seem "classic". Right now it just seems overcooked. At the end of the day, you only need one song for your Thanksgiving Day soundtrack--Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant".
But if you're looking to build a Thanksgiving soundtrack or library--to amaze or annoy your family, perhaps--we can point you to a few items to investigate. You know, while your dinner settles. First up, we mentioned a few selections last year and, I gotta say, I'm still digging "The Mall Parade" from Texana Dames as an excellent choice...one not a lot of folks would think of.
Also last year, we had a freebie up (though we found it a bit late) from The Kopecky Family Band, big favorites around here. And, as luck would have it, they just emailed to remind me that "Thankful? Why, Yes!" is still available as a free download. Grab it using the widget below.
The best of the new crop of Thanksgiving outings has to be Craig Duncan's Green Hill release "We Gather Together". It might not be wild and wacky, but this instrumental collection of Thanksgiving Hymns makes a nice soundtrack for Thanksgiving dinner or later, as the tryptophan settles in. "We Gather Together" is available just about everywhere, including Amazon, of course.
On the rockier side dish of things, you might want to consider Johnny Pierre's new Turkey Day single "Happy Thanksgiving". Consider downloading it now before it disappears from sight (self-issued mp3's can be like that).
Other tracks to think about include Vince Guaraldi's "Thanksgiving Theme" from "Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits", Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Thanksgiving Song" from her Christmas album, "Come Darkness, Come Light", the Drive-By Trucker's "Thanksgiving Filter" from the album "Go Go Boots", and pretty much any version of "Turkey In The Straw".
The Internet is a cornucopia of musical suggestions and offerings. Ernie (Not Bert), my good friend, reports that Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on him this year, but, if you dig a little deeper, you can find his annual Thanksgiving Day share of Spencer Ross' never-on-CD long-out-of-print "Thanksgiving Day Parade" still available. Somebody really oughta cover that one (not to mention the old Bobby Helms' "Captain Santa Claus"--Ernie's suggestion, btw)--don't know why nobody has.
Santa's Working Overtime has a Thanksgiving Feast of holiday appropriate albums for you to check out on Spotify (goota say, I totally don't get that Motown collection; there's nothing remotely Thanksgiving about it). And, Dinsdale, who is away for the holiday, has been Tweeting up a storm on his Twitter feed, today, with other Thanksgiving sounds and graphics and stories and whatnot.
And then there is this find from the Squeeze My Lemon blog, which absolutely made my Turkey Day. I am truly thankful they found and shared this YouTube video from MrMpomy, "Fake Thanksgiving Blues". It is destined to become an annual favorite of mine.
The Internet is a cornucopia of musical suggestions and offerings. Ernie (Not Bert), my good friend, reports that Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on him this year, but, if you dig a little deeper, you can find his annual Thanksgiving Day share of Spencer Ross' never-on-CD long-out-of-print "Thanksgiving Day Parade" still available. Somebody really oughta cover that one (not to mention the old Bobby Helms' "Captain Santa Claus"--Ernie's suggestion, btw)--don't know why nobody has.
Santa's Working Overtime has a Thanksgiving Feast of holiday appropriate albums for you to check out on Spotify (goota say, I totally don't get that Motown collection; there's nothing remotely Thanksgiving about it). And, Dinsdale, who is away for the holiday, has been Tweeting up a storm on his Twitter feed, today, with other Thanksgiving sounds and graphics and stories and whatnot.
And then there is this find from the Squeeze My Lemon blog, which absolutely made my Turkey Day. I am truly thankful they found and shared this YouTube video from MrMpomy, "Fake Thanksgiving Blues". It is destined to become an annual favorite of mine.
Finally, a few non-Thanksgiving notes.
We have a new full-length review up--something completely different this time. You mixtapers may want to spare a moment and check out Kyle Harvey's "Merry Christmas From Outer Space". Read up on it on our Reviews page.
You may not realize that Black Friday is also Record Store Day and our friends at Mistletunes report that there will be a few pieces of holiday vinyl available at your local music emporiums (check here to find the participating stores near you). Some of these items are exclusive to the Record Store Day promotion and some are not. First up is the new Fear 45, "Have yourself A Merry Little Christmas"/"Another Christmas Beer". Not exclusive (unless there's something special about the RSD edition). We've mentioned that one before. Then there's the 4-song 10" white vinyl EP from The Civil Wars which includes two Christmas numbers, "Tracks In The Snow" and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and two Live numbers. That one's exclusive to RSD and limited to 2000. The Christmas songs were offered up as a free download last year (might still be, if you know where to look) and copies are already being offered on eBay for anywhere from $15 to $30. And, for you vinyl collectors who also dig Hanukkah music, Matisyahu is releasing a 7" of last year's digital jam "Miracle". There's a "Dub Trio" version on the flip, as I understand it. I don't know if that's exclusive to Record Store Day, but it is exclusive to record stores--it should not be turning up on Amazon. What will turn up on Amazon and elsewhere is the new digital EP featuring several different versions of "Miracle". That was released this past Monday. You can stream the "Miracle EP" at Rolling Stone.
Got one more news item, but I'll have to save it for dessert. Right now, it's dinner time. Gobble Gobble, everybody.
Got one more news item, but I'll have to save it for dessert. Right now, it's dinner time. Gobble Gobble, everybody.
RSS Feed
