Michigan Roots artist Brion Riborn recorded his non-traditional traditional holiday songs back around 2008 and 2009, releasing the songs as a series of digital singles. But those singles have not been widely available except through his web site. Now a bit more established, Brion has released a pair of these (along with "Where Shadows Lie", a song he says is a Hobbit song) as a 3-song name-your-price download at Bandcamp. Better yet, the complete set of holiday tracks is available through Noisetrade. Brion's take on the holiday season is, like Michigan, more icy cold than celebratory. For example, in "I Still Haven't Found The Silent Night", after spinning through the original carol, Brion launches into a bit of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". It's chilling, pleading and desperate. Call it a Folk mashup, whatever you call it, it's effective. And, on Brion's "Forgotten Memories", he does much the same with "Auld Lang Syne", imploring us to "celebrate and remember. But don't look back, never look back." If you need an original Americana take on "Auld Lang Syne", grab Brion's at Bandcamp. Better yet, grab all of Brion's seasonal sides via Noisetrade. You'll even find "On Valentine's Day", there, for those who like to think ahead a bit.
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L.A. Indie Folk/Rock band Lord Huron has just released their cover of "Auld Lang Syne". Lord Huron incorporates a bit of electronica and what the L.A. Times calls "Wild West Romance" into their sound. They're unique and happening enough to have appeared on The Tonight Show in 2012 and their latest full-length is "Lonesome Dreams". "Auld Lang Syne" is free through Soundcloud for the moment, so pick it up. So, right before Christmas, I got the most amazing gift from Lie In The Sound, a German blog run by Brigitte and Christoph that seems to have an overabundance of holiday spirit each year (made manifest by the many free holiday downloads they manage to find). First of all, there was this really sweet write-up. Not the kind of thing we all write about fellow bloggers from time to time when we're trying to point you to a worthy site, but a very personalized...."Christmas card" I'd call it. But the gift beneath their endearing words was the gift of turning me on to a traditional German folk song that seems to have escaped my attention all these years. And that's no small feat. “Leise rieselt der Schnee” roughly translates as "Snow Is Falling Gently" (Brigitte even took the time to try and translate the lyrics into English...because we all know I don't speak anything else) and you should definitely check them out. It's a song about the growing excitement as Christkind draws near (rather than Santa, Christkind is an angel-like girl, Brigitte explains, who wanders the woods bringing presents to the children). Not stopping there, our friends at Lie In The Sound found a few videos and this lovely free download of “Leise rieselt der Schnee” performed by Christine Berger and Ben DeVries. It's a lo-fi folk recording, but no less beautiful for that. What's more, the song was part of an entire FREE compilation of Christmas music from Canadian DIY label Badgerland released last year, "A Very Badgerland Christmas". AND what's even more, the Badgerland label has been releasing holiday comps of homemade music since 2009. Needless to say, that's a lot of music I haven't had tome to sift through just yet, but they're all free, so you might as well get them, right? (This Christmas music obsession is a sickness, I tellz ya.) So, first, go read the Lie In The Sound "Christmas card" to Stubby's. Then check out “Leise rieselt der Schnee” by Christine Berger and Ben DeVries. And then grab all the Badgerland Christmas comps via Bandcamp. You've got some work ahead of you, so go get started. (And thank you, Brigitte and Christoph for a most wonderful gift.) SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS (2009) THEE CHRISTMAS MIXTAPE (2010) A VERY BADGERLAND CHRISTMAS (2011) YULETIDE ENTERTAINMENTS (2012) I found this Sheffield (UK) folk group earlier this year and simply fell in love. The delicate interplay between Sarah Morrey and Ben Eckersley is all the instrumentation they need and that leaves plenty of room for Sarah's dulcet tones to flow like a stream through the air. And, like that stream, it's sweet and peaceful surface belies the power and determination underneath. Not sure I gave that metaphor properly, but listen and you'll understand. I grew up at a point in the mighty Susquehanna River that was, from the perspective there, just a peaceful stream; and yet that river is one of the oldest rivers in the world, older even than the mountains through which it travels, and 464 miles long, the longest river on the eastern coast of America, carrying huge amounts of water long distances unceasingly and inexorably to the Atlantic Ocean. But enough about my poor analogies. The point is that Captives On The Carousel play and sing beautiful music and I am now a captive to their beauty. For 2012, the pair have recorded two Christmas songs as perfectly as they've ever been done. "Coventry Carol" should be familiar to anyone that listens to a Christmas song or two while "Sweet Bells" is a traditional folk song of the Sheffield area (you might best remember that one as the title track from Kate Rusby's Christmas album). The songs are offered as a free download on Bandcamp, but the group asks that you consider donating something to Sheffield Mind, a leading provider of Mental Health and Wellbeing services in Sheffield. Should you wish to, you can do so through Captives On The Carousel's fundraising page at MyDonate. |
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. ArchivesCategories
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