In any case, each December we choose and test-run a new album. Last year we invested in and were disappointed by Annie Lennox's. This time we bought and fell in love with KiHo'alu Christmas, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar. My favorite quirky album has got to be the one pictured here. Listening, you may find Martha Wainwright's "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year," incorporates all the wistful angst of scattered adult Christmases, while Rufus Wainwright's dark and dismal "Counting Stars," from its first dissonant notes makes my daughter and me giggle uncontrollably. What are your seasonal music traditions?
I don't know what it's called. By I have some Ella Fitzgerald Christmas album that I love. She was the best.
ReplyDeleteStrictly old school. I could put The Nutcracker on a neverending loop. And then a few things that I suppose aren't technically Christmas songs but remind me of Dickens -- Barbara Allen, for example, and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SznvtWsjRzg
ReplyDeleteMy husband broke the news to me that my beloved "Roger Williams' Christmastime" is awful. I grew up on it, though, so it's the only music that melts me into Christmas. That and the Nutcracker Suite, I do have a modicum of taste.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of bad taste in Christmas music, when I was 10 years old or so, I bought a Christmas album at the drugstore for $1. Oh, it was so beautiful. I played it for the family that night at dinner and my dad said, "What the hell is that, a Salvation Army band?"
ReplyDeleteMy first lesson in aesthetics: All pieces of music with violins and high voices are not created equal.
An Ella Christmas is news to me--next year!
ReplyDeleteLove Barbara (Barbree) Allen--Nutcracker: my children listened to Shari Lewis's version for years. Any time anyh of us hear it now, we all hear Lamb Chop's lyrics. P: Roger Williams is news to me! Dare I check it out? AH: You are, of course, a bawdy lass--
Um, Des, I'll play it for you and you can decide before you spend your money.
ReplyDeleteBells of Dublin by the Chieftains reigns supreme over here, with a side of Vince Guaraldi.
ReplyDeleteI'm listening to ABBA
ReplyDeletePA:Abba gets me through any melancholy time--epitomized in Vince Guaraldi.
ReplyDeleteWC: It's not Christmas with the Chieftains--and the Rebel Jesus.
ok - this isn't musical unless you count the sound track on the video but check it out. The 99 Chef with his Cajun Mama. I think I may have a pecan tree in my backyard.
ReplyDelete