I am sitting at home, listening to Christmas music on my Mac, after a hectic three weeks of responsibilities.
A Christmas dinner at Calvin Crest. All I had to do was make a seafood bisque for 80 people, accompany my daughter, Hillary, on the piano, and lead a carol sing.
Accompanying Hillary at her Chamber Singers' Concert.
My daughter, Taylor, got married last weekend.
I was a part of Hunter and Sarah Teet's wedding yesterday.
... and a whole lot of things going on personally with myself and my family.
I am a little tired. So if I come off a little snippy let me know.
We also have the Dish network where we can listen to Sirius music as well as get TV stations. So it is the tradition to tune into the "Holiday Channel" and listen to Christmas music. Many popular artist from the past singing different carols... Mel Torme, Burl Ives, Perry Como, Lou Rawls, Bing Crosby, Beach Boys, Glenn Miller, Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, and the like.
I bought a Christmas album by Jim Brickman, iTunes labels him "new age". I like the Vince Guaraldi Trio, who did the Charlie Brown Christmas album, the Windham Hill Christmas Album, The Chanticleer Choir's Christmas Albums and of course The Messiah. A little Bing Crosby goes a long way.
But what I don't like are the "artists" of today doing a christmas album. It is too commercial. I don't think they can do anything different that what has been done a lot before. Maybe they should do Kwanzaa music. Music that celebrates family, community, and culture. If an musician came out with a Christmas album I would probably quit buying and listening to their music. They would have lost their political clout. A Rolling Stone Christmas would end it just like Rod Stewart singing ballads of the 40's.
Maybe I would buy a Snoop Dogg Christmas Album.
What Christmas Album do you own and listen?
Oh yeah, Merry Christmas...
10 comments:
I only listen to Sufjan Stevens christmas album, but limited at that. I hope that this week will give you a chance to rest, and rejuvinate before january and wmi starts up. Blessings.
one of my favorite christmas songs of all time is Senor Santa Claus, I think it is by Jim Reeves. I also love Perry Como, I have made it the "law" that in my car and in my house only Christmas music is allowed. It brings me so much happiness in remembering my youth. I miss you tony! have a great christmas!
My family's favorite is (and only in LP form) Johnny Mathis.
I am a Mahalia Jackson fan. My mother turned me on to her.
It's all about Johnny Mathis. The one with the ski sweater.
And Dean Martin.
I'm very old.
"It was not a silent night, there was blood on the ground. You could hear a woman cry in the alleyway that night on the streets of David's town. The stable was not clean. The cobblestones were cold. Little Mary full of grace, with the tears on her face, had no mother's hand to hold." - Labor of love, mp3.
I guess I haven't listened to much variety, but there are a few songs I've really keyed in on lately. That one, done by Jill Phillips on Andrew Peterson's, "Behold the Lamb," cd, is one that sticks with me. It lets me get to a place where I can close my eyes and rest in the mental imagery of this story really happening. Being able to close my eyes and watch really does something in me, and it also gets me to imagine more, starting in what I imagine Isaiah 64 and 58 might've played out like.
Another song is Brian McKnight's version of The First Noel. (mp3) He just plays with these words...really sings them. His chords do too. His chords always do. They help me dream. I dream of music telling the story of God with a flugel horn, a beat, and someone singing and playing piano like him. This song's real layed back, but some of them, the chords are just viscous. It turns me inside out.
James O.
Thanks James for the info and the links...
I don't know what a "weeding" is, but it sure sound like fun to me.
"I was a part of Hunter and Sarah Teet's weeding yesterday."
I have been listing to Christmas songs from the 50's and 60's. It brings back a lot of good memories.
Merry Christmas Tony.
tony, you can just borrow my copy of snoo's christmas album : )
I have Elvis Christmas
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