Three Christmas bloggers get a write-up in the Guardian!

The Christmas blogging of Ernie, Der Bingle , and Stubby has earned a write-up in the UK Guardian: Click to Download: Undiscovered Christmas Tunes. Congrats to all!

Of course, the piece just has to start with a quote about the general awfulness of Christmas music. Cliches, cliches. But they're called cliches for a reason, I suppose. Generally speaking, Christmas bloggers don't agree with that received idea. Would we be blogging Christmas music if we did? (Smile face)

Note: the Guardian's Merry and Bright link doesn't work. Someone pointed this out in the comments, but it remains as is.

Congrats again to the Guardian-featured bloggers. (I've always wanted to type that.)

(I must be on Google Chrome--my paragraphs are double-spacing. Yup, I am.)

Lee

Lord of the Dance, Every Star Shall Sing a Carol

Two Sydney Carter songs for our Christmas, brilliantly performed by Donald Swann. Ripped from my thrifted 45 EP.

Click here to hear: Lord of the Dance, Every Star Shall Sing a Carol--Donald Swann

From Songs of Faith and Doubt (Argo EAF-48; 1964)


Lee

The War on Facts--another M(Y)PWHAE almost-rant

Weary of hearing the media's version of Christmas history, which after all is mainly a rebuttal of the Tea Party, I wrote this essay: The War on Facts--Christmas 2011 edition. It's over at my text blog for those who don't want a long post interrupting the music shares. Hey, I'm flexible. Though much less so than my younger days....

Anyway, Christmas has become the season for ridiculing the conservative plaint that Christ is being taken out of Christmas. Never mind that the conservatives are absolutely correct. No, I'm nothing close to a conservative, but I draw the line at misrepresenting history to score a point. When the right is right, it's right. And I envy them for the "right/right" correlation just illustrated.

So, mosey on over to my text blog and, if nothing else, enjoy the vintage-songbook scans I included with the essay.


Lee

Gilmar Holiday Favorites: Vocals & Orchestra!

"Vocals and Orchestra" (see label credit) was a pretty popular group back in the day. Seems they did a lot of work for the cheapo labels. I understand they often performed on stage with "Stars of Radio and Television" and "Popular Artists."

What we have on this 45-rpm Gilmar label EP are tracks previously released on Royale and Varsity. Some have been shortened to fit into the medley format--Jingle Bells, for instance, lasts all of about 12 seconds. Sound quality is fairly decent, despite some crackle from a bad pressing and jammed-together grooves. Each side clocks in at about seven minutes!

If this were a Christmas-only blog, I'd call it A Cheap Christmas. Download without delay:

Gilmar Holiday Favorites, Parts 1 and 2

Sixteen familiar carols, hymns, songs, and ballet selections which I don't feel like listing!


Lee

Charles Laughton: The Oldest Christmas Story, The Story of the Three Wise Men (1944)

From 1944, it's Charles Laughton narrating The Oldest Christmas Story and The Story of the Three Wise Men. These would have made a great Line Material release for that year, but it was not to be. While my 78 looks downright mint, it has surface hiss to spare. Luckily, the hiss filter killed most of it, though the fidelity is pretty blah. In my collecting experience, Decca 78s from this period tend to be lo-fi. But these are well-done and fun, blah fidelity or no.

The Oldest Christmas Story--C. Laughton, 1944.
The Story of the Three Wise Men--Same.

The excellent background music was composed by Hanns Eisler, who studied under Schoenberg form 1919 to 1923, says Wikipedia.



Lee

Christmas with Paul Whiteman, 1928

Two new rips from my beautiful Columbia label copy of Paul Whiteman's 12-inch Christmas 78 from 1928. I forgot to do a label scan, but that's the way it snows-- it's the music that counts, anyway. The arrangers are Ferde Grofe and Bill Challis.

Christmas Melodies (A: Ferde Grofe)--Paul Whiteman Orch., 1928.

Silent Night, Holy Night (A: Bill Challis)--Same.


Lee

The Trapp Family Choir, 1942

It's been a while since I featured these two marvelous 1942 sides by the Trapp Family Choir. This is what the Sound of Music family actually sounded like, as opposed to their much less interesting Broadway/Hollywood version.

To the gorgeous sounds: God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen--Trapp Family Choir, 1942

Silent Night, Holy Night--Trapp Family Choir, 1942



Lee

Christmas Fantasy--Al Goodman and His Orch. (c. 1947)

A new rip of this 12" 78, which I'm guesstimating to be from around 1947. I like the way this came out. As ever, I've edited the two sides together for one flowing suite, as opposed to two halves interrupted by the sound of run-off grooves and the shhh-shhh-shhh-shhh noise that goes with them. Of course, this makes the listening experience a little less authentic, but sacrifices must be made for art.

To the file: Christmas Fantasy (Arr: Goodman)--Al Goodman and His Orch., 1947-ish.



Lee

Carol of the Bells, played by your blogger

Yes, our tree is up and shining (above). I took this shot with the "night" flash, and then I removed the flash reflection from the window. I love the glowing effect. We bought this tree not too far from our house; Bev picked it and I sawed it down. So far, the cats aren't messing with it too much. Some of our previous herds would have had the ornaments on the floor already.

So... this is me on my Casio WK-3800's very convincing "Vibes" patch, playing Carol of the Bells (also known as "Da-da-da-dun...") from the SATB arrangement, as in, straight off the carol book page. If that sounds easy, you haven't tried it! After working this up to a decent tempo, I'm wishing I'd found a special arrangement of it instead. Sometimes as-written is the hard way to go.

I added some MAGIX Acoustical Simulation, getting a big sound as a result.

To the file: Carol of the Bells, played by Lee



Lee