Festive Folk – More Than Just Jingle Bells

Another great article from Sue Barrett, the Folk Blog Down Under Correspondent.

Enjoy – gwg

Festive Folk — More Than Just Jingle Bells!

By Sue Barrett

There are, one imagines, some rules of etiquette relating to the playing of festive music at this time of year.

And based on what one hears going about one’s everyday life, perhaps those rules dictate that festive music must be LOUD, CONTINUOUS, JOLLY and contribute to our HAPPY HOLIDAY MOOD!

At one time, it seemed that every popular artist released a live album, a “best of” album, a duets album and a Christmas/Holiday album.

There have been Christmas/Holiday recordings from Air Supply, Alabama, Joan Baez, Barenaked Ladies, The Beach Boys, Booker T and the MGs, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Glen Campbell, The Carpenters, John Denver, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Garfunkel and Amy Grant, David Grisman, Merle Haggard, Tish Hinojosa, Billy Idol, The Jackson 5, Mahalia Jackson, Jethro Tull, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan, Joan Osborne, Elvis Presley, The Arrogant Worms, The Statler Brothers, Dwight Twilley, Twisted Sister, Jackie Wilson and more.

Some Christmas/Holiday records are joyous, some humorous, some profoundly religious. And some Christmas/Holiday recordings show that festive folk is more than just Jingle Bells…

DONALD SWANN — Sing Round the Year (1968)
Perhaps best known for his comedy work with Michael Flanders (‘The Gasman Cometh’, ‘Song of the Weather’, ‘All Gall’, ‘Misalliance’), Donald Swann also sang and wrote other music. This collection of “new” carols (sung with boys of the Westminster School, girls of Mayfield School, Putney and an accompaniment of organ, piano and percussion) includes Sydney Carter’s ‘Every Star Shall Sing a Carol’, ‘The Devil Wore a Crucifix’ and ‘Lord of the Dance’.

BIM (ROY FORBES) & CONNIE KALDOR — New Songs for an Old Celebration (1985)
Canadians Bim and Connie Kaldor present a collection of mainly new songs for Christmas (with liner notes that include recipes for egg nog and mincemeat tarts!).

CRIS WILLIAMSON — Snow Angel (1985)
Born in Deadwood, South Dakota, Cris Williamson grew up in Wyoming on the prairies at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Her album, The Changer and the Changed (1975), is one of the all-time highest selling independent records. Snow Angel includes songs by Cris and others for the holiday season. (And with her brand new CD, Fringe — just out this week — Cris returns to the West she loves the best — “the prairies, the ranch people, the mountains, horses and dogs and little kids in cowboy boots…all of it under the biggest sky ever!”.)

ODETTA — Christmas Spirituals (1988)
According to Odetta, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama in December 1930, “These songs celebrate Christmas as a time of birth, of hope, of survival. They are songs of celebration, of reaffirmation and of how my forebears managed to get through, under, over, and around oppression.” Primarily traditional songs, set to accompaniment of acoustic guitar, acoustic string bass, percussion, snare and brushes. Includes ‘Mary Had a Baby, ‘Somebody Talking ’Bout Jesus’, ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’, ‘O Jerusalem’.

PETER, PAUL & MARY — A Holiday Celebration (1988)
Superior arrangements of new and old holiday songs, including ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’. Recorded live with The New York Choral Society.

SYDNEY PHILHARMONIA MOTET CHOIR — An Australian Christmas (1995)
A chamber choir, with a repertoire spanning eight centuries, the Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir presents the first three sets (there’s a rumour of a lost set!) of the Australian Christmas Carols by William G James/John Wheeler, plus music from other Australian composers including Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Andrew Ford.

VARIOUS — Winter Moon (1995)
A celebration of gay and lesbian singers and songwriters…and friends — including Lea DeLaria, Michael Callen, Arnold McCuller, The Flirtations, Holly Near and Tom McCormack.

MADDY PRIOR & THE CARNIVAL BAND — Carols at Christmas (1998)
Maddy Prior (of Steeleye Span fame) teams with The Carnival Band to play mainly very old carols and songs (with an instrumental accompaniment that includes recorder, medieval bagpipes, tin whistle, lute, taber, clarinet, fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar).

THE THERAPY SISTERS — Codependent Christmas (1998)
Lisa Rogers and Maurine McLean combine humor and insight, including ‘Abraham’s Lament’, ‘The Sweet Nutcracker’, ‘Listless Christmas’, ‘The Littlest Snowflake’, ‘Pachelbel’s Tantrum’ and ‘The War of the Lights’.

THEODORE BIKEL & HANKUS NETSKY — A Taste of Chanukah (1999)
Theodore Bikel is a folk singer, actor, radio host and co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival. Hankus Netsky is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, scholar and founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Complementing the music, is a Latke cooking demonstration from Chasia Segal.

PRISCILLA HERDMAN, ANNE HILLS, CINDY MANGSEN — At the Turning of the Year (2000)
Three lovely voices; an accompaniment of guitar, fretless bass, banjo, violin, English concertina, accordion, clarinet, harmonica, oboe, piano, percussion and wooden spoons; and songs from Wendy Waldman, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Lou and Peter Berryman and others.

IVAN REBROFF — Christmas with Ivan Rebroff (2003)
Ivan Rebroff (with “the richest, darkest, lowest, highest, most remarkable voice in the world of music”) sings songs for Christmas in Russian, German and Latin. “A very special experience, which I will always remember, was the first Christmas after the end of World War II in 1945…Germany was in ruins, our combat was against hunger and it was bitterly cold. Even though, or perhaps because there was nothing left for us to buy as gifts for our beloved ones, this celebration had a special significance.”

DAVID HASSELHOFF — The Night Before Christmas (2004)
The star of the television series Knight Rider and Baywatch also sings! Since releasing his debut album in the mid 1980s, David Hasselhoff has had a string of platinum albums in Europe. And this pop/rock collection of “classic” Christmas songs includes ‘Joy to the World’, ‘Hark, the Herald Angels’, ‘Feliz Navidad’, ‘Stille Nacht’ (and cameo appearances from Hasselhoff’s children).

ADAM BRAND & FRIENDS — Christmas in Australia (2005)
Described as “Australia’s hottest young country artist”, Adam Brand presents Christmas fun down-under — with surfboards, utes, kangaroos, swaggies, dust, singlets, shorts and thongs, family snaps, togs, cracking of coldies, pig’s bum, pav, hedgehog, Christmas pudding, bits of chook, cricket, a new Hills Hoist, a brand new Esky and a codger with a big white beard. Plus eight bonus live tracks.

KATE AND ANNA MCGARRIGLE — The McGarrigle Christmas Hour (2005)
According to The Rolling Stone Record Guide (the “red” edition), Kate and Anna McGarrigle “make music that’s crisp, nonelectric and utterly magical”. The Christmas album, with vocal assistance from Beth Orton, Martha Wainwright, Emmylou Harris and Rufus Wainwright, is a mixture of traditional and contemporary songs (including Kate/Anna songs, Jackson Browne’s ‘Rebel Jesus’ and Martha’s ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’. And, as Anna said in an interview in December 2004, “it’s kinda a neat record”.

ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS — The First Christmas Gift (2005)
They met in 1971, released their first album in 1975 and featured in the film A Prairie Home Companion in 2006. In addition to songs written by Robin and Linda, there’s ‘Nothing But a Child’ (Steve Earle), ‘Old Toy Trains’ (Roger Miller) and ‘Silent Night All Day Long’ (John Prine/Bobby Whitlock).

As well as being part of dedicated albums, Christmas/Holiday songs are scattered across other recordings. The ultimate Christmas/Holiday mix tape (volume one!) might include ‘Christmas must be Tonight’ (Robbie Robertson); ‘How to Make Gravy’ (Paul Kelly); ‘The Crooked Christmas Star, ’73’ (Dory Previn); ‘The Christians and the Pagans’ (Dar Williams); ‘Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis’ (Tom Waits); ‘Cold December Day’ (Kathryn Warner); ‘No Christmas in Kentucky’ (Phil Ochs); If we make it through December’ (Merle Haggard); ‘Colorado Christmas’ (Steve Goodman); ‘Fairytale of New York’ (Shane MacGowan/Jem Finer); ‘Christmas in Prison’ (John Prine); ‘Oh Little Town in Michigan’ (Laura Love); ‘Christmas in my Soul’ (Laura Nyro); ‘25th of December’ (Bonnie Koloc); ‘Christmas Morning’ (Loudon Wainwright III); ‘Uncle Dave’s Grace’ (Lou & Peter Berryman); ‘The Christmas Song’ (The Arrogant Worms); ‘I Think it was December’ (Wendy Melvoin/Lisa Coleman); ‘Hey California’ (Catie Curtis); and ‘The Bethlehem Bell Ringer’ (Carl Cleves). A fitting conclusion to the mix tape could be the Sandy O/Pat Humphries song, ‘Peace, Salaam, Shalom’.

Sue Barrett is an Australian music writer, with a special interest in women in music. Her great uncle was the organist on the 1960s recording, Christmas at St Patrick’s (Choir of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, directed by the Rev Dr Percy Jones).

© Sue Barrett 2007