Tag: Charles Brown

BGS Wraps: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, “Ghost From Christmas Past”

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Artist: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Single: “Ghost From Christmas Past”
Release Date: November 13, 2020

In Their Words: “I’ve wanted to do a holiday song for a while now. Last year was a bit hectic professionally and personally, so I just didn’t have time to get into the studio like I wanted. This year, with the pandemic and all, I had some downtime and was able to get with Tom Hambridge to record a holiday song he and Richard Fleming wrote. I think the best part of recording this song was that I was in a nice groove. I’d spent some time in Nashville writing and recording for my next album and all just worked out where I could record this track as well. I think recording the song as part of a larger session helped drive my energy and fortunately I was able to get into a nice holiday vibe in autumn.

“This has been a hard year for a lot of people. So, I truly just wanted to record and release something that could brighten folks’ day and hopefully help them enjoy the holidays despite the current state of the world. I really do like this time of year. Of course, you can’t help but love a lot of the classic Christmas music. But, I’d say Charles Brown’s ‘Merry Christmas Baby,’ ‘Santa’s Got the Blues’ from Denise LaSalle and ‘Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’’ by Albert King are three of my all-time favorites.” — Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

Enjoy more BGS Wraps here.

MIXTAPE: The Revelers’ Cajun Christmas

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What can be said about Christmas music? It’s so ingrained in us as Americans, most of all during these two months of the year when music of the Great American Songbook and golden eras of popular music once again reign over the flavors of the week. In Southwest Louisiana, which is predominantly Catholic, Christmas is as intertwined with its history as Mardi Gras.

Many of these songs you’ll recognize. I think it’s revealing to hear songs we know well reinterpreted by Cajuns — it helps to make the idiosyncrasies of the genre stand out. Others are pretty generic-sounding Cajun songs (waltzes and two steps) that are tangentially about Christmas or take place with Christmas as a backdrop. You might not be able to translate “Christmas on the Bayou” but you probably have a pretty good idea what Vin Bruce is singing about. And “Christmas Blues” has many common Cajun tropes — the protagonist is imprisoned by a love of the past, he’s crying, the children are singing, and it’s Christmas Day… Cheery!

Some highlights:

We kick things off with Belton Richard, “the Cajun Elvis.” This cover might have helped to earn him that title. So, so good we had to include a few, spanning both Cajun and Swamp Pop (“Please Come Home for Christmas” is a great example of the latter).

Many of these tracks come from an album from the late ’80s called Merry Cajun Christmas. Check out that full record if you want a deep dive into Cajun culture and some of its enduring stereotypes (complete with spoken word Christmas poems!), but we selected some of the less cheesy numbers for this playlist.

We included a few classics that aren’t strictly Cajun, but fall under “Revelers influences” — Roy Orbison, Buck Owens. After all, Cajun and country have always borrowed from one another. And a shout out to honorary Cajun Dirk Powell (Balfa Toujours) and Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence. — Chris Miller of The Revelers

Photo Credit: Sandlin Gaither