Artist: Josh Rouse
Song: “Christmas Songs”
Album: The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse
From the Artist: “[‘Christmas Songs’] was written a few weeks before recording the record. I was on tour in Sweden and I needed one more song to add to the group I had been collecting for years, an end credit if you will. I had Lee Hazlewood and the album Cowboy in Sweden in mind.” — Josh Rouse
Artist: Valerie June
Song: “Let It Snow” (single)
In Their Words: “Since the holiday season seems to begin sooner and sooner each year, my favorite holiday songs are the ones that make you want to cuddle up with a warm cup of tea and watch through the window as the season shifts from fall to winter.” — Valerie June
On this week’s episode of The Show On The Road, Liz Vice – a Portland born, Brooklyn-based gospel/folk firebrand who is bringing her own vision of social justice and the powerful, playful bounce of soul back to modern religious music.
Listen: Apple Podcasts • MP3
Liz Vice is following a rich tradition that goes back generations to powerful advocates like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke, the Staples Singers, the Ward Sisters, Aretha Franklin, and especially Mahalia Jackson, who was the soundtrack to the civil rights movement. It was Mahalia who pushed Martin Luther King Jr. to tell the assembled masses in Washington, D.C. about his dream.
We often forget how much religious music was infused in the counterculture back in the 1960s, and as the BBC mentions in a great article about the era, “The music of the black church was infusing and inspiring the political consciousness of folk music; gospel was no longer just for the religious but the foundation for much ‘60s protest.” And so we bring you Liz Vice — and a little clear-eyed Christmas spirit to usher you into the twinkling darkness of December.
Artist: Bear’s Den
Song: “Only Son of the Falling Snow”
Album: Only Son of the Falling Snow (EP)
In Their Words: “I wrote the song a while ago. It’s a very nostalgic and reflective song which imagines someone looking back on their own life and walking into their old house, reliving some pivotal moments of their life and re-engaging with who they are as a person and where they’re at now. I read Winter, the novel by Ali Smith, and it really inspired me to want to write songs specifically about winter. I think it’s an incredibly inspiring time of year and it was a really fun and collaborative process for Kev and I to work on these songs, flesh them out, and bring them to life: embracing piano ideas and more acoustic elements whilst still exploring electronic textures behind the more reflective lyrics and sparse arrangements. We’re very proud to share this song with you.” — Andrew Davie, Bear’s Den
Artist: Old 97’s
Song: “Snow Angels”
Album: Love the Holidays
In Their Words: “‘Snow Angels’ is a holiday song written in the tradition of ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ Unlike really any other song I’ve ever written, it deals with issues of social justice and world peace in a very upfront way. We are all the same and we are all brothers.” –Rhett Miller
Artist: Ian Foster and Nancy Hynes
Song: “A Week in December”
Album: Ian Foster and Nancy Hynes: A Week in December
In Their Words: “I actually wrote this one in the height of summer (maybe that means I’ve levelled up as a songwriter? It’s a challenge to write a Christmas song in your shorts…haha). But I really started thinking about it last winter visiting a friend in Calgary, and talking about that trip home for that ‘week in December’ that most can manage when they live away.
I think most people who make that visit are confronted with quite a mix of emotions: obviously all the happy ones with family and friends, but also the more difficult ones of seeing your old home with different eyes, and seeing how things have changed. I found that balance interesting to write about, trying to capture that back and forth: beautiful lights…in bad weather, going to a Christmas bar show…that’s cacophonous. It falls into that introspective side of ‘end of the year’ songs, but for my friend – and for me – it ultimately reminds us why we go home that same time every year.
I’m singing with Nancy Hynes, who is my partner in ‘real life,’ and has sung harmony on my records since 2011. This album is called Ian Foster and Nancy Hynes: A Week in December, and is our first true duo record, featuring 10 Christmas classics and 2 originals. Nancy’s love of Christmas music was a driving force from the start, and I knew it would be a duo record right from pre-production.
Director Andrew Winter had a good idea when it came to the overlays using some clever tools in After Effects, and we found some treasure troves of footage — both his and ours — that brought things together. I think he did a great job of adding a different dimension to the song while still keeping true to it — an under-appreciated challenge in making music videos.” – Ian Foster
Artist: Dailey & Vincent
Song: “Let It Snow”
Album: The Sounds of Christmas
In Their Words: “We wanted to include “Let It Snow” on The Sounds of Christmas because when you hear the song’s familiar lyrics and cheerful melody, you can’t help but get into the Christmas spirit.” — Dailey & Vincent
Artist: The McCrary Sisters
Song: “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
Album: Go Tell It on the Mountain/No Room at the Inn
In Their Words: “I have always loved the Staple Singers, so when our producer Scott Billington at Rounder Records shared his idea of using the song ‘Respect Yourself’ for the groove of this song and put ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain’ to that feel, we jumped all over that opportunity. I love it, I pray — and yet I know — you will love it too. So join us on the highest mountain and lowest street corner to proclaim the message of love, joy, peace, and happiness!” – Regina McCrary
Artist: The Mavericks
Song: “Santa Does”
Album: Hey! Merry Christmas!
In Their Words: “‘Santa Does’ came to me in a dream. I woke and scribbled it down. Dreamed the whole thing from top to bottom. It became the genesis for the whole album and spawned a whole batch of new Christmas songs. In the spirit of giving, I let my friends Raul Malo and Allan Miller have writing credit, because you know…that’s what Santa Does!” — Jerry Dale McFadden, The Mavericks
Bluegrass is notorious for having an extreme dearth of Christmas and holiday songs. The first, and often only one to come to mind, in jam circles and on set lists, is “Christmas Time’s a Comin’” — and deservedly so, it’s simply iconic. It’s true that many bluegrass bands and artists cover Christmas staples from outside the genre frequently and with aplomb, but holiday songs written by, for, and within the bluegrass community have been always hard to come by, that is, until recent decades, when career bluegrass songwriters became the unstoppable phenomenon they are today.
During my career as a banjo picker and the countless hours spent providing background music for holiday soirees, or performing seasonal shows, or even just spicing up a pickin’ party with a little Christmas cheer, I’ve always opted for a tune that fits the Christmas theme purely because of a technicality. Bill Monroe’s “Santa Claus” was named for the town in Indiana, not the jolly, red-suited philanthropist who lives at the North Pole. Its melody doesn’t even marginally reference or imply any sort of intrinsically Christmas-y themes, it’s just a fun, bouncy, chromaticism-filled Monroe tune, once again named after one of his countless destinations. But hey, when you don’t have enough Christmas songs, you have to make do! And “Santa Claus” is always an excellent choice, especially when it’s a recording with Bill Keith kicking it off on the banjo.
