Mixtapemotions

  • “Silver Bells” by Sleeping at Last, Sunday, December 25, 2022 (Partial Repost)

     

    It’s important during the creative process to get feedback and look at your work from every possible angle. Jim Adkins reportedly hates his band name, Jimmy Eat World, especially because of the band’s acronym, J-E- you get the point. Today’s song was released in 1950 and was inspired by the sound of the Salvation Army Santa Clauses ringing their tinkling bells. But when songwriter Ray Evans brought his work home, his wife said, “Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle  is?” And just like that, the song changed to “Silver Bells” and it wasn’t the first Christmas song about pee. We’d have to wait for that, apparently. Google if you dare.

    CITY SIDEWALKS, BUSY SIDEWALKS. First recorded by William Frawley and popularized in the film The Lemon Drop Kid sung by Bob Hope and Marylin Maxwell, “Silver Bells,” like most Christmas standards has so many recordings, it’s hard to choose a favorite. The song was recorded by Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, The Judds, Michael Bublé, Steven Curtis Chapman, among others. The version that appears in most movies today is the Kate Smith version. I don’t have a particular favorite version, but Sleeping at Last‘s slow, melancholy version speaks to me this year. I was out finishing up my Christmas shopping yesterday and spending time with my partner, but today was a very relaxing Christmas in bed–the kind where you wake up late, eat pumpkin pie for breakfast, put on your sweatpants, eat familiar foods, and binge watch things you want to catch up on because tomorrow is back to work. For me and my boyfriend, it was Only Murders in the Building and a nostalgic trip back to ’90s Saturday Night church movie night with Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.  “Silver Bells” is a song about the bustle of Christmastime, but the slow Sleeping at Last version takes us back home, when Christmastime settles down and we experience the comfort and joy of the season.

    SOON IT WILL BE CHRISTMAS DAY. If I think about “Silver Bells,” I have to think about my mom singing this song, at least the “It’s Christmas time in the city” part. “But we’re in the country,” I’d reminded my mom, annoyed. Growing up close to a small town, Christmas was pretty when we’d drive down the hill into the village, seeing all the pretty lights on the trees and houses. Sometimes in the winter, we’d drive to the bigger cities, passing the car exhaust-covered snow banks on our way to Binghamton or Syracuse where we would go to the mall and see all the boughs of holly and ribbons and gingerbread houses and Christmas trees and Santa Claus ringing a bell for donations. But “Christmas time in the city” finally made sense the year that we took a charter tour to Manhattan. This was either ’96 or ’97, the last or penultimate winter in New York. The bus ride took a long time–maybe four hours–but we didn’t notice because we watched Christmas movies the whole way there and the whole way back. We watched movies my mom never let us watch like Chevy Chase‘s Christmas Vacation and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. When we arrived in the city everything seemed decorated. We went to Macy’s, Time Square, and FAO Schwartz. This was the first time I had been in New York City and the city was much bigger than Orlando, the biggest city I had ever spent time in. For Christmas everything was blinking Christmas lights, crowds dressed in winter coats, hot dogs and pretzel stands. The daylight didn’t last long that day. The sun sank behind the buildings early in the winter, but what was left was the glow of large billboards and Rockefeller tree. While I love a family Christmas, there is something magical about being enraptured in the spirit of the holiday in a city with millions of people.

    Bob Hope & Marylin Maxwell:
    Kate Smith version:
    Dean Martin version:

    Bing Crosby Version:

    Sleeping at Last Version:

    Michael Bublé version: 

  • "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Anchor & Braille, Saturday, December 24, 2022 (repost)

     

    “I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I. Don’t want a lot for Christmas.” *struggles to change the radio dial amid gridlocked holiday traffic* “There’s just one thing I need” *hurry up with my damn latte! I think I’m going to die. Why the hell is Starbucks playing Christmas music in mid-October?* “I don’t care about the presents” *internal Elaine monologue ‘I think I’m going to die in this department store. Ma’am, why must you spray the perfume so close to my face. I can’t breathe! What if the earth begins to shake and we’re stuck in here forever underneath mannequins and holiday shoppers and that damn Mariah Carey song stuck on repeat?’* “Underneath the Christmas tree” “No” *raising a strict finger to students who should be studying in the back* “Not before Thanksgiving.” “I just want you for my own/ More than you could ever know.” Every year, Christmas music gets earlier and earlier. “Make my dreams come true.” Corporate America wants to put us in credit card debt. “All I want for Christmas” Call me Scrooge, but I’d like to go back to childhood when Christmases were magical. “Is” If only we could go back in time to say, 199~ “You~~~~~~~~~” That’s it! 1992! before this song ruled the world.


    Meme from last year

    ALL THE LIGHTS ARE SHINING EVERYWHERE. Two Christmases ago, Stephen Christian recorded his daughter’s favorite Christmas song, releasing it as an Anchor & Braille song. All of those emotions listed above are my feelings about Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit, “21st Century ‘White Christmas.’” “All I Want for Christmas Is You” may be overplayed, overrated, and more contagious than the Omicron variant and extremely meme-able. We can wear our earplugs into stores, and we can blast the latest Taylor Swift or Adele albums in our noise-canceling AirPods Pro, but the infection rate is close to 100% that you will have this song stuck in your head at some point during the holiday season. I was stricken by the bug today when I turned on A Very Tooth & Nail Christmas on Apple Music. Try as I might, Mae‘s “Carol of the Bells” or Copeland‘s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and not even Anberlin’s “Baby Please Come Home” stuck in my head as I stepped out for lunch this afternoon. It’s the Christmas season, so I wondered how this song would fit into my playlist this year? I wondered how Christmas music would fit in or if it would, this year. I thought about how un-Christmasy this year feels. And then it struck. The ear virus didn’t come in the form of Michael Bublè, Ariana Grande, or Justin Bieber (thank God!). It didn’t come in the hilarious mashup of the isolated vocals of Radiohead’s “Creep” surrounded by the festive sleigh bells and outrageous piano and backup singers of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” It wasn’t the pretty-good-but-not-great House of Heroes cover. It didn’t come by seeing a meme about the song. Instead, it came from one of my favorite singers doing a slowed-down rendition, taking the energy of Carey down to be a Christmas song for the exhausted rest of us. 


    I DON’T NEED TO HANG MY STOCKING. Am I being too harsh on the holiday classic? Critics loved the song when it came out. If I were writing a blog in 1994, maybe I would have appreciated the musical elements–the throwback to old Christmas songs, the unique chords, the imitation of a wind-up Christmas music box–but in 2021, I’m too desensitized to whatever musical point Carey was trying to make. To me, Christmas music, the more traditional the better. There is something so much more magical about a small church singing on a snowy evening hymn from the 1800s than Bing Crosby singing in the ’40s. When I was growing up, several CCM Christmas albums captured an old-time Christmas–whether it was Michael W. Smith‘s Christmastime  or the artists who sang on the City on a Hill Christmas project. There was something about the 20th-century Christmas songs that just sounded like shopping. And they were done to death–disco, punk, soul, pick a genre. My old soul, though, has to cope with a commercialized holiday, so Anchor & Braille is as good a place as ever to start. December’s playlist isn’t exclusively Christmas songs and won’t be from here on out, but as the season picks up, I guess we should address the drop in temperature, the new flavors at Starbucks, the decorations at the department stores, the new specials on Netflix–even if it all seems a little forced.
     

    Anchor & Braille version:



    House of Heroes version: 

    “Creep but It’s All I Want for Christmas Is You” Radiohead/Mariah Carey Mashup:

  • “My Favorite Things” by Mary J. Bilge, Friday, December 23, 2022

     

    “My Favorite Things” inadvertently became a holiday classic when Julie Andrews sang the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II song in a holiday special four years before the theatrical release of The Sound of Music. The song has been covered for various holiday albums from Tony Bennett to Kelly Clarkson. Radio DJ Bob Rivers  adapted the song in the style of AC/DC for the holiday parody “Jingle Hells Bells” and Family Force 5 included “My Favorite Things” on their Christmas Pageant record. Of course, there was the interpolation for Ariana Grande‘s hit “7 Rings,” for which the singer had to pay Rodgers and Hammerstein 80% of the song’s royalties. 


    THEN I DON’T FEEL SO BAD.  “My Favorite Things” is a song designed to lift listeners out of the dullness of a daily existence and transform their banal or difficult days into something extraordinary. Perhaps it’s that mood that Ariana Grande was trying to elevate her listeners to by interpolating the melody. Some versions of Julie Andrews’ classic have that effect stronger than others. Today’s version comes from Mary J. Blige. The singer captures the essence of Julie Andrews’ classic while adding her own smooth vocals to give the song a little contemporary flare without over stylizing. Blige shows us that it is possible to interpret the classic in a fresh way. However, no matter who sings “My Favorite Things,” I will always think about the scene in the middle of The Sound of Music during the thunderstorm when the scared children crawl into bed with their governess played by Andrews. I don’t ever remember being bored when watching The Sound of Music when I was growing up. Anne of Greene Gables always conked me out as did Heidi and The Secret Garden. I always watched this movie with my mom on rainy days. The long wandering story set in the beautiful alps of Austria, the plot interspersed with songs wasn’t really fun, but it beat staring out the window at what I couldn’t do outside. 

    WHEN THE DOG BITES. “My Favorite Things” in The Sound of Music foreshadows the hardship the von Trapp family would face with the rise of the Nazi party as the movie ends with the family fleeing from their estate on the cusp of World War II. I’m including “My Favorite Things” as a kind of reprieve from this year. As we get to end of the year, we recall the highlights and what we should improve for next year. I talked with my friend/coworker as we started wrapping up the year and we came to similar conclusions about 2022. Nothing particularly bad happened for either of us this year, but it was a year of stress, hard work, indolent coworkers, and little pay off. The highlights of 2022 hardly rose above the low points. I grew as a teacher this year and build stronger connections with students, but the future of it still looks grim–a future where it looks financially irresponsible to stay in education and even more financially irresponsible to invest in my further education to be a better teacher.  And I worry that next year will just turn out the same– another year older and no further ahead, ceteris paribus. I can continue to distract myself with my favorite things, but that will never change the fact that I am ill equipped for the coming of the figurative Nazis at the end of the movie. I’m going to be really glad when this year is over.
    Mary J. Blige version:
    Scene from The Sound of Music:

    Reprise: 

    Family Force 5 version:

    “Jingle Hells Bells”:

    “7 Rings”:

  • “Little Town” by Amy Grant, Thursday, December 22, 2022

     

    This year, Mariah Carey lost the right to trademark the name “The Queen of Christmas.” Singer-Songwriter Elizabeth Chan filed an opposition when Carey applied for the trademark.  Chan writes Christmas songs year-round and thought that Carey’s claiming of the title was unfair to give to one person. David Letterman declared Darlene Love “The Queen of Christmas” a year before Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released. 


    YET IN THY DARK STREETS SHINETH. Then there’s Amy Grant. The Contemporary Christian-pop crossover singer has recorded five Christmas records beginning with 1983’s A Christmas Record and followed by 1992’s Home for Christmas, which popularized the David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner holiday single “Grown-Up Christmas List.” Grant’s musical career started with the release of her debut record in 1977 when she was still a teenager. In the early ’80s she mostly sang praise music and hymns, some of which had a distinctive sound of the day. Point-in-case, today’s song “Little Town.” The heavy synthesizers made my ’00-teenage eyes role, but old Amy Grant wasn’t played much on the CCM stations, but when I was listening to CCM radio, Grant was controversial for her high-profile divorce from fellow CCM singer and Weekly Top 20 CCM countdown host  Gary Chapman. And Grant’s biggest pop hits were from the ’80s and early ’90s. Grant’s divorce was polarizing in late ’90s CCM, causing the singer to lose fans and support. But Grant constantly comes back to pay homage to her Christian music past. She maintains a friendship with lifelong collaborator Michael W. Smith despite not always seeing eye to eye on social issues–Amy Grant is in the new again this week for another controversy setting her at odds again with her conservative listeners, this time it’s hosting a same-sex wedding on her family farm with her husband Country singer Vince Gill for their niece. Franklin Graham is upset and Michael W. Smith, friend of both Grant and Graham, is yet to comment. 

    OUR LORD EMMANUEL. But tonight, I want to remember a Christmas pageant from ninth grade at Adventist school. Some how, our teacher had a disagreement with the church’s choir director, so the teacher decided to put on a rival Christmas cantata, starring her students. For about a month classes were put on the back burner as we listened to extremely difficult arrangements of Christmas songs. I recall only three at this time, though: Ray Boltz’s “The Perfect Tree,” Point of Grace’s insanely complicated altered time signature “Carol of the Bells” sung only by the girls–a few of them completely tone deaf–and today’s song, awkward ’80s Amy Grant and her version of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” If you know the hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” you know the melody and the naturally flowing lyrics. I can appreciate Amy Grant’s version now because I’ve become a sucker for avant-garde ’80s production as a musical palette as long as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But in the ’00s, the ’80s were fashion suicide. We hated this song. We hated singing for eight hours a day. Our throats were sore. We were getting sick. And yet, it was kind of great not studying algebra for a month.



  • “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) by Michael Bublé, Wednesday, December 21, 2022

     

    It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas today. The first snow of the season fell in the city where I live, though it fell the first weekend of the month when I was up in Seoul. Starting at 7 a.m. and continuing until about 11, thick flakes descended covering the ground, making the morning commute a little more perilous than the usual idiots, though my carpool driver is skilled in New England winter driving. School started a little late with some traffic preventing the buses from being on time, and when they got in, the students played in the snow, coming late to class–good for them!

    THEY KNOW THAT SANTA’S ON HIS WAY. I talked to my parents this morning when I couldn’t sleep. It was hot in my place, and I went to bed early for two nights before that, so my body felt caught up on sleep. Nothing urgent at home, just mom wanting to make plans for when I go next month near the end of the month. I got to see the Christmas tree, and my mom dressed up in a Santa hat and some red and white blanket. She said that the family would save Christmas for me. She said it would be a simple time–just a time to share a meal together and open a few presents. She doesn’t want to get me anything that is too much because of weight restrictions. Of course, no one believes or remembers when I tell them that in South Korea, workers just get one day off for Christmas, and then it’s back to work, or in my case school. It’s okay, though, this year because my school finishes three days after Christmas and we’re off until March 2nd. Christmas in my family has had to be a carefully- coordinated event, since my mom, and later my sister, became a nurse and my youngest sister works for a news station. I’ve missed a lot of Christmases because of Korea. But somehow, Christmas never loses its magic. And every year, it’s less and less about the things you get but the magic that happens when loved ones are together. 

    FOR KIDS FROM ONE TO NINETY-TWO. “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was written by The Velvet Fog, Mel Tormé, but we probably know Nat King Cole‘s version best. It’s been covered by everyone, and today’s version by Michael Bublé is a good one. In the days of the crooners, the songs were passed around and Bublé keeps that crooner tradition alive today. I don’t have a favorite version of this one like I do other carols, but Bublé’s crisp vocals felt like a good fit today. I don’t like the taste of chestnuts. Maybe “Eskimos” is not politically correct these days. I’d prefer to have lasagna on Christmas because if you have turkey on Christmas and Thanksgiving, the bird gets old. I was never taught about Santa Claus other than that some children actually believed in him. Nat King Cole’s version, in particular, makes me sleepy. And yet this sleepy song puts me in the mood for holiday cheer. Although so many elements of Christmas songs feel so irrelevant to us, they create magical moments unique to us. Perhaps you’re celebrating Christmas in California, Hawaii, Florida, or another tropical area where the seasons don’t change. “Let It Snow” might not be for you, but maybe it is. I don’t know much about “The Feast of Stephen” or who “Good King Wenceslas” was, but the melody, sung right, makes me feel a Christmas sensation. I’ve been teaching my students a lot of Christmas vocabulary. In South Korea, Christmas is a couple’s day mostly, something not alien to the US with Hallmark movies and Wham‘s “Last Christmas” or Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”  Some of them have experienced a non-Korean Christmas, but many have not. And while they’re not so young, I feel like there’s still a magic to teach kids about Christmas–a feeling of deep appreciation for friends and family and building memories together. And that’s what The Christmas magic is all about.

    Nat King Cole version:

    Mel Tormé version: 

    Michael Bublé version:

  • “Wonderful Christmastime” by The Shins, Tuesday, December 20, 2022 (Repost)

     “Wonderful Christmastime” was rated as the worst Christmas song by Ultimate Classic Rock. Recorded when 37-year-old rock legend Paul McCartney was recording his polarizing second solo record, just before the disbanding of his second band, Wings, McCartney II was a synth-pop, new wave record in a time when former Beatles fans were yelling, “stick to the classics.” Recently, critics have come to understand and even praise McCartney II for its pioneering in electronic music. The intentionally simple lyrics help to draw attention to the synths and the overall Christmasy atmosphere of the song.

    THE CHILDREN’S CHOIR SINGS A SONG. “Wonderful Christmastime” has been covered by many artists, including Diana Ross, Demi Lovato, Hillary Duff, Jump5, Chicago and Dolly Parton, Pentatonix, Family Force 5, Jars of Clay, Eleventyseven, and so many other artists. In 2000, the Christian Rock band Earthsuit recorded the track for Tooth & Nail Record‘s holiday collection Happy Christmas, Vol. 3. Composed of members of what would become MuteMath, Earthsuit interpreted McCartney’s synth-pop with a faster tempo. Singer Adam LaClave‘s vocals grow more radical as the song speeds up. I always thought that Family Force 5’s 2009 Christmas Pageant version of this cover took inspiration from Earthsuit’s version. The version that makes our playlist, though, is by indie rock gods, The Shins. I heard this song this morning listening to “A Very Tooth & Nail Christmas” on Apple Music. Along with their “Summer Vibes” playlist, I was shocked to see so many non-Tooth & Nail (and secular) artists on their playlists, especially when Tooth & Nail put out many Christmas collections. What is the connection between Tooth & Nail and The Shins? 

    WE’RE HERE TONIGHT, AND THAT’S  ENOUGH. Formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the late ’90s, The Shins relocated to Portland, Oregon, became friends with Modest Mouse, and landed on an indie film soundtrack by Zach Braff and starring Braff and Natalie Portman. The movie, of course, is Garden State. While not every band on the soundtrack became Coldplay (who was also on the soundtrack), The Shins forged a lasting career with albums like Wincing the Night Away and Chutes Too Narrow.  In 2012, the band contributed to a Christmas album, Holidays Rule, which also contained Paul McCartney singing a cover of “The Christmas Song.” The Shins show their Beach Boys influence in this cover and don’t play up the synth sound of this song. So, why is it a Tooth & Nail favorite? The Shins were a somewhat local band to the Seattle-based label, and Aaron Sprinkle has stated that he was inspired to create Jonezetta‘s second album, taking influence from Wincing the Night Away. But one extra connection to the scene is the keyboardist/producer of this track, the late Richard Swift. Getting a start as the keyboardist for Starflyer 59, Swift went on to play with the Shins from 2011-2016 and toured with the Black Keys in 2014. Sadly, Swift passed away in 2018 at the age of 41. Whichever version you choose to enjoy this holiday season, focus on the simple message. And while Christmas may not be great this year, the merriness of Christmases past can live on in our minds. And that’s enough.

    Performance on Saturday Night Live:

    Pentatonix:

  • “War Is Over” by KIDS (John Lennon Plastic Ono Band Cover), Monday, December 19, 2022 (Partial Repost)

    It’s very difficult to find the band KIDS on streaming platforms or online. The Ft. Lauderdale-based Indie band released their sophomore record, Lost Cities, on Tooth & Nail in 2020 and the label and the band seems not to have generated much hype. And it’s a shame. The band has an interesting take on synth pop and organic sounds, often including trumpet and saxophone in their songs. Today’s song, the Christmas classic “War Is Over,” offers a saxophone line that I find simultaneously comforting and eerie. 

    WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT.  “War Is Over” is the band’s cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s 1971 holiday hit, which was written in protest of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. My inclusion of this song comes with a prejudice that I’m currently reexamining. When I was young and influenced by far-right Christian rhetoric, I believed that this song was dangerous, as was his hit “Imagine,” also released in ’71. I was taught that war is a last resort, but often necessary, and Lennon’s Marx-lifted lyrics in “Imagine” were driving people away from the very foundations of freedom: God, guns, and gold. “Happy Xmas” was a song that removed “Christ” from the title, and that was what the “War on Christmas” looked like in the ’90s and probably earlier. The song wishes Lennon’s son and Ono’s daughter a merry Christmas at the beginning of the track, and the song never says “X,” but always “Christmas.” The lyrics of “War is over, if you want it” strike me as hopeful, idealistic, and naive depending on my mood. Not knowing much about the Christian influence or backgrounds of The Beatles (which would be a fascinating study), I’m assuming that Lennon would have been well-acquainted with popular notions of faith and virtues typically attributed to Christianity. Lennon and the Beatles strayed from state religion of their homeland, venturing into the realm of Hinduism, Hare Krishna, and other eastern religions; however, to me, today, “Happy Xmas” seems to be pleading with the Christian country of the United States, even using some Christianese, using Christmas as a platform of peace and ending the war. If you’re in America and an evangelical, though, Lennon just sounds like a babbling heretic. After years of blatant racism and looking back at wars with no end game, it may be time to listen a little closer to the babbling, especially in a year filled with a completely unjustified war.

    LET’S HOPE IT’S A GOOD ONE. When the lyrics of “Happy Xmas” begin with the question, “And what have you done?” I begin thinking about my meager achievements for the year. What do I have to celebrate other than survival? Am I closer to becoming the person I should be? And what will 2023 hold? It’s a question that feels scary to ask as we mark another year closer to the inevitable. But Lennon and Ono’s song offers us hope. It doesn’t seem realistic that wars will end and everyone will join hands around the Christmas tree. However, we can choose to have a spirit of peace on earth. That seems very Christian. After all, didn’t Jesus say, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be Children of God”? (Matthew 5:9) So rather than putting tons of presents under the tree this year, especially because we’re all broke from the inflation caused by the war!, let’s think about what we can do for the ones we care about. How can we better tolerate the ones we don’t like? How can we be a positive force to those in our lives. So have a cup of cheer, even if it’s a small one, and hope that we can move toward a world of peace on earth, good will to men.

    Check out the original with annotations

    John Lennon & Yoko Ono version:
    Sleeping at Last version:
    Acceptance version:
    KIDS version:

     

  • “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Paul Colman Trio, Sunday, December 18, 2022

     

    “In the Bleak Midwinter” is another Christmas Hymn that I like particularly because of how infrequently we hear it. The lyrics were penned by Victorian poet Christina Rossetti and published with the title “A Christmas Carol” in the January 1872 issue of Scribner Monthly and later compiled with other poems in Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems.


    IF I WERE A WISEMAN, I WOULD DO MY PART. Christina Rossetti was a devout Catholic living in Protestant England. “In the Bleak Midwinter” shows Rossetti’s style of vivid description of scene and sentimental religious feelings. In fact, the lyrics of “In the Bleak Midwinter” touch on a more personal note than other impersonal Christmas hymns as the speaker in the hymn, and us when we sing the hymn, makes a commitment to give the babe in straw her heart. The poem was later set to music and there are two popular versions. Harold Drake composed music for the hymn to be sung by a choir, as did Gustav Holst, who penned the most popular version of the hymn. Unlike Rossetti, the faith of composer Gustav Holst, on the other hand, was not as straightforward. He was a veracious reader and many of his compositions were inspired by Victorian writers. Part of his inspiration for this version was the church in Cranham, which he titled the piece that took the resemblance to a Christian hymn. 

    WHAT CAN I GIVE HIM?  Today’s version of “In the Bleak Midwinter” is performed by Paul Colman Trio. I chose this version because it’s the first time I remember hearing it. Although it is in the Seventh-day Adventist hymnal, I don’t remember singing it in church. My first experience with the song is on the City on a Hill Christmas compilation album It’s Christmas Time. This was the third project from the Essential Records collective of acoustic, poetic Contemporary Christian artists such as Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer, Caedmon’s Call, Third Day, and Jennifer Knapp. Hailing from Australia, Paul Coleman and his band got a slot on the record as they had several number one hits from their breakthrough album, Turn, and a Grammy nomination in the Gospel category. The piece was also an exercise in my classical guitar method I studied, but what solidifies this song as one of my favorites was when Paper Route  included the hymn on their digital holiday EP, Thank God the Year Is Finally Over. There are so many myths about Christmas reinforced through song because northern Europeans blended local religions with medieval Christianity. Christ, if he were born as the Bible tells us, probably wasn’t born on Christmas day and there definitely wasn’t “snow on snow.” But the liturgy of seasons changing and celebrating holidays during the dark and depressing winter months can give us hope when we need it the most. I think that’s why Paper Route included the track on Thank God. And as things look pretty bleak this time of year–finances, deaths, uncertainty–we know that spring will eventually lift us out of the depression.


    Paul Colman Trio version:


    Paper Route version:


    Tenebrae version:

  • “Hummingbird” by Tyler Burkum, Saturday, December 17, 2022

    I’m at the time of year when I start assessing my new year’s goals. And I got to an existential crisis for the blog. I wondered what I’ve achieved with it other than keeping it going. Sure, there have been improvements in font, links, story, and research, but I thought about if a daily post is really sustainable in the coming year. I’m mulling a few ideas over. I’m considering changing the focus of the blog.  

    YOU CAN ALWAYS COME HOME. I thought about all the things the blog is, but I thought it was actually more helpful to think about what it is not. First, it’s not a reputable music blog. The amount of time I have and my lack of formal music writing training and lack of connections in the music business make this a purely fan blog as I report about my daily obsessions and Wikipedia reading. Second, it isn’t a novel or even a memoir. I shot down that ideas last year after experimenting with the idea, in favor of the story of the song, but I think that may have been the direction I should have gone. I often think of the “song a day” format as a lesson plan–the amount of information I give my students about something before I have them go experience it for themselves. But I didn’t want to turn this into an ESL blog. So what has this blog become? I’m telling the same stories over and over again, adding more information, but there’s only so much time in the day. I considered ending it this afternoon when I had chosen Tyler Burkum‘s “Hummingbird” as the song of the day, but the lyrics weren’t on Genius and I was racking my brain how to retell the same stories about the former Audio Adrenaline, Leagues, Mat Kearney, and current NEEDTOBREATHE guitarist. But walking home in the cold sparked a few new ideas. 

    YOU HAVE A QUIET WISDOM. I thought of my writing as my child. I don’t think I’ll have children of my own, something that I’ve come to realize. And realizing that I have to leave something behind. I feel compelled to do something so that my life isn’t just like brushing shellac onto a wood chair that someday rots and no one remembers the chair. Everything I’ve written remains in fragments. I’d like to believe that one day before my death, as part of “getting my affairs in order,” I will compile everything I’ve written and somehow I can write a connecting story and produce something like Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. So what then is my blog but recommending to others my taste in music. How is that valuable? What my blog is really is an experiment. It’s playtime to practice skills of writing, designing, filming–whatever I want it to be. I want to create something beyond literature, something beyond social media, beyond a musical playlist. I want to create a mixed-media novel/movie/drama for my ADHD generation and the even more ADHD generations coming up. So, I will be pushing myself to be open to new possibilities. 

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Walking Downtown” by Copeland, Friday, December 16, 2022

     

    This week, Copeland announced that they would be touring to celebrate the twentieth anniversary for their debut record, Beneath Medicine Tree. Copeland’s sound has changed a lot from the indie nineties-rock inspired band to digging deeper music school band mates (particularly frontman Aaron Marsh‘s) classical, jazz, and broadway influences. Before all of that, though, we have a song cycle about a young man affected by his grandmother’s death, pinning over a girlfriend–Paula–even named on the record. Some consider Beneath Medicine Tree an indie classic, while others consider it an immature effort for a band with much greater potential. 


    THERE ARE BIRDS SINGING ON LAMPPOSTS. My sister and I fall on different sides of this debate. Back when I was going through my Copeland binge on their first three records, I liked their first two records best, while my sister liked their second two better. She admired the musical theater experimentation on Eat, Sleep, Repeat, while I was keen to the small-town America sound of Beneath Medicine Tree. We both loved “Coffee,” though. The sappy pre-Owl City opener, which declares, “She said that I was the brightest little firefly in her jar” may have listeners rolling their eyes, but they should know that they are in for the sappiest, unapologetic  teenage emo record. Then the the album breaks into electric as it plays a religious trope about how pain “tests the strong ones” leaving the “beautiful.” This is a song about the hospitalization of both Marsh’s grandmother and his ex-girlfriend Paula. Many songs play on the sentimental, and today’s song, “Walking Downtown,” is one of them. 

    THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT ALL YOUR CRYING’S FOR. “Walking Downtown” is kind of the anthem of young. It’s the song that my sister and I debated about the album, mainly because “Walking Downtown” was the hit. The song calls on the experience of being a young person being drawn to the sights of an ordinary downtown area–the movie theater, the restaurants, the coffee shops. It’s like cruising in American Graffiti, teenage energy in the feeling of attraction to the opposite (or same) sex as you wander among your friends downtown. You seem to have found a new revelation in the streetlights and signboards, and everything about this night seemhes right.  “Walking Downtown’ is about this feeling of youth. You feel invisible, though you’re not. Many fall in these moments to drunken stupor, but tonight you’re invincible. The Christmas lights downtown add to this feeling of being forever young. Someday you’ll feel old, raising children looking at this marvelous sight, but tonight you are young. That’s what “Walking Downtown” is all about, that night that you are young just for one more night.