Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas Music

It is our tradition to queue up our Christmas songs while we are putting out our decorations, and pretty much all the time from then on until Christmas.

Right now I'm listening to the Barenaked Ladies' Holiday CD , "Barenaked for the Holidays." (It has some Hanukkah music, including one particularly lovely one called "Hanukkah Blessings.") It is such a fun collection, I couldn't pick just one song. The Barenaked Ladies know how to put together some sweet harmonies, and their use of guest artists Michael Buble and Sarah McLachlan is inspired. Go to iTunes and give it a listen!

We have kind of an eclectic collection, starting with "Now That's What I Call Christmas" and its mixture of classics sung by the likes of Gene Autry, Johnny Mathis, Burl Ives, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin, to newer favorites like "Happy Christmas", "Do They Know It's Christmas?", The Carpenters, Kathy Mattea, Bruce Springsteen, and Harry Connick, Jr., to recent pop tunes I could do without (Britney Spears, N'Sync). We also have jazzy CDs, Vince Guaraldi ("A Charlie Brown Christmas"), and "Christmas with the Rat Pack."

One of my favorite new tracks is Shawn Colvin singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Go listen! Right now! And then come back!

I don't have this one, but I think Clay Aiken's "O Holy Night" is my favorite version of that song. His voice is amazing.

I'm thinking of buying a new one this year: "The Hotel Cafe presents: Winter Songs." It's got KT Tunstall, Sara Barielles, Ingrid Michaelson, Colbie Caillat, and Fiona Apple, among other talented women!

__________________

And, on a separate note but still on topic, my church choir will be performing in our annual Advent Concert tonight. All of the choirs get together to share with each other, and the parish as a whole, some music of the season. This year, the school choir will also perform, so my oldest daughter will be participating as well! This is making it a million times more special for me. I'm looking forward to sharing the performance experience with my daughter tonight!

5 comments:

smalltownme said...

I think I'm going to get some new Christmas music this year, thanks to your playlist!

Sarah said...

Gad! Seriously, I have the exact same Christmas music collection. This morning I played all the albums you listed. But how could you fail to mention the weirdest (therefore my favorite) song, Dominick the Donkey?

King of New York Hacks said...

ummm....i didn't hear you mention The Pogues Fairytale of Christmas or Dan fogelbergs same auld lang syne..ok now were good.

Margaret said...

I did go listen to the Colvin track. Lovely.

Liz Harrell said...

I listen the music from The Nutcracker every year, over and over. Good childhood memories.