New Holiday Music from Our Favorite Folk and Roots Artists
It’s that joyous time of year when merry music brightens the darkness of winter’s light and when carolers croon holiday classics or artists deliver new songs that will one day liven up our holiday celebrations.
Below are few new holiday albums sure to put some jingle in your step, some spin in your dreidel, and some glitter on your tree.
Melissa Carper, A Very Carper Christmas
Melissa Carper and friends rock around the Christmas tree, fondly—and sometimes not so fondly—recalling Christmas days of yore. On this collection that features mostly originals or co-writes, Carper conveys the pain and loneliness that the anticipation of the Christmas brings, as well as the joy and the fractured funnies of life around the Christmas tree on that long-awaited morning. The album opens with the pattering jazzabilly and East St. Louis toodle-a-loo of “Plug in the Tree,” an ode to the desire to getting this holiday started. Carper’s vocals over quiet guitar strums, tinkling piano notes, mournful fiddle and lap guitar convey the longing of a child for a pet in “I Want a Dog for Christmas,” while she delivers a jaunty rendition of the classic “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.” The raucously gliding “Dumpster Divin’ on Christmas Eve” captures the irony of the mania to acquire at Christmas, pointing out that the dumpster holds “a cheeseball, a cantaloupe, Holly Hobby,” the good stuff that people have discarded. Stately piano chords flow beneath Carper’s gospel-inflected take on “Please Come Home for Christmas,” while “Oh Cheeseball” is a worshipful hymn to the cheeseball, likening the cheeseball as the centerpiece of a holiday plate to the little baby Jesus at the center of a nativity scene. “Oh Cheeseball” should become a Christmas classic because of its pure genius. Carper channels John Prine’s storytelling in the Cajun waltz “Christmas in New Orleans.” The album closes with the somber and soulful “The Day After Christmas,” a reflection on the saddest day of the year when the cookies have been eaten.
The Klezmatics – Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah
The Klezmatics originally released their rousing album in 2006, and they have now remastered and re-released it on vinyl. When Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora discovered her father’s previously unpublished lyrics about Hanukkah, Jewish history, and spiritual life, she asked the Klezmatics to write music for them. The album opens with the jaunty “Honeyky Hanuka” a swirling blend of accordion, clarinet, violin, and vocals. The title track, which riffs musically on the old classic “Must Be Santa,” weaves country, bluegrass, and klezmer into a rollicking hoedown that counts down the days of Hanukkah. The slowly unfurling vamp “Hanuka Bell” reminds listeners of the joy that Hanukkah brings, while the exotic rhythms that open “(Do the) Latke Flip-Flip” hypnotize with their languorous movements before eliding into a psychedelic klezmer mood and, momentarily, a romping tarantella before returning to the opening mood of the song. The instrumental “Spin Dredyl Spin” mimics the actions of the dreidel in the beloved Hanukkah game, while the frenetic “Hanukah Tree” evokes the joyous abandon of festive dancing to celebrate the holiday.
Old Crow Medicine Show, OCMS XMAS
Just in time for the holidays, Old Crow Medicine Show checks in with their joyous album that celebrates the foibles and the little moments of the holiday that we sometimes take for granted. The high octane “Corn Whiskey Christmas” romps and rocks as it evokes the story of the grandpa who comes a-knockin’, like Santa, on Christmas eve with a jug of corn whiskey. Old Crow Medicine Show offers their take on Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and captures the soaring hope and intrinsic dejection of the song, thanks to choral harmonies from the children of the Episcopal School of Nashville, the East Nashville-based school founded by OCMS frontman Ketch Secor. The album opens with the breakneck hoedown fiddling and vocals of “Breakin’ Up Xmas.” The band’s jaunty, boozy take on the Burl Ives’ classic “Holly Jolly Christmas,” with a colorful and frenetic ending, features Brassville on oompah horns. The stompin’ rocker, replete with Elvis-like vocals, “All about a Baby,” riffs on the story of the baby Jesus, while the Celtic-inflected “Krampus Night” celebrates an alternative tradition. A lilting ballad, “Grandpa’s Gone” is a mournful celebratory ode to the man whose memory lights up the singer’s life and in whose absence Christmas is not the same. The album closes with a modern-day parable about Jesus being born in “Bethlehem, PA,” a tongue-in-cheek, that musically recalls Lacy J. Dalton’s “16th Avenue,” take on what would happen if Jesus was born with “Herod in the White House.”
Jake Shimabukuro, Tis the Season
Shimabukuro brings his inimitable stylings to a diverse collection of holiday songs on his new album, and he’s joined by a host of friends including Yo-Yo Ma, Michael McDonald, Kimié Miner, Paula Fuga, Ana Vee, Justin Kawika Young, and the late Jimmy Buffett. Shimabukuro’s crisp lead notes open his instrumental version of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” and under which Yo-Yo Ma adds layers of graceful and elegant cello. This version evokes the melancholy and the joy of the piece. Shimabukuro’s jaunty jazz stylings glide under Kawika Young’s smooth vocals on “All I Want for Christmas is You,” while Michael McDonald and Shimabukuro create a wonderland of shimmering ukulele on their instrumental version of “Winter Wonderland,” which contains a surprise ending; the latter will have folks dancing around the Christmas tree. Shimabukuro’s playful picking turns his instrumental version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” into reindeer dance. Miner, Fuga, and Vee take the lead and harmony vocals on the jumpin’, rockin’ version of “Jingle Bells” as Shimabukuro propels the song with his lead runs. The album closes with Shimabukuro’s cascading ukulele and Kawika Young’s soaring vocals on “O Holy Night.”
Drew & Ellie Holcomb, I’ll Be Home for Christmas [EP]
Magical moments abound on Drew & Ellie Holcomb’s Christmas EP. The three songs in this little collection illustrate the lilting warmth of the duo’s harmonies, and these interpretations showcase the Holcomb’s ability to transport the music to new heights. With the smoky, jazz lounge opener, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” it’s easy to imagine the Holcombs swirling around the dance floor like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as they croon this classic. The duo’s hushed and reverent delivery of the hymn “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” captures the quiet awe of the scenes depicted in the song. Listening to Drew & Ellie Holcomb perform this song is indeed like listening to the angels sing. The EP closes out with the rousing rockabilly of “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy.”
