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What's with Christmas music?

Last week, I trotted on down to the Triple Door here in Seattle (a fabulous little cabaret-style venue downtown) to catch a number of local singer-songwriters in the round (Jesse Sykes, Damien Jurado, Mark Pickerel, Star Anna, John van Deusen, several others). It was a special holiday-themed show, or was billed as such. Most of the artists simply played their most depressing material, thinly veiled by the occasional reference to winter. Someone covered Joni Mitchell's "River." Others played minor-key Christmas carols like "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "We Three Kings."

Granted the music was great, for the most part, but it was all a big downer. I went in expecting Christmas cheer and came out feeling bummed about seasonal depression.

Last night at the Moore Theater, I hunkered down for another three-band bill for a holiday-themed show. This one was a bit more upbeat - Grace Potter & the Nocturnals went crazy, dancing about and unleashing their hair-banging. Brett Dennen did is own special dance moves (like a Gumby chicken). Brandi Carlile and her band dressed up in Christmas lights and Santa hats, except the cellist Josh Neumann, who wore reindeer antlers. But then she closed her set with a song about suicide and a super-sad cover of "Hallelujah" (in my opinion, one of the actually good cover versions). She noted that a significant number of people experience depression around the holiday season, and those people deserve their songs, too. Fair enough. People giggled.

It's true, granted.

When I go looking for good holiday-themed roots songs, I'm faced with more of the same. Granted, there's Asylum Street Spankers' great live Christmas album from a couple of years ago. (I particularly enjoy their rendition of "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch," and "Zat You, Santa Clause?") When trimming our little gold-tinsel tree this weekend with my roommates, I found myself putting on Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart because it was at least mildly festive with its ornate instrumentation and impeccable backup singers, even if it does sound at times like Dylan's the emotionally complicated, duplicitly cheerful old dude in the corner, taken to serenading the waitresses.

I'm wondering what your favorite holiday music is. Any recommendations for folks like me who love introverted singer-songwriters AND have holiday cheer?

Tags: americana, asylumstreetspankers, carols, christmas, grinch, holiday, music, nodepression, singer-songwriters

Comment by Liz Dexia on December 7, 2009 at 12:53pm: Have a little more fun with these:
Xmas 2009 A
http://wp.me/pil5x-1v
Xmas 2009 B
http://wp.me/pil5x-1y
links to box.net there where you can stream or download
Hey, I've got a lot of time on my hands these days!

Comment by Gary Westlake on December 7, 2009 at 2:16pm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym62kKIydo8

Comment by Amos Perrine on December 7, 2009 at 2:49pm: Buster Poindexter does a great "Zat You, Santa Claus?" as I recall.

I'm listening to Winterbloom's wonderful take on the season and the ever great Carla Bley.

Here they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA4IJPWdSt0

Comment by Lewis Warren on December 7, 2009 at 5:53pm: Someone gave me the Ventures Christmas album years ago. I cherish it.

Comment by T Hanssen on December 7, 2009 at 5:55pm: One of my favorites:

Comment by Doug Sawyer on December 8, 2009 at 3:08am: "We Three Kings" by the Roches - sadly out of print but available on MP3 from your online vendor of choice. Sufjan's more recent "Songs for Christmas" is also excellent.

Comment by J. Hayes - music writer on December 8, 2009 at 6:14am: Kim, ha! I am so happy to hear you putting on the Dylan Christmas record. There is "something" about it. I too have been thinking a lot about Christmas music... I am sure I have something to say about... no once the Betty Davis and Eric Bibb interviews happen this weekend, maybe I will put pen to paper on it... who am I kidding, fingers to keys more like it... you know there are times I can't even find a pen around my house. What an age we live in.

Comment by Joe Maynard on December 9, 2009 at 10:35am: Hmm... I guess this site is called "No Depression" for a reason. & I guess it is that time of year to gush about my favorite christmas song: Drinking through Christmas, by Amy Allison. It's sort of depressing, but kind of too silly to be a bonafide downer. Wry. Lets call it that... I can't find a link for it though... bug her on myspace until she caves in and posts it.

Comment by Nancy Bodily aka Mountain Mama on December 11, 2009 at 3:11pm: Hi there,
My name is Nancy Bodily and I host a radio program on KDRT.org called Mountain Mama's Earth Music, and I was looking for some new holiday songs to play on the show and I wound up on this site and I used so many of the tips ... the Roches ... Bob Dylan and love, love, love Winterbloom. I'm an old lady so I come to this blogging business slowly, but what a great thing to have real people talking about what they like and don't like.

Anyways, if you want to check out a commercial-free grassroots radio program that mixes mostly Americana music with poetry all around a central theme ... which in this case was Holiday ... then just log onto KDRT.org and find Mountain Mama in the program section or follow this link http://kdrt.org/station/archives/123

Thanks again for the tips and I'll add Mindy Smith's "My Holiday" cd to the mix.

Paz
Nancy B.