The 2024 Christmas and Holiday New Music (and 2009 Radio Nostalgia) Special
Nine new holiday themed songs as well as a trip back to my Christmas radio past
Thanks for checking out this text version of the podcast series Southern Songs and Stories! This post is a continuation of our Substack series of posts giving you the scripts of our audio and transcripts of our interviews. To hear the episode (that way, you will get to hear all these wonderful new songs!), simply search for Southern Songs and Stories on any podcast app, or visit us at southernsongsandstories.com for that and much more.
After surveying all of the available new Christmas and holiday themed music that I could find, I came up with a tidy playlist of nine noteworthy songs to share here in an episode that departs from our usual artist interview format. Here, we play full songs in several sets, with some back stories on each artist and song. Ranging from the elegant, folky take on “Coventry Carol” by The Milk Carton Kids to country leaning Americana in “Layaway Momma” from Adam Chaffins, to previous Southern Songs and Stories guest The Get Right Band and other fellow western NC artists, this episode celebrates an array of styles and perspectives on the season.
Included here is a special from Christmas past, from my days producing the radio show What It Is on public radio WNCW, with founding panelists Jeff Eason and Fred Mills. We celebrated Jeff’s life and many contributions to music and journalism after his passing in 2018 on this podcast, in the episode “Remembering Jeff Eason”. Following the music portion of this episode, we take you back fifteen years, to a time when What It Is was just two years old. You will hear a younger version of me (with a cold) talking by phone with Jeff and Fred in two short episodes, detailing some of our favorite holiday music as well as the Christmas and holiday music we would love to do without.
Songs heard in this episode:
Dulci Ellenberger “Colorful Christmas”
Ana Egge “Silver Bells Ring”
John Doyle and Mick McAuley “Gleann na-Ean”
The Get Right Band “Christmas As A Kid”
The Pinkerton Raid, “Happy XMas (War Is Over)”, from Winter Songs By Other People
Adam Chaffins “Layaway Momma”
JD Clayton “Your Favorite Christmas Song”
The Milk Carton Kids “Coventry Carol”, from Christmas In A Minor Key
Jenn Grant “Bells Are Ringing”
Welcome to a special edition of Southern Songs and Stories, where we (normally) showcase the music of the South and the artists who make it. In this episode, we pay respects to Jeff Eason, a dear friend who passed away recently, with some of his work on air at WNCW, where I am program director. Back in 2007, I was the morning music host on WNCW, mixing the tunes from 6 to 10 AM weekdays. I came up with the idea to make a daily music talk segment of around five minutes, with myself as host and guest panelists conversing about everything from record reviews, to moments in history, to more editorial content, and think pieces. If you’re like me, you can talk about music for hours without really even trying, and that sort of spontaneous water cooler talk about artists, songs and such was already a real boost to my workday. So, I gave it a platform, called the show What It Is, and brought in fellow music heads Jeff Eason, who was then a newspaper editor at the Mountain Times in Boone, NC, and Fred Mills, who was then the managing editor for Harp magazine, and who lived in Asheville. The three of us would dream up topics to cover, and write notes on what we had in mind to say. We would meet every few weeks and record sessions in a studio at WNCW, which I would then edit for airplay, giving over the Friday edition of the show to listener feedback read live on air. It was great fun, and What It Is was pretty well received. “Rock Steady” by Aretha Franklin, with its refrain of “what it is” was the theme song.
What It Is on WNCW with Jeff Eason and Fred Mills: Christmas 2009
Part One
00:00:00 Joe Kendrick
You're in tune with What It Is on WNCW. It's the week of Christmas and we decided to take a poll of sorts and people that wrote into the what it is at wncw.org address for some of their favorite Christmas songs of especially this radio station WNCW-centric Christmas songs, if you will.
And we're talking about that on what it is today, along with Jeff Eason and Fred Mills. For me personally, some of the whole categories are sort of styles of music that work really well.
Start off with your traditional Christmas hymns and your choir based classics like Sinatra, things like swing, for everybody from Satchmo to Pearl Bailey, a lot of favorite swing songs, artsy acoustic stuff like Bela Fleck, and things involving a mandolin seem to work well, well for Christmas-themed tunes. Weird Americana, the Antsy Mcleans and Peter Coopers of the world. Grinch themes and Charlie Brown Christmas themes seem to always be a hit as well as songs involving travel. Jeff?
00:01:03 Jeff Eason
Well, you know, personally for me with Christmas music every year, I love to see it come. Then I love to see it. I'm so ready for Christmas music to be over by say January 1st, but I'm with you. You know, some of those classic old ones from the. Swing and. Era of the 40s and 50s. I, you know, just really have become a class. And you know, even some of the more kitschy ones from that era, like, you know, Bobby Helm, Jingle Bell Rock, Oregon, Brenda Lee rocking around the Christmas tree or Nat King Cole, the Christmas song. They're just perennial favorites for. They just bring back that kind of warm and fuzzy feeling. Of Christmas, when I was a kid, you know, I I have a harder time, I think. Think relating to some of the the newer versions of those same songs because. The original had such an imprint in my brain.
You know, love the Dean Martin stuff too. How About you, Fred.
00:01:53 Fred Mills
Well, yeah, you know and we've touched on this in Christmas past and I sometimes fall into the, you know, designated role that the Grinch because I used to work in a mall and I got really tired of Christmas music very early, but when I do hear something as Joe say, I'm really drawn to the choir or choral versions of classic songs. You know, you just can't get around the fact that Christmas songs should be sung, and when it's a great voice like you say, Jeff, like Sinatra and Dean Martin. Pack.
There's even a great Christmas with the rat pack disc that capital put out a few years ago and. Great things like, you know Dean Martin singing silver bells and and even Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer. But you know all those guys. It seems like Christmas songs, in addition to the, you know, more religious type arrangements. Acquired based arrangements.
They really work well with jazz arrangements. I've got one Louis Armstrong and friends. Called what a wonderful Christmas. This just. Oh, it's outstanding. You know my favorite song on there is the Duke Ellington Orchestra doing Jingle Bells.
One of the tracks on the Louis Armstrong thing and then one I got this year. Is a reissue of, I think an 85 album called Ray Charles. The spirit of Christmas and you know you just can't get go wrong with Brother Ray. He's got songs like like, you know Rudolph, but then his version of Winter Wonderland. And his version of the Little Drummer Boy will just, you know, make you feel like a kid all over.
00:03:33 Jeff Eason
For me, there are a lot of non specific Christmas carols that are maybe more about the season or about winter that that I'd really love to hear. Mean Joni Mitchell River is, to me, is almost like a perfect Christmas song. Only she really only mentions Christmas in one line of the entire song, and the same with Tom Waits. Diamonds on my windshield that just, you know, just evokes the feeling of driving when it's starting to snow for me and another one of my favourites. It's not A Christmas Carol, but I love to hear it this time of year. Jesus Christ. That's that's beautiful.
00:04:05 Fred Mills
That's always a favorite of mine, you know, but. Luck sometimes doesn't really seem to lend itself to to really good Christmas interpretations. I'm sure there's got a lot of people that can. To this that can e-mail in 10 things to prove me wrong, but. I am drawn to to certain. Styles again. Emilio Harrison and Neil Young have done really well by doing Christmas.
There's a Emmylou Harris light of the stable. I'm sure a lot of people have heard her version. Kind of Pepe. Almost bluegrass. Tinged version of Christmas times to come in and a little town of Bethlehem. Are just lovely and on this album called 7 Gates, a Christmas album by Ben Keith and friends. Ben of course is a long time side man of Neil Young's. There's a version of Drum, little drummer boy with Neil and Johnny Cash on there, but then at the very last song is Greensleeves that will just bring tears to your eyes when Neil sings it it, he's got that quality in his voice that is just so rich with.
For song like that. That again, it's it's it's almost like capturing the feeling more so than actually you know replicating a style or remaking a song.
00:05:28 Joe Kendrick
Thought that Fred Mills would be caught on tape as. Being so overtly sentimental, I hear you have a soft spot.
00:05:33 Fred Mills
Oh man, my heart just grew. I think my heart just grew 3 sizes, guys.
00:05:38 Joe Kendrick
I hear you have a soft spot for “Do They Know It's Christmas?”
00:05:39 Jeff Eason
And what?
00:05:41 Fred Mills
Yes, yes, I do. Band Aid, “Do They Know It's Christmas?” Everybody knows that. Bob Geldof organized a bunch of British musicians from Sting to Bono to George Michael to the guys from Duran Duran. To raise money for Ethiopian relief and. For some reason, yeah. It's cheesy in a certain sense, but I pulled up the YouTube video of it this morning. And you see these people in the studio singing the song smile at each other. And then at the end, when they get to that timeless course. You know. The world. Do they know it's Christmas? I just get a lump in my throat and I I think that. Something a lot of people. Go through when they maybe have mixed feelings about this or that.
There's always one song that's a guilty pleasure, and there's always one song that's the exception that proves the rule that, you know, Christmas, you know, gets under your skin. And no matter how hard you try to resist.
00:06:42 Jeff Eason
I'm not going to say that I hate. They know it's Christmas. But I. Really just think it is so stuck in that mid 80s time frame with just the. I mean, like you mentioned, some of the people that also had like one hit wonders like, you know, Paul Young. George Michael's in there. Paul Wellers in there. You know, and there's something I don't. Something condescending about the chorus about do they know it's Christmas after all? I know it's for a good purpose and everything like that. But it's in that whole era where they had the Band Aid and Farm Aid started not long after that and. It's hard to criticize such good intentions, but I don't think it's a very good song.
00:07:20 Fred Mills
Well, that's a good. I mean, I find myself, like I said in years past, being kind of Grinch like in my almost the purist attitude towards Christmas songs and I know some people just consider do they know it's Christmas, a novelty tune and and I take a real dim view. Of novelty songs in general is particularly with Christmas. Have AI have an 8 year old kid. So for the past eight Christmases of steadfastly grown weary of the Chipmunks Christmas album. But you know, there's even more, more mature novelty songs that you know. No slight. You great folks there at. NCW program in the Christmas music this week.
If I have to hear “Santa lost a Ho” one more time I'm going to have to do something really violent. To me, that song Santa lost the whole is kind of like Tiger Woods News and anything related to the stars of twilight of rapidly growing weary of it. That reminds me of Tiger Woods and Santa jokes, but I won't say it over the air right now.
00:08:26 Joe Kendrick
A little preview of our upcoming talk on the Grinchy side of Christmas music and some of the songs that you love to hate.
00:08:34 Joe Kendrick
E-mail us what it is at wncw.org for what it is Joe Kendrick wishing you a Merry Christmas, along with Jeff Eason and Fred Mills.
Audio file
Part Two
00:00:00 Joe Kendrick
You are in tune with What It Is the week of Christmas special edition of what it is. Joe Kendrick, your host, joined by Jeff Eason and Fred Mills. Today we're taking up the Grinch’s side of the Christmas music equation and taking a look at some of the music that we might love to hate or just sort of grown. Maybe you we can tolerate hearing these songs once a. year .That's the sort of list that we came up with today, and I'll start the conversation about.
The general style of music that I would say would be just overly sentimental, just that glossy sentimentality is real easy to fall into musically this time of year and you're going to hear it. There is no escaping. You're going to see it on TV and you're going to hear it in the stores. Also, for me, how much Bob Rivers can you? Really, I think I'd put them in the category of Box Masters if I absolutely have to hear it. Please make it only be one.
I think the big target on our list today ought to be the Christmas Jug Band’s “Santa lost a ho”. Some folks love it and I liked it at first, but I think the punch line has worn pretty thin along with something like, say, Patty Loveless, “Santa Train”, hoo! hoo!, I don't want to hear that train coming down anymore.
What do you think, Fred?
00:01:14 Fred Mills
Hello Joe. I done got on that train and hopped off at the station. And yeah, I'm. I'm. I'm with you there. And we're getting into the whole aspect of novelty songs. I tend to take a dim view of novelty songs in general. Yes, I'm a. I have no sense of humor, but at the same time. You know how many times can you tell a joke before people just kind of want to edge away from you when you pull it out for like the 20th or 30th? Time. I mean, I've got an 8 year old, so of reacquainted myself with the Chipmunks Christmas album for the past eight years and I loved it as a kid.
But you know, there's only so many times you can hear that it brings a smile to your face and then your. Just starts to wither and. All you mentioned, “Santa lost the ho”. That's something that I think has been overplayed a little. Bit and not just on the. I've heard it in other contexts and to me it's kind of like that song is like the Christmas song equivalent of Tiger Woods News and anything related to the stars of Twilight. I've just. I've just gotten weary. Of hearing that, that punchline and everything.
00:02:23 Jeff Eason
You know on the segment we were talking about the song. “Do they know it's Christmas?”, which came out in 1984? This year is the silver anniversary of. And I'm not real crazy about that song, but it's also the silver anniversary. Of album and a trend. I just absolutely. And that's Manheim Steamroller’s Christmas. If I have to hear those opening bombastic cords to deck the halls in that ELP times 3 sort of sound, this makes me scream anytime I go into a store in a mall, they're playing Manheim Steamroller. I immediately turn around. Go. Because it is just something about it I can't stand. You know, everybody knows what I'm talking about.
I hope you know you think about the big organ sound that they play on TV whenever Mannheim Steamroller is being advertised. So it was started by a guy named Chip Davis, who, by the way, created the character C.W. McCall for his friend Bill Freeze and wrote the song “Convoy”, which I prefer much to anything Mannheim Steamroller has ever recorded.
00:03:25 Fred Mills
Well, that's a real twisted lineage right there. Yeah, I used to hear Man Steamroller when I worked in the mall during the 80s and. And that was a perennial, and it does kind of steamroll you after a while. There's just. There's something to be said for having a little bit of subtlety and grace. Around this time of year, productions like that just don't do it for me. Adam Sandler's “chanaka”, aka. The Hanukkah song is another one that he just kind of. It was cute the first couple of times, but then it's got that torturous rhyming scheme where everything has to end in the, you know, a like. He even starts name checking different people's names and throwing an A on the end of them.
It was cute when was on Saturday Night Live, but then with repetition it's grown less cute, less appealing. And you know, I know that Christmas goes many years back and it's got a long history of novelty songs too. You have to ask yourself, do you really need to hear? I don't. “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”. Or or even. You know from my generation, the Bob and Doug Mckenzie's “12 Days of Christmas”. You know, I just. Don't think so.
00:04:36 Joe Kendrick
For What It Is, Joe Kendrick wishing you a Merry Christmas, along with Jeff Eason and Fred Mills. Merry Christmas, everybody!
00:04:43 Jeff Eason
Merry Christmas!
00:04:43 Fred Mills
Ho ho ho ho!!