02. Dennis, Jim, Evan and Bryan - Best Christmas Gift Ever
03. Jim Page - Going to Boston
04. Evan Purcell - Christmas Heart and Soul
05. Bryan Bowers - Good King Wenceslas
06. Bryan Bowers and Jim Page - Change From Within/Brandy
07. Jim Page - Interlude
08. Bryan Bowers - Angel on a Christmas Tree
09. Jim Page - Pretty Boy Floyd
10. Evan Purcell - Mistletoe
11. Jim Page - A Reindeer Man
12. Bryan Bowers - Hot Buttered Rum
13. Evan Purcell - Two Angels
14. Jim Page - Great Calamity
15. Jim Page - Jesus and the Laughing Deity
16. Bryan Bowers - Joy to the World
17. Jim Page - And I Never Learned to Sing the Blues
18. Bryan Bowers - Mance Lipscomb DOWNLOAD FROM WFMU'S BEWARE OF THE BLOG
19. Evan Purcell - I'm on My Way Back Home
20. Dennis, Jim, Evan and Bryan - Exit, stage right
21. Ellen Norton with the Evan Purcell band - Christmas Heart and Soul
As long as we're on the subject of WFMU's Beware Of The Blog (see below), now might be a good time to bring this diamond in the rough to your attention.
One of the many people I've come to know a little bit through this Christmas music obsession of mine is Dennis Flannigan. One December night in 2007, Dennis asked some musician friends to come into a recording studio for a night of song and story. But not just any old group of musicians. These three are legendary folk artists. Jim Page has been writing music since the late 60s and recording albums since at least 1975. You might be familiar with his songs "On The Street Again" or "Time Enough For Questions When The Killing's Done". Bryan Bowers is one of the world's best and best known autoharp players. He's probably best known for his 1980 cover of Mike Cross' "The Scotsman", which got a lot of play on The Dr. Demento Show. As a long time Mike Cross fan, that's basically how I first came to hear Bryan. I admit to being less familiar with Evan Purcell, though he's been a major force in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 30 years.
Chuck Pennington did the graphics for the set, Tim (no last name given) was the recording engineer at ContactCreate studios, and Don Chapman and Videoland in Olympia, WA produced the discs which were only distributed to a handful of other obsessed Christmas music collectors. But a special thanks to Dennis for arranging and producing this evening of fun and festive frivolity, and for sharing it with the world as part of the 365 Day project--a Beware Of The Blog sub-project if you will (and even if you won't).
There's plenty more holiday music to be plumbed from the archives of WFMU's Beware Of The Blog, but "Previously Unreleased" is one that you simply should not miss. And you can catch Dennis Flannigan on the Internet simulcast of his weekly radio show on KBRD at Noon (Pacific Standard Time) every Sunday.