One of this year's unexpected success stories came from Utah and a collective of Christian musicians known as The Lower Lights. Their Christmas album, "Come Let Us Adore Him", was received very well by critics and listeners alike. 13 songs long it was, and, delightfully, the digital album is on sale at Amazon right now for just $4.99. Hard copies are available, too--through Amazon and Bandcamp. This song, though, which isn't on the album, is free. A Christmas present from The Lower Lights, this is "He Sent His Son".
One of this year's unexpected success stories came from Utah and a collective of Christian musicians known as The Lower Lights. Their Christmas album, "Come Let Us Adore Him", was received very well by critics and listeners alike. 13 songs long it was, and, delightfully, the digital album is on sale at Amazon right now for just $4.99. Hard copies are available, too--through Amazon and Bandcamp. This song, though, which isn't on the album, is free. A Christmas present from The Lower Lights, this is "He Sent His Son".
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1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 2. Bethlehem House Of Bread 3. Mary Had A Baby 4. Hark 5. Little Baby 6. Jingle Bells 7. Christmas On Cripple Creek 8. I Dreamed Of Christmas 9. When The Christmas Baby Cries 10. Holy Christmas Day DOWNLOAD FROM NOISETRADE I've been a fan of the Annie Moses Band since I discovered their wonderful Christmas albums a few years back. Ostensibly, they're a Contemporary Christian group, but their instrumentation is sort of Bluegrass meets Rock and their arrangements can sometimes venture into out-and-out Jazz or even Progressive Rock--"fiddle fusion" they call it. Annie (technically not the Annie this family band is named after--that would be her great-grandmother) plays a mean fiddle, too, so you're sure to catch dramatic classical flourishes as well. That kind of creativity deserves applause. One of my Annie Moses Band favorites is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Well, the group has packaged up an entire album's worth of their Christmas music and the set leads off with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". And they're giving it away free through Noisetrade. So here's your chance to sample this awesome band and it won't cost you a cent (unless you choose to Tip the band). I won't speak to the rest of the set--there are a lot of ballads here (the vocals are reminiscent of Alison Krauss by the way)--but you're gonna love "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". "Christmas On Cripple Creek" is kinda fun, too. Head to Noisetrade and get you some Annie. If you like what you hear, head to the Annie Moses Band web site and buy their Christmas special--two Christmas albums, a Christmas DVD and the band's "String Crossings" CD--for the holiday price of just $19.95.
Although David Ian gets the credit at the top of the post, there are several Christmas songs you can download, free and legal, through Jesusfreakhideout, plus many non-Christmas songs as well. I gave David the top billing because his record is new and hot and I, myself, wanted to hear something from the album longer than 30 seconds. Jesusfreakhideout is one of the top Contemporary Christian web site/blogs on the 'Net. It's one of my goto sites to see what's upcoming in Christmas music from the CCM artists. There are listings, news items, reviews...and freebies! It's a full service web site. The free tunes are all provided by labels and artists who understand what a positive tool Jesusfreakhideout has been and can be in spreading the word about their music. In addition to "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" from David Ian, which is a sweet modern Lounge rendition of the old hymn featuring Acacia on vocals, Jesusfreakhideout also has free Christmas downloads from FFH, Jadon Lavik, Elevation Worship and older holiday selections from Sara Groves, Sixpence None The Richer and The Great Transparency. I won't bother listing the non-Christmas freebies, but you might want to bookmark Jesusfreakhideout for future reference. 1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 2. Go Tell It On The Mountain 3. Angels We Have Heard On High 4. The First Noel 5. Silent Night 6. O Come, O Come Emmanuel 7. The One We Have Waited For 8. O Come All Yr Faithful 9. When Love Came Down 10. We Wish You A Merry Christmas CULBY X-MAS WEB SITE CULBY X ON FACEBOOK Stop me if you've heard this one. So a bunch of students at Chicago's Moody Bible Institute decided to record a Christmas album. In their dorm room. The whole tenth floor of the Culby dorm (thus Culby X) chipped in with whatever talents they had to offer, singing, marketing, scripture, creative input, encouragement. And thus, on Thanksgiving Day 2011 was born "Culby X-Mas". Honestly, the biggest surprise to me is that they finished it at all. I was a college student once. It's hard to stay focused on anything for any length of time. The music is all electronic (though its not electronica). They're Biblical students, so there shouldn't be any surprise where this is coming from (heavy on the message). It's minimalist without being barren. That's good. Very Indie. The vocals are mixed a little low (maybe that's for effect, but it wears after a while). But otherwise, it's really pretty good. I mean, free albums like this I don't usually listen to all the way through. I spot listen (a full song here, 30 second there, yada yada). But I only skipped out early on one track from this one. I especially liked "Go Tell It On The Mountain" and "When Love Came Down". And it was cool to hear the whole gang on the finale. There's even a nice digital booklet. You never get that with a free album. I especially hope who ever programmed the music (which I'm guessing was Nate Edmondson) continues to make music. He's got a gift.
For whatever reason, my computer couldn't unzip the file downloaded from the Culby X-Mas web site, but I had no problem with the one downloaded from Facebook. To avoid confusion, all the Facebook links above are to that specific post, but you might want to read their "wall" so you can experience the creative process vicariously. Jami Smith is a Christian Worship and Folk Pop singer from Oklahoma City who, as often than not, gets more than inspiration from scripture...that's where she gets many of her lyrics. Her most recent album, "Verse", consists entirely of songs written to scripture and Jami delights in saying she's extremely proud of her work of plagiarism. Jami has just completed her 15th album, her second Christmas album, "Joyful Joyful". The physical CD will release on November 15th (the download version has been on iTunes since mid-October). As a preview, you can now get a 2 song sampler of "Joyful Joyful" through NoiseTrade. The free songs are "Go Tell It On The Mountain" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and Jami hopes they'll intrigue you enough to get you interested in the full album. You can purchase both of Jami's Christmas albums, "Joyful Joyful" and "Hope Of All The Earth" from 2005, as well as many other Jami Smith albums, direct from her web store. |
The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 Free List Categories
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