I'm pretty sure we gave you the heads up earlier this year that Rickie Lee Jones' new album, "Other Side Of Desire", contained the song "Christmas In New Orleans". Well, Rickie Lee is including that song with two other of her Christmas recordings as free downloads from her web site. The other two--"Oh Holy Night" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"--have been around a while longer, so we gave the title above to the new one (and, yes, "Oh Holy Night" is the one recorded with the Chieftans). Rickie has been offering her Christmas songs off and on for years ("Christmas In New Orleans" bumped "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"). At one time, you could even buy a physical disc (a CD-R, IIRC) of the Christmas tunes from her web site. Now the thing to remember with Rickie's free Christmas downloads is there is no set schedule for their availability. They might be gone by the time I post this or they could last through Christmas. Some years Rickie has offered them for just a couple of days (like, honestly, two days) and then they're gone. So, if you don't already have them, head to Rickie's web site without delay. The version in the video was recorded at/for WFUV. The free download is from the album.
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If there's a thing as an Indie Pop superstar, that would be Ellie Goulding. She's topped the British charts and gotten as high as #2 on the US charts more than once and she's sold millions upon millions of records. The British magazine, The Fly, praised Ellie in 2010 for her "sparkling pop with a folky heart and an electronic edge". So when Ellie offers up a free Christmas tune, I sit up and take notice. There's nothing particularly folky or electronic about "O Holy Night"--it's just a beautiful traditional rendition. To get the free download of "O Holy Night", you will have to register here, but that basically means you surrender your email address which we Christmas Music hounds do all the time anyway.
As the days before Christmas dwindle to a precious few, no doubt you're thinking, "If only I'd done my Christmas shopping earlier...like over the summer." Don't beat yourself up. You are either an early shopper or a last minute shopper. I do not believe you can change your spots. Used to know a woman who would fret if her Christmas shopping wasn't done by Ground Hog Day. We really loved her but...we hated her. What was even worse was that her presents always demonstrated a great deal of thought. God, we hated her. But we really loved her.
Anyway, the Delaware couple (Matt Casarino and Jill Knapp) known as Hot Breakfast! wrote a song about this early Christmas shopping business back in 2012 and, personally, I think its a hoot (if not a hootenanny). They call it Dork-Rock, which is not the same as Nerd Rock, and "Post Punk Power Pop Comedy" (that's their story and they're sticking to it). "An Idiot For Christmas" is free at Bandcamp. Hot Breakfast! recently released a new album, "The Big Reveal" (available on CD or as a digital download). My favorite track on that one (among several) is "Kids Today"--which is a great collision of perception and reality. Let's face it, you get to be a certain age and you start with the "kids today" crap and "hey, you, get off my lawn" (oh, yeah, I've been on that side of the scale for several years now). But the truth is.... Well, go listen to Hot Breakfast! and I think you'll figure it out. Just remember, they're not singing about you. They're singing about.....that guy over there. Yeah. Him. Or her. There's also a tune for the faithful (but somewhat resentful) designated drivers among you. Matt, you'll be interested to know, is another Christmas music addict, like the rest of us; so, right away, you should consider him worthy of your extra time and attention. And purchases and tips are nice, too.
I loved this song as soon as I heard it, but I've put off posting it in the hopes of learning more about Ian McNamara. I've come up with nothing. I do not believe this is the same Ian McNamara from Australia. This Ian McNamara is from London. He could be the music teacher Ian McNamara, but there's not enough for me to say yes or no. Doesn't seem to be a website and there are Ian McNamaras beyond the counting on Facebook. And, yes, I also tried "iMC". I give up.
So whoever you are, Ian McNamara, thank you for this lovely Christmas song, "(On The) Eve of Christmas Eve". There's a sort of Peter & Gordon quality to this song (and a necessary message), which is free to download on Soundcloud (as are the other Ian McNamara songs here). Hey, we get to stick another pin in the Christmas travels map. Although Tumulto is originally from Italy, the DJ/musician and visual artist recorded this for the Greek Fytini label last year. Tumulto has done some work here and there and produced the records of other artists. He's now believed to be working on his debut album. In the midst of recent economic turmoil in Greece, Fytini issued a 44 track long Christmas concept album last year, "XMAX". I have a few Greek Christmas records in my collection (mostly stuff that was done at one time or another in the Eurovision competitions, then released commercially)--good stuff. So I rushed to download the collection without previewing it first. Let me potentially save you some time. Unless you're into the farthest of the far out--recordings of coughs, sneezing and flushing toilets, and spoken word pieces delivered over the most discordant sounds, there's not much to be done with the bulk of "XMAX". The periodic narrations are actually quite interesting but there isn't as much music as you'd think on a 44 track album and not much of it makes me feel like Christmas. Buried in "XMAX", however, is Tumulto's cover of Joni Mitchell's "River" and that one should be welcome in any holiday collection. Tumulto's Electro Pop rendition retains all of Joni's intended sadness and beauty, and may even add a level or two more. Tumulto's "River" is included in Fytini's "XMAX", which is free for the taking on Bandcamp. Grab the song (track 34) or the whole album (but preview first...just sayin').
We featured this song from Legends of Country last year as the flip of the Christmas single, "It's A Long Way Back From A Dream". But then it wasn't free and now it is. Legends of Country is the side project of Jof Owen of The Boy Least Likely To. It's not quite Indie Pop and not quite Americana. Alt Country? Anyway, "From St. George To Snowflake" tells the tale of an all night drive from St. George Utah to Snowflake Arizona. Whether or not the sound qualifies as Americana, the subject matter certainly does. Nothing more American than small towns with evocative names. Nice tempo, nice lyrics on this one, though I preferred the A-side (which was actually a New Years tune). Grab the tune free at Bandcamp or Soundcloud.
Whether it's personal biases or there are truly significant differences in arrangements, etc., I can't help but feel NSYNC sounds better when anybody but they are singing their music. Loren Smith gives the track plenty of energy and a little bit of Soul, making "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" sound like finger-popping fun. And, hey, you "war on Christmas" folks--kindly note that it needn't be either/or; you can say both Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Here's the proof. Loren Smith, by the way, is a Los Angeles based Pop and Soul singer who has been called "the Luther Vandross of the next generation". So he's got that going for him, which is nice. Download "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" free at Soundcloud. Gone are the days when WXPN's The Key would give us an entire album's worth of Christmas tunes (one a day, sometimes more), or so it seems. But they'll still drop one or two seasonal songs from Philly's best Indie acts--usually in the day or two around Christmas. "It Feels Like Christmas" is a sweet Jazzy shuffle from Ginger Coyle that The Key posted last December 26th. Chances are you weren't hunting down Christmas tunes the day after Christmas. So, if you missed it--as we did--you can still grab it free from WXPN's The Key.
This is one of the reasons I still sift through Soundcloud. Because, every once in a while, there's a gem like this--an original voice. I've never heard nor heard of John Hardy before (not this one, anyway). My guess is no one outside of England has. He's spent years working in other people's bands and doing odd jobs to pay the bills. Now he's going it solo. "It's taken me a long time to be able to write these songs. Trying to find my own voice," John says, "not to copy and be original is something not always rewarded in music, but it's something I strive to be." He's got a growing following in England's Folk music circles and just released an EP, "Our Mate John", earlier this year.
But who, outside of those who already know him, is ever going to hear this Christmas song? It's essentially a demo and, if it ever makes its way to a physical release, its likely to go through changes. That's why I feel the need to sift through all the muck (and mire) at Soundcloud. It's a rescue mission. "Let's Call A Christmas Truce" plays well on multiple levels but, on the main one, it's a song about a soldier at war. Most of the Christmas war songs you hear play "big", by which I mean you never actually get the feeling you're looking at any one individual person. Think of one of the greatest war Christmas songs--"Christmas In The Trenches". It's genius; I wouldn't say otherwise. But, even though its a first person narrative, you never really feel you get to know Francis Tolliver. That's not a criticism. Tolliver's role in the song is to be a kind of everyman. But, once in a while, it's necessary to bring the camera in for a close-up on just one person. By being that close up on one soldier, he becomes an everyman by virtue of being real. "Let's Call A Christmas Truce" has that kind of focus. Instead of a big war is going on and, oh yeah, here's a song about the soldiers in it, this one is here's a guy alone, away from home, depressed, lonely, not much hope for the future, a little bored even and, oh yeah, there's a war going on around him. See what I'm trying to say? Great lyrics throughout. "The rich get rich, the saints get shot. God don't answer prayers a lot." "The Bible's not replying, so we pray upon these guns. This cigarette could be our last through Matthew, Mark & John. These boys aren't fit for killing, so survive another day. Let's call a Christmas truce today." And the music works it perfectly--bare and intimate with those twinkling sounds we immediately associate with happy Christmas music sounding so sad. A beautiful song from John Hardy. I hope we hear more from him. "Let's Call A Christmas Truce" is a free download via Soundcloud.
Always room for a new Soul jam. Andre Byrd, based in Connecticut, ministers through music as he's been doing since he was 15 singing in his father's church. He founded his own music and arts organization in 2009 (180 Degree Enterprises) and has been focused on advancing the careers of other inspirational artists. But now, with his primary inspirational group on hiatus, he's working on his solo career.
For Christmas, Andre wrote this original song, "Give It Away", and that's just what he's doing with it. You can get Andre Byrd's "Give It Away" as a free download from his web site or via Soundcloud. |
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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