Advertise on podcast: Twelve Songs of Christmas

I hope this will be the last week that "Twelve Songs" will be affected by my book project. I've returned this week to 2022 and an interesting conversation with scholar Derrick Bang about Vince Guaraldi and A Charlie Brown Christmas. We talked after the release of the Super Deluxe version of the album, which included most of the tracks recorded for the album, including ones that didn't get used and in some cases didn't get finished. For me, they helped me appreciate Guaraldi, particularly when you hear him stumble through passages that sounded effortless by the time he nailed them down.

This week, Alex digs into vocalist/keyboard player Earl Grant's 1965 album Winter Wonderland. Grant's career was varied, starting with one of his biggest hits "The End" in 1959, then a successful version of "Bali Ha'i" in 1961. Grant followed Earl After Dark (which featured "Bali Ha'i") with a decade of predominantly lounge/easy listening albums focused on his organ, before he died in a car accident in 1970 at the age of 39.  Winter Wonderland falls in the middle of that run, when he released two or three albums a year. Alex talks about it as an album that fits into his life at Christmas time.

In 2025, the veteran string band Old Crow Medicine Show released OCMS Xmas, the first Christmas album in their lengthy career. Last season, we ran part of our conversation with Ketch Sekor and Morgan Jahnig from the band about its relationship to Christmas music and the album they made, but we had so many interviews at the time that we could only run part of it. This week, I can run it in its entirety, which I think is worth it because while the band loves its down-home sound, they're also students of the form and its history, so some real insights and personal moments slip into the conversation. I'm also always here for a band that doesn't hide its class consciousness.   It helps that OCMS Xmas is also a very good Christmas album with a number of slyly smart touches throughout the album.

Philadelphia's Slowey and the Boats revisit the late 1950s and early 1960s when a body of music emerged that celebrated Polynesia and tiki culture, even if the sounds had more to do with movies and the American imagination than the actual sounds of the islands. Isaac Stanford is Slowey, and with his lap steel, he and the band explore that body of music as well as songs inspired by Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, two of the American exotica heroes.  Slowey and the Boats released Merry Christmas from Slowey and The Boats, Vol. 1 & 2 in 2020, and it's still on sale in digital and vinyl forms. Isaac and I talk about the band, the album, and we hear music from their most recent album, Slowey After Dark, which is also on sale now in digital and vinyl forms. If you liked this episode or the body of exotica that it draws on, you may enjoy my 2013 episode on Christmas Cocktails, the series of lounge Christmas albums from Capitol Records' "Ultra-Lounge" series.

Folk/country singer Stompin' Tom Connors flew the flag for Canadian culture starting in the late 1960s and continued to do so until he died in 2013. His music documented the people and places he saw traveling across Canada, and the best encapsulation of that project and his sound is Across This Land with Stompin' Tom Connors from 1973. It's online in its entirety for free on YouTube.  In 1970, he released Merry Christmas Everybody, which is a very Stompin' Tom Christmas album. It's available in the digital marketplaces, but with songs added to it because, I suppose, 12 songs might be considered too few in the current market. The added songs are fine--"The Hockey Song" is a Stompin' Tom classic--but they're not part of the album as I know it.

The new season begins with versions of Darlene Love's Christmas classic. We hear the song we've known forever and ones that I think offer an interesting twist on the original. The episode doesn't include the versions by U2, Years, and Jewel Scheme though I'm entertained by all of them, and if you like the versions by Death Cab for Cutie, Suede Silver, Liela Moss and Chicken Happen, you can find them on Bandcamp.  The episode starts with "Secret Box" by Masato Saito, and in the episode I mention my interview with Scott Leopold, the host of the "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast.

Season eight ends with what I hope will be a tradition--a Christmas party, with a few guests and a lot of music.  This week's guests include comic artist Peter Bagge, singer Judy Whitmore, and indie rock artist Hibou. Bagge is coming to New Orleans in January for the Fan Expo, and I have been a fan dating back to his NYC punk days. He's best known for the comic Hate and the young-punks-in-love adventures of Buddy Bradley and his friends. Last year, he considered how they'd grow up in Hate Revisited.  While talking, we discussed his favorite Christmas music.  I also talked to vocalist Judy Whitmore, who has also been pilot Judy Whitmore, author Judy Whitmore, and ... I'll let her explain. Her album, Christmas, flies the flag for the classic aesthetics of Christmas music. I also mention in the episode an article by April Clare Welsh at ChartMetric.com that quotes me in her piece on the way Christmas music is become sadder. Is that perhaps because the world is getting sadder?  I also featured new Christmas music from É Arenas, whose 2024 interview ran in full earlier this season. This year, he recorded a new song, "Go Santa Go," and included it with all of his holiday music on the new vinyl album, Yo Soy Tu Santa. Earlier this year, I interviewed the indie pop artist Hibou for my non-Christmas website, My Spilt Milk, but while I had him on the line, I had to ask him about Christmas music as well. Finally, I mentioned this year's Christmas Underground playlist and the streaming version of my own playlist.

This week’s episode features two interviews—one with Grammy-winning jazz saxophone player Miguel Zenón helping us appreciate the salsa Christmas classic Asalto Navideño by Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe. Asalto Navideño was reissued on vinyl this holiday season by Craft Recordings.   The other is with music industry veterans Jonathan McHugh and Tamara Conniff, who worked together to produce A Life in Rhythm: The Ray Conniff Story about her father.  The episode also includes new Christmas music from Kristian Noel Pedersen, who appeared on the podcast earlier this season. You can find his new album, B******t & Gift Wrapping at his Bandcamp page. In the episode, we also hear music from the late Raul Malo of The Mavericks. I wrote about the Mavericks’ return in 2013, but never got a chance to interview Malo, whose Marshmallow World & Other Favorites is a wonderful introduction to his charms as a singer.  The episode also includes “Two XMAS” by New Fools from the New Orleans indie Christmas compilation, A Strange Daisy Christmas.  If you’d like this year’s Christmas mix, email me at [email protected]. If you have a cool mix yourself, send it or a link over. I’d love to hear it.

We're in the last weeks before Christmas and I have more interviews than I can handle.  This week starts with a version of "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Twanguero before we get to my interview with Roland Gift, ex of Fine Young Cannibals. He talks about the way a new Chanel ad campaign with Dua Lipa and Blackpink's Jennie has introduced a new generation to the Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," and about FYC40, an compilation of the band's hits with a second disc of dance remixes.  Gift also mentions the video for "Everybody Knows it's Christmas." I follow that with Ketch Secor and Morgan Jahnig from Old Crow Medicine Show, who this year released OCMS Xmas, their first Christmas album. There's a lot of good stuff in that conversation, more than we have time for in this episode, so I'll revisit it in its entirety next season.  Finally, I talk to Lorin Sklamberg of The Klezmatics about the reissue of their album, Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah, where they added music to lyrics written by Guthrie. Here too, there's more good stuff than we had time for, so I'll return to this next conversation next season as well.  One mea culpa: The most embarrassing moment of the season comes in conjunction with this interview because on Apple Music, the song I lead into the conversation with appears as "Ny Psycho Freylekhs." I pronounced it that way, then realized when I downloaded the song after the introduction had been recorded that it was "NY" as in "New York," not "Ny" as in the end is nigh. I never feel smart staggering through other languages, but I haven't felt as dumb as I did when I saw the proper spelling. The episode ends with music by Haunted House Party from A Strange Daisy Christmas.

We're in December now, and this week we have three conversations. William Shatner's face is on the pop culture Mt. Rushmore, and when I had a chance to interview him for The New Orleans Advocate in advance at his appearance at Pop Expo in town, I couldn't pass up the chance to ask him about 2018's Shatner Claus. It's a short interview, but I have it so you get to hear it.  The interview begins with us talking about You Can Call Me Bill, a documentary from 2023 about his life and career. The story I wrote for the Advocate deals with the way that his career has opened up opportunities for him late in life. The episode also features a new song, "I am Falling Snow," from Sara Noelle. In 2023, Sara was a guest on 12 Songs to talk about her body of Christmas music.  Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit has become well known for Christmas music with two Christmas albums and a yearly holiday season tour that will bring her to New Orleans on Sunday night.  This conversation is an edited version of a longer conversation that we'll run in its entirety next season  Finally, singer Kelly Finnigan has a new Christmas single. Earlier this season, I talked to Shawn Lee about recording "Say It Again" with soul singer Kelly Finnigan.  I first talked to Finnigan in 2020 when he released A Joyful Sound, which I consider to be a modern Christmas music classic. It sounds like a lost R&B record from the late 1960s or early 1970s with psychedelic and moody touches. We talk more about that album five years later and his new Christmas single, "I Can't Wait (for Christmas Time)."   Finally, we revisit the new A Strange Daisy Christmas, a collection of Christmas songs by members of the New Orleans indie rock community. A week or so ago I featured Loucey's "Christmas (bAbYpLeAze CoMeHoMe), and this week's show ends with The Self-Help Tapes' version of Christmas Treat." The song started as a late-in-the-show Saturday Night Live sketch that The Strokes' Julian Casablancas remade as a rock 'n' roll Christmas standard.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) made itself part of this year's music story with AI acts The Velvet Sundown, TaTa Taktumi and Breaking Rust making news one way or another.  This week, Ken Kessler of the podcast The Sounds of Christmas and Gerry D from the Totally Rad Christmas podcast join me to talk about the way AI Christmas music foreshadowed some of this. We talk about an early effort created by University of Toronto researchers, "Rudolph the All-Gracious King" and it's companion how-it's-done video), and the heavy metal "Christmas Overdrive." We also talked about faux-vintage Christmas songs posted at the RAI Music page.

Multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory remembers playing and recording with Brian Wilson from 1999 until he retired from live performances in 2022. We talk about the recently reissued Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy, Brian Wilson presents SMiLE, and his 2005 solo Christmas album, What I Really Want for Christmas.  In the process, Gregory provides insight into the later stages of Brian's life and musical career, including perhaps why What I Really Want for Christmas received a lukewarm response (other than following the completed SMiLE, of course). Last week started this look back at Brian's Christmas music with his biographer David Leaf on The Beach Boys' Christmas Album.  In the episode, I mentioned my 2005 interview with Brian and story on the remaking of SMiLE, and my review of Brian's 2017 show in New Orleans. I also mentioned Amazon Music's “Amazon Music Originals- Holiday” playlist.

I started thinking about how to address Brian Wilson’s death on the podcast since we learned of his passing. “Little Saint Nick” and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album are Christmas classics that needed to be addressed, but how or with who? The answer came when Oglio Records announced that it planned to reissue a 25th anniversary edition of Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy. The promotional efforts behind that release put a number of possible interviews at my disposal.  This week, writer David Leaf talks about Brian in 2000 and 1963’s The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. Leaf has written liner notes for numerous Beach Boys and Brian Wilson releases, and wrote The Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978) and SMiLE: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson, which was released earlier this year.  In the episode, I mentioned the new Beach Boys’ holiday EP A Little Saint Nick Christmas with The Beach Boys. It’s all previously released songs and mixes, but it’s on sale now.  I also mentioned the upcoming Strange Daisy Christmas, a compilation of Christmas songs by the New Orleans indie community on Strange Daisy Records. You can order it now online from Bandcamp. I featured Loucey’s version of Darlene Love’s “Christmas (bAbYpLeAze CoMeHoMe)” in the episode, and earlier in the year I interviewed Cherie McCabe of Loucey after the release of their debut album, Participation Trophy Wife. Next week, I’ll be back with more on Brian Wilson when I talk to musician Probyn Gregory about playing in Brian’s band in concert and in the studio when he recorded his 2005 solo Christmas album, What I Really Want for Christmas.

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee has a history of making recordings that hover uncertainly in time. Sounds from different eras and genres come together in his music to sound like lost, regional 45s.  We talk about his influences--library music and hip-hop--as well as his two Christmas albums: A Very Ping Pong Christmas from Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra (2007) and Kung Fu Christmas by Shawn Lee (2021).

Toronto's Kristian Noel Pedersen has released 27 EPs or albums of Christmas music, 26 of which are on his Bandcamp page. What started as a goof became a project that stretched him as an artist. We hear music from all phases of his Christmas career including (in order): 1. "Home Alone Pt. 1" 2. "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" 3. "All I Want for Christmas is You" 4. "A Step-Mother's First (and Worst) Christmas Ever" 5. "Merry Christmas Baby" 6. "Christmas Without You" 7. "Hard Candy Christmas" 8. "Silver, Never Gold" 9. "What Are You Doing (on Christmas Eve)?" 10. "Pack Your Bags!" We also hear a new song, "A Very Gen X Christmas" from The Static Dive.   In my conversation with Kristian, I mention the episode on Hanson with Isaac Hanson, and the one that traces the musical life of "Hard Candy Christmas."