World War II raises its head, perhaps ironically, for the mashup of spoken, rebroadcast, and NewAge noodling that is Family Friend’s “Christmas, 1944.” Whut?
No-No Boy handcrafts historical plaints as songs. “Where the Sand Creek Meets the Arkansas River” at first seems to address the genocide of First Nationers, but the lines about a small marker: There is a date marked Christmas Day, 1944 and not even a name, Just Matsuda Baby point us in the direction of Japanese-American internment camps. Heavy duty folk.