FIFTY STATES OF ‘MERICA-MAS
Michael Foster Mehl, a Utahn, brings out the pioneer/cowboy spirit with his “Christmas in Utah.” He’s that kind of rugged individualist that has a youtube channel with only a couple of his songs on it–nothing else. So let’s give the guy his privacy. Pretty pop country song though, almost a bit of a yodel there. (Is he tracking harmony with himself? Cool.) And i love those place names placements.
Time to break some rules, then. I can’t stand ’12 Days of Christmas’ parodies. After Allen Sherman and ‘The Great White North’ they were so over! (Yeah, I’m looking at you, Bob Rivers!) The worst of Zoo morning shows, NFL, and NBA team fund-raising jokey witlessness drains to this level of unimaginative fan-pandering. Some day when i’m very unhappy with life, i will share with you the best of the worst of 12 Days.
Despite all that wreath-wearing railing and ranting, I do like Robert Lund. Lund is a parodist (does he list that on his taxes?) for radio shows in Salt Lake City and around the entire nation. He is nonpareil in the art form of “Parodeus” (that is, to take a modern day pop tune and solemnize a Chistmas subject for the lyrics). (Okay he puts the humor to all manner of subjects.) But, for today, we will explore the converse, the “Caroldy” (a Christmas carol with contemporary application of lyric, natch). In “12 Days of Utah Christmas” Robert Lund, another Ute, explores the complicated life of the Mormon. Though I’m not a fan of stereotyping all of Utah as LDS, i gotta say Lund has done something the members of Temple can chortle at… something rare in our current state of restless intolerance. (Oddly, the only Youtube selection i can find is repetitive and less referential. The cut off his Excellent Album Elves Gone Wild has all the great inside-joke lines.)
