Category: country

Worth repeating: And i’ve repeated this before… Adolphe Adam slow blues the story of how Mr. Christmas began in the incomparable “Santa Had a Dream.” Nonstop on repeat, please.

Maybe Santa started as a baby, a “Baby Santa“! Kevin! rocks the idea when this whiskerless, reindeer-milk-drinking infant would bungee down chimneys on his unbmilical cord. Listen to believe.

Joel Kopischke returns with his “Santa Claus Saint Nicholas” (Alexander Hamilton parody). Rap, and yeah. That. Well, a taste of it.

Nicole C Mullen features a spoken word story about the origin of The Winter Presenter in “St. Nick’s Groove.” Tossing gold coins through the window? A miracle!

Nick and Jenny Maciaszek’s “Christmas Legend” begins in the coal mine and follows the dream with lilting folk country. Riding the Harley through the sky… that’s new.

Gary Fjellgaard cowboys up for the time “Santa Put a Saddle on a Reindeer.” That was the moment he got strange enough to become myth. Simple country.

Car wrecks? Sleigh wrecks!

“Santa Smashed Into Our House” by Flooded Cellar is the down home country of a happy moment made quite unhappy.

Roland Buscar attempts to help out Santa after he drops dead, but the sleigh is too much for him in “A Very Ragamuffin Xmas.” BLUE ALERT rap with a bailed ending.

Mike and Brian find Santa with a broken knee after a collision, which results in a slow jam pop that maintains “Every Day is Christmas.” Misery-style, Santa is recuperating in their own home.

Torch singing, Hadley Park country divas out “Santa Crashed His Sleigh Into Our Garage.” No word how the bearded one is…

Remember, remember the fifth of December… As with Hallowe’en being the night before a holy day (Michaelmas), Krampusnacht is the night before The Feast of St. Nicholas. While THAT should be Christmas, JC isn’t Santa. But the goatman/Devil might be a product of Central Europe BEFORE Christianity spread there. Just more cultural appropriation, or melding pot, or serving up the best bits of every culture so we have the coolest one regardless of origination. Just think of the Santa-Krampus team-up as good cop-bad cop (one gifts the good, the other beats the naughty).

Too much? Then try a cartoon! “The Krampus!” from Jack Squat JB throws down some polka and funny accents to make us learn (and behave). [He also has a cute parody called “Run, Run #Krampus.”]

Jingle Daddy mixes live and animated with his intermediate class “Krampus Night!” It IS swing (as well as a Squirrel Nut Zipper parody), so hella fun.

Aaron Fraser-Nash has an homage to the 2005 film with “Krampus Sings a Song.” This growly rap (he gave us a “Part Two” too) introduces us nicely. Fraser-Nash has a side hustle of impersonating movie characters singing so he’s turning pro at this.

Before you get too comfy, I’ve gotta share Houdmouth’s “Krampus.” This alt-rock loop repeats the same two lines over and over until you get it (or you don’t). And that’s Krampus.

Upbeat pop from Les Barons brings us “Xmas with Krampus.” Disappointing Santa makes Krampus mad. Write that down.

Or p’raps heavy metal is where it’s at to fully get “Krampus Night.” Let Firemage show you.

Rap? Bludstaind gives us a “Krampus” primer of some gore.

Coupl’a more details: the chains, the bells, the basket, and the lie detector-thing. Miss FD has it covered in her “Krampus Song.” Swing with accordion.

Wild Earp uses old timey country music to craft his kidsong “The Krampus Song.” Thus the lessons endeth. Learning is fun-damental.

Not quite to sea yet.

Jebediah’s “Country Holiday Song” is a country banger about just hanging out. Maybe drive down to the pier, perhaps fish. Doesn’t seem to matter really.

Find me on a beach by the sea, Floating around, in a boat you and me, chortles Toni Das with some fine surf guitar in “Xmas by the Sea.” Tres relaxing.

Heartbroken at the navy pier at 3 A.M. Kill Hannah indies the rock in need of a “New Heart at Christmas.” That’s Christmas for you.

Brennen Leigh gets totally country with her drunkard other, listing out the inexcusable behavior–including rolling the car off the pier–to some fine honky tonkin’ guitar. “Merry Christmas Ashhole” says it all.

Scale HO for toy trains is 1:87. This is half of the O Scale and is the most popular.

Roger Miller set the standard for Xmas toy train songs with his country lullaby “Old Toy Trains.” This 1967 for his two-year-old son promised the goods but advised Don’t you think it’s time you were in bed?

1968: Glen Campbell brings a childish impatience to it.

1983: Raffi brings a childish internationality to it.

1985: The Statler Brothers bring a colorless march to it.

By now, no one wants OLD toys. So LITTLE is the new descriptor.

1989: Randy Travis brings a paternal assurance to it.

1998: Nana Mouskouri brings an angelic innocence to it.

2000: Toby Keith makes a sing-along out of it.

2008: The Forester Sisters bring mystical wonder to it.

2011: Matt Andersen brings elder wisdom to it.

2011: Jessica Lea Mayfield brings a homespun poverty to it.

2012: Mirusia Louwerse, Carla Maffioletti and Kimmy Skota bring a celestial transcendence to it.

2013: Inuit Susan Aglukark makes it a bit of a chant. (With Native translation.)

2013: Restless Heart make it redneck somehow.

Let’s end with the 37-year-old Dean Miller looped into his dad’s original recording for a duet. Touching.

Not exactly commuting, the American classic hobo did use the train system for shelter and support.

“Oscar’s Christmas Lament” by Hadnot Creek zips together blues and pop country to explicate the hopes and realities of the boxcar life. Tough stuff.

Protest singing from Bill White makes the same points the hobos make: trains are the only way to go. “The Christmas Train” is hard driving blues for those on the tramp.

“Santa Fe Sam and Hobo Bill” make the best out of hungry exposure around Xmas playing the What If game. Boxcar Willie does that talky sad storytelling to the weepy violins. …then there’s the miracle of ham and taters and all the fixin’s. Was it a dream–?

“Hobo Christmas” from Sharp & Cissell has that driving rock rhythm that elevates country to Americana, so their sad story is fun.

Grunge country splashes water in your face as Old 97’s sing their “Hobo Christmas Song.” Side effects include toe tapping, yodeling, and eye rolling.

Actual fiddlin’ country from Matt Andersen brings a nobility to the “Hobo Christmas Train.” Makes you feel like takin’ a gap year and joinin’ in.

Meeting cute on the train, but having already broken up Nicole Andrade lisps through “This Christmas” as a cautionary pop song tale against being alive.

Tangential, “Boy Wonder and The Christmas Tree Girl” from Nicole Tesseyman & Steve Carrigan involve runaways with colorful nicknames, living off the con and the big bad London, once they take trains. Jazzy folk that rocks.

Also sad, Christian Rowe thinks this “One More Christmas” could be the last with you. I know your train leaves tomorrow but you don′t have to go, he begs with New Age-y pop. Moving. A bit.

Taking the last train, Night Flight can’t shake the sense “It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas.” Perhaps it’s that ponderous New Age alt rock. That doesn’t feel like music.

Back to the country music with Stan Rogers. So, sad. “First Christmas” is about the very young children. But the daddy is working 3000 miles away–in the mines! Mother is waiting at the train station… but, i’m not sure this is going to work out. Life sucks!

HoganBeats loops a piano riff to intro “Skiing.” Thoughtful instrumental noodling mixed with the odd this and that from Mad Men.

The world’s gone mad with tumbling down a slippery slope, worries The Glenn Crytzer Orchestra. But, if you “Keep a Little Christmas in Your Heart.” you’ll do fine in the snow, doanchaknow. Big band but nonchalant.

David Walburn gets down home with the cozy country of “Meat’s in the Freezer (Let’s Go Skiing).” See, the whooshing down the mountains is the reward for all the hard work of winter preparation. Ski haw.

Trying to make it through this snowy “Time of Year” Gabriel Gassi raps and R+Bs about skating on thin ice with you. Listen, gurl, you’ve got ’til the end of the song to change your mind.

Guess it’s more like a dirge than a carol, concludes Brittany Ann Tranbaugh in sassy country pop that deals with a breakup. There’ll be no skating, now. And “The Christmas Flannel” shirt she got YOU–she’s keeping that. Nice coping mechanism! Great tune.

Francis Blume half yodels, half warbles through the old timey country trembler “For the Holidays.” He wants to kiss you! He likes spending time with you: Like the time that we went ice skating drunk and you slipped and nearly broke your Ask me what I’m doing for the Holidays. Ask him!