Category: folk

Can we end it upbeat? And by that I mean sickly sweet, drink-the-Kool-aid mind wipey fallout optimism. Hold your breath, here we go.

I’m talking about ’70s spirit guru Rod McKuen barely singing his poem “The Day After Christmas.” This pop love-fest ropes all the daydreamy clichés into one whispery nest of bourgeoise balloon animals. Eye roll!

What sounds like instruments tuning up is Full Band setting up Dennis Hartman’s “Christmas is Over,” an up-with-people paean of all the details a Hallmark movie set decorator could ever need. Groan!

Larry Campanella sings a bit above register to raise magic-awareness. “Can’t It Last a Little After Christmas?” reminds this electronic easy-listening essay with almost-hit notes. Hoo boy!

Perhaps a sweet bluegrass hope from Greg Herman–“After Christmas Song” fights the January blues by not putting away any of the decorations and just pretending! Uh, no.

‘Kay, i can’t keep this up! Meiko finishes out the month with “Maybe Next Year” I’ll be better… a mantra of self improvement slopped over a naughtiness that can’t barely be overlooked. Time to get outta the Christmastime. ‘Cuz it’s got a warrant.

What is there to live for–? Xmas gone, no more hope for humankind….

Okay, we’ve covered the breakups after Xmas, but when the loss of love erases all meaning… Christmas collapses, dude. Listen to the broken-ness of “The Day After Christmas” from the desultory Kate Miller-Heidke and judge the hurt yourself.

Slingshot Dakota bangs the drum loudly for “Day After Christmas,” admitting to the broken emptiness. Owie.

“Christmas is Over” says Maxim Rözge, but his dirge jazz is really about how his life is over. Bleak stuff, then kazoos!

Leave me alone–go away! chants The Ladies of Sport in their “Christmas is Over.” Moaning ’80s pop-rock.

Randy Pinchbeck goes all the way (through climate catastrophe) to the endtimes with “‘Twas the Day After Christmas,” a folk dirge with a peppy backbeat.

The letdown of the end of the year is post-seasonal depressing. No matter how great Xmas was, the wind-down is a wet blanket in comparison.

Jerry Becker begs, Please don’t let “The Day After Christmas” turn cold. He reasons, It’s just another day. And his tuneless muddling is just another song.

More British, Quadband adds a symphonic backbeat to the message–“The Weekend After Christmas” shatters every childhood dream. Harsh, but well rehearsed.

Michael DeLong magics a guitar while reciting a laundry list of what you don’t get in “After Christmas Blues.” It’s a lot. More folk than blues, though.

The least wonderful time of the year, begins “After Christmas (Januarysong).” Wisherkings slows time and melody to make us face the end of joyeaux noel. Symphonic folk weirdness. Damn.

What of the love that wanes, a casualty of the Christmas drama? Is it so hard to lose both the spirit of giving and the highlights of sharing? Or is it all one big bad?

It could just be time to leave. Sun June sings “Christmas is Over” with so little spirit, and nothing left to say. Just going away. Sluggish folk pop.

Best breakup excuse is the (lack of) quality of the gift-giving. An oft-featured chorale Xmas antidote, “The Twelve Days After Christmas,” is here given all the highbrow comedy cracking up Cynthia Lemen & Cool Lemon Jazz can bring to bear. See what they did with their parody….

2nd best excuse is met someone else: The Thneeds club rock a breakup over a mall Santa. Yet “The Night After Christmas” is clever and hopeful from the clever angry left-behind guy. Hats off to the chins-up survivors.

Megg is a mess “3 Days After Christmas.” Bangin’ pop details all the lies, outcries, and whys of the romantic crash and burn. Watch out!

“There in Bristol After Christmas” by Coming Soon (feat. Howard Hughes, Dave Tattersall) orders a side of sad to go with their diner delicacy of breakup. Grunge-y folk ballad.

King Everything is “Unfollowing You After Christmas.” So there. Amateurishly half-baked more than garage rock.

Rockin’ the warble, Scott Ryan cries that she packed up and lefty him and now it’s “The Day After Christmas.” It’s all broken candy canes and missing carols. Pretty pop, raw feelings.

Or how ’bout, how ’bout this–just forget the whole thing. Earwig is not waiting for you, not this time. Emo-boy slow pop (it gets mad later) tells you what it’s gonna be “Next Christmas.” In yo’ tinsely face!

You know what i think is so wrong with the after-Christmas calendar times? The songs are gone!!

The evolution of Christmas song play is documented by adorable folky ukester Kate Harrington as an opening to the later decay in “Post Christmas Song.” (Spoiler alert: EVERYTHING SUX!)

“Christmas Time is Over” heralds The Bent Fender Band, don’t have to play those tunes no more. Fair rocking for the tired.

Molp gets right to it: there’s no songs the “Day After Christmas.” Sweet folk soaring makes it true.

Perhaps the first thing you see the next morning post-X is the big mess.

Homer & Jethro tee off the humor of chaos from 1968 with “The Night After Christmas.” Rollicking redneck fun crashin’ ’round the cottage.

Violence erupted all over Entre-Knobs (feat. Rob Boyd)’s homefront in “Christmas is Over.” Guns may have been involved in this ska-pop dance number.

Swedish Formula One driver Slim Borgudd can’t seem to find you in the tangle of gifts, leftovers, or decorations. “Talking After Christmas Blues” builds in a non-Scandinavian moroseness that may unnerve you. Jangly jazz blues.

Talky blues-lite from Dashboard Hula Girls observes the mess detachedly in “The Day After Christmas.” Not much more to it than that.

Only a gently strewn floor sets the scene of “The Day After Christmas” by John Pollard. Whimsical folk nostalgia for two days before.

Throwing out turkey bones, beer bottles, and faraway friends Bill Lloyd uses “The Day After Christmas” as a time for renewal. One man’s trash is another man’s garbage. Hard strummin’ folk.

As i post this, Twenty Twenty-one begins. But not when i write it, nor likely when you read it. Time is a factor of our perception. Everything just is. Of course if you want chemistry or physics to work, follow the x-axis.
So, when i say Songs About After Christmas: it can mean the burnout, the hangover, the mess… or it can mean the return to normalcy… or even the anticipation of Next Xmas.

Let’s start with a continuity check. If we are the only animal that can anticipate the unseen yet to be, can it be After Christmas before Christmas? Student Union (feat. Zak Stegman) applies rock country to caution “It’s Gone Before You Know It.” Either this will slow you down to savor-speed, or will be just one more thing to worry about.

Perhap the numericalization of the calendar limits the moods. “Merry ’til Christmas is Over” is real Celtic caroling from Dave Brooks & Bernard Wrigley. No judgment.

Whether the chicken came before the egg or vice versa, we can agree “Christmas Comes Four Days After Winter Solstice.” Salvador Buttersworth gets lost in the time loop of this folk masterpiece, which may teach you calendrical skills–or how fast you can reach the mute button.