The Holderness Family’s Christmas letter from 2013 features “Xmas Jammies.” Pop hip hop. But too much personal stuff.
Rhett & Link (the powerhouse behind Good Mythical Morning–abbreviated as GMM–an American comedy/talk/variety YouTube series ) play funny folk (Flying Conchords influenced?) to relax you into “Christmas Sweatz.” Take it easy! (And dig their facial dress-up “Christmas Face” for what to wear when you’re trying TOO hard.) (Who can stop at just two? They’ve swapped heads for tails just last year with “Christmas Booty.” That’s gotta be the end!)
60% of heat loss is out the top of your head! Watch out for chilly climes: top up!
Perhaps that’s why Beth Sorrentino adds the odd improvisational “My Hat” number on Suddenly, Tammy!’s Christmas album. Despite the falalas this bad date song isn’t 4 Xmas.
“Christmas in the Old Man’s Hat” is the busker’s cry for alms (you know: the goose is getting fat). From Noel McLoughlin, its Old World charm forces the entry to our listening now.
“The Murples’ Magic Hat (Best Christmas Gift Ever)” has crowned our list before. A Halo Called Fred pop tune us this sci-fi story about transporting chapeaus to remind us how mysterious hats can be.
So let’s finish with the odder Julie Michelsen “The Magic Cat’s Christmas Hat.” The slow feminist folk livens up later, but stays wiccanly strange. Eventually it epics up and makes us see beyond our little lives. (Tambourine timpani scat!)
Mountain songs honoring the Old World (he means Europe, dude) of immigrants span centuries and inform our country, rock, and their offspring.
The message of good old folk music (poetic details of scratching meaning out of a lowly existence) leans nicely into protest rock. “Christmas Card” by Jon Latham is more modern than all that, but coulda been a contender around 1967.
Prison harmonica feists up Stephen L. Kelly’s “A Christmas Card.” This is a deadly serious love letter to the trappings of the holidays. He. Loves. It.
Nosie Katzmann pollutes his folk with flute and finger popping. But his “Christmas Cards” is alt folk, a modern emo unplugged whimsy about keeping in touch.
Scandinavians like our Wild West and cowboys and have contributed some interesting cowboy songs. The Ballroom Band plays sad moaning old timey folk like Dylan. “The Christmas Card” tells the story of loneliness and loss and that little ‘ol piece of paper.
The McKameys “Sing a Song About the Lamb” cleverly following the old sacrificial lamb to the old gods to the new lamb who is a Son of a God. Plodding ‘grass gospel.
Let’s get even more old Sunday school with a fine old album: American Folk Songs for Christmas, brought to you by Mike Seeger.
Included are tributes to The Jay-by “Sing Hallelujah” by Calum MacColl
The Indigo Girls don’t shy away from a healthy dose of irony, but here with “Your Holiday Song” they get authentic, beating out a gospel folk you can salute. Join in.
Zip Pain streams his dwindling consciousness with “Not Another Christmas Song” into tortured ukulele maundering that borders on punk folk. Must be heard, cannot be forgotten(forgiven).
Slushy, sudsy, and saccharine, this replacement for human life weathers on yet today. The background music is brilliant at telegraphing the ‘complex’ emotions the scenes wreak within you. Some of it is well worth sharing, i will admit. Music from Grey’s Anatomy is nearly an industry in itself, despite the season often breaks around Xmas without addressing the holidays much.
A homeless person singing about home is touching enough to almost count as a Christmas song. When the show spawns a thousand hipsters and the pop/folk song is sung by Lemonheads’ Juliana Hatfield, then we must pay attention–quick–before the character freezes to death. “Make it Home” in its entirety here. On the show here:
