Category: folk

Sweet Christmas! fruitcake 2

A mixed beginning, but let us accentuate the positive. Some songs refer to the fruitcake as a good thing all told… at least as good as holly, and rooftop reindeer, and caroling–the standbys we expect.

Disney stands for the traditional: “Toot Suite, Christmas Treats” recites a Goofy-sized list of goodies (including corn flakes) to eat this time of year. Fruitcake is in there too.

Mannheim Steamroller also orchestrates a menu of expected activities for Christmas, including fruitcake with “The Fruitcake Song.” It tags in wacky then runs back to harmony.

Many a high school choir cracks up their audience (parents) with a winter performance of “The Fruitcake Song” which applauds the messy melange. Despite years of the TV show Glee, most of these affairs are clumsy and embarrassing. One Madrigals‘ team styling seems to mock the sincere formula of the song. The kids here are having fun and don’t look stoned at all.

Dead serious, are Eraserheads, ‘The Beatles of the Philippines.’ Their “Fruitcake” is Invasion-tastic, but hardly about the dessert or the December day. And their video is a hard day’s night.

Let’s Devo it up with The Superions. “Fruitcake,” like the most appreciative songs here, lists the ingredients. Done.

Fergha and Robyn are just trying to get a song recorded. It could be about anything. It’s about a suitcase full of fruitcake. “Fruitcake” uplifts. Leave it at that.

On the other hand, fruitcake is where you can get your extra rations of alcohol. Michael Lusk partakes of “Grandma’s Loaded Fruitcake” in a harmless boot-scooting country style. Cheers!

James J. ‘Jimmy’ Wisner aka Kokomo doesn’t care who knows what he loves from gramma in “The Fruitcake Song.” This reggae/folk-style sing-a-long echoes rap styling and I almost feel like contributing a verse when it comes around to me.

 

Sweet Christmas! cake 1

When it comes to Christmas, i say CAKE and you say something about produce that hangs off a tree.

Cake is fine any time, though.

And so is reggae. I know we just had a slice, but Jamaica Jam bakes up “Christmas Cake (In the Oven Baking)” as a dance party for the holidays and for the children and for the holiest of holies having a birthday. This beats out Adu Deme & Dave Azi just a dred with their more solemn “Christmas Cake.” (No cake in the song, mon.)

Punk pokery takes place under the auspices of The Yobs with “Who Had All the Christmas Cake?” BLUE ALERT These boys are unhappy about the cake eaters who may or may not have come down the chimney. While we’re down and dirty, Swaggy G white-child-raps “Christmas Cake” in which this seasonal treat somehow represents his ass.

Hey, did that cake come from home–or did it come from Christmas? Red State Update has a brief reminder about how your eating habits affect your holiday bliss with their “Christmas Cake.” Miss you boys!

Sweet Christmas! pudding, doughnuts, pie

Other confectionary carols?

Well, let’s skip ‘We Wish You’ with its oddity of asking for figgy pudding… although, Plank Road Publishing has some classy antique school-kids’s song entitled “What is Figgy Pudding?” which is as good an excuse for a song as any around the non-ecumenical holiday singing assembly.

Dunkin’ Donuts has a holiday album celebrating fried dough from 2004. It’s fresh from the Phillipines, if that matters. Please to praise “Merry Munchkins” ’cause it’s about love. Sam Concepcion, Cheska Ortega and Audie Gemora sing bilingually.

Everybody loves a great pie. Christmas time, pies tend to be mincemeat. We’ll explain why tomorrow. For now, let’s look at generic tarte. A few singers sell the basic pastry, like Mongstar with “Christmas Pie (Christmas Cock Riddim).”  I think there’s chicken in this pie, but it’s got an island beat you can eat to.

Some singers like Music Box improv tell us that “What’s in the Pie? (An Improvised Christmas Song)” is not meat, minced or otherwise. Lively, but in an unbalanced way.

Kirby Heybourne claims his “Wassail & Apple Pie” is other than the traditional as well, but his driving guitar and cracking vocals promise a standard-setting song.

Larke makes “Xmas Pie” about corporations getting their piece of it. It’s not flaky or savory so much as symbolic and censorious.

Coming in somewhere between Barenaked Ladies and Brain Setzer is Fayetteville Ska Alliance with the remarkably fun “Have Another Piece of Pie.” Party pie please!

I’d rather go Victorian for your victrola. “Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies” comes from the traditions and doggerel of Mother Goose and whatnot. While it’s become popular to delve into the dank origins of why the maids lay and the ducks lost their wings (political scandal and bad health i’m sure), let’s simply listen to The Revels Children’s Chorus lull us into holiday horrors with this rendition:

Jesus Christ! hoot nanny

The other side of the country coin is bumpkinism. Plain folks may be sincerely holy, but they have humorously illiterate ways.

Lucky Tones retells their mishearing of the Nativity with homey humor. “Baby Jesus, Santa Claus, and Frankenstein” may not rise to the level of Homer and Jethro, but it’s an amateur recording in a back room with good old boys who keep comedy clean. Good ’nuff for me. (What was Frankenstein doing in that manger? Frankensteinly stuff!)

Merry Mistletoe: womens

Girl soft folk emo jazz rock plays in the back of many a Starbucks. It’s a mood.

Barely off the pop, Destenee whispers a touch of R+B into “Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.” It’s bit too clingy.

Colbie Calliat embodies that misty yet independent grown gal with “Mistletoe.” She knows what she wants. Maybe it’s you. Maybe not.

Indigo Girls are so cool they don’t sound like girls, or women, or men… just a stream of poetic toughness. “Mistletoe” may sound like it’s begging. It’s telling.

More earthy and motherly, Christina Custode weaves a dreamcatcher of a wintry scene of home and love and jazz with “The Mistletoe Song.”

Angelic sounding Jelly Rocket soar over our heads melodically with “Under the Mistletoe.” It’s almost childlike in its nurturing, reassuring womanly innocence.

Merry Mistletoe: who huh

Most youtube song amateurs are mere children giggling and emulating rap stars. (The funny ones are way too brief.)

A few have the equipment, at least materially, to deliver a song.

Austin Jasay sings out of his range about “Mistletoe.” With his shirt and tie, politeness, and blue hair he’s easy to dismiss. But his song has range and flirts with depth.

Hannah J shows considerable range and intensity that at times reveals emotional fun (the Frosty metaphor) with her “Under the Mistletoe.” Grunge this up a bit with a back up bass and watch out. Sign off after the song, unless you like peeping  in on the lives of underage girls being girls.

Merry Mistletoe: who now

Some you tube artists break out and score millions of views. Most don’t. Doesn’t mean they don’t have passion, verve, rhythm. Usually they do have a crowded crooked bedroom, poor sound, and an itty bitty range of talent.

Ann Wave sings her “Mistletoe” warning Santa not to bring presents (she just wants the right kissing). And she leans into it, overcompensating for the blonde hair.

Thanecha, on the other hand, sets her shot in the decorated front room (and name drops the tree), but seems to be reading off her lyrics and chords from her notes. Regardless, she has slightly more sense of humor and a raw talented voice (singing–her speaking voice grates) that overpowers for the rented guitar. Her “Mistletoe” weeps gladly.