“Christmas 1915” is the famous trench truce (perhaps with football intermission), despite the widely-reported word-of-mouth bearing it has on history (really 1914, mere months after the commencement of hostilities). Celtic Thunder owns this over many versions. And this year includes that horrible O. Henry twist.
Christmas Countdown: 1916
Paul Gillis reduces Irish “Christmas 1916” to desperate hardscrabble worn out joy. Folk tragedy. Learn from it. I guess.
Janne has penned a nine-minute three-part German folk opera in 2015 known as “Christmas 1916.” Fairly rocks. It’s The Great War, natch, but late at night (near Xmas) one soldier lights his cigarette, on t’other side of the trenches another takes the shot, then there’s a dreamy walk down a sunny lane and thoughtful humming. Not exactly Wagner. But that can be a good thing.
Christmas Countdown: 1918
Rosie Trentham marks the War to End All Wars with “Christmas 1918,” a Celtic crooner of a celebration. ‘Sall about peace, innit?
Christmas Countdown: 1919
“Christmas at 1919” most likely refers to the street address for the band Boogdish out of Texas. This underground garage weirdness claims there’s no more christmas…. We’ll just see, ‘cuz we can’t hear the lyrics very well.
Christmas Countdown: 1920s
“Christmas, the Roaring ‘Twenties” is merely an impression of what music’d’ve been like then. It’s a bit of doggerel, as if for those times all were drunk/stupid, but The No Name Band lean into this so it’s either brilliant or embarrassing. Which means i gotta post it. We’ll call it pop music.
Christmas Countdown: 1923
Future Clouds and Radar sorely wants us to take a trip back to Auntie Amanda’s troubles in “Christmas Day 1923.” This string-sobbing folk rock ballad rises and rises to a sad crescendo. Sorry for your loss.
Carolyn Arends goes for the three-hanky with the reverential “My First Christmas,” a folk song about a great grandparent, born in ’23, saved in ’44, passed recently. Each time was like her first time with the angels and the baby king. Take it from me, it works.
Christmas Countdown: 1921
A crazy, caffeinated pop waltz “Beautiful World” rewinds the wildness of the past century, including: So it goes the bird said, Merry Christmas, baby, 1921. Not sure where we’re going, but what a flashy ride.
Christmas countdown: 1928
Callback! “Bucky the One-Eyed Reindeer” returns to commemorate the big Christmas crash of ’28. Jaunty kid music from Santa’s Elves. Some blame on the stock market crash may seep in from this catastrophe. Depressing.
Flashback! “The Story of the Lawson Family” is more marred than made by its Xmas connection; hardly a holiday ditty. But it was 1928, and i found another artist–The White Brothers–who holler it pretty dadgum well.
Christmas Countdown: 1931
Any Other does not only note Granny’s birth date as Christmas 1931, they also observe how people were different for that day in that time, but “Not in These Days.” Xmas is the reminder that Granny is nearing her own end, perhaps the end of all civility. Chilly unplugged rock.
Christmas countdown: 1933
Prohibition’s over! Drunkenness is okay again! Tom Dyer beats the stringed-box recounting that moonshiner ‘Doober’ he met way back when “It’s a White Mule Christmas.” Returns to him again in the ’40s… and there may be a resurrection acomin’ later on. Stay for it, or just for the back woods country glee of the whole parcel.
Virginiana Miller’s “Xmas 1933” is a gentle alt-pop about the re-decline of the civilization of the American worker. Christmas cheers!