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Post by Tomas on Dec 11, 2018 18:00:31 GMT
Notoriously weak for simple melodic southern country (mostly what were labelled neo traditional in the 80s and 90s) here are a few on the most often replayed Christmas tunes on my Spotify lists and some older cd records:
Merle Haggard "Grandma´s Homemade Christmas Card" album Hag´s Christmas.
Ralph Stanley "Christmas Is Near" album A Very Special Acoustic Christmas.
Patty Loveless "Away In A Manger" album Bluegrass & White Snow.
John Michael Montgomery "My Christmas Wish" album Mr. Snowman.
Rebecca Lynn Howard "Jingle My Bells" album My Kinda Christmas.
Reba McEntire "On This Day" album Merry Christmas to you.
Shelby Lynne "Christmas Times Is Coming" album Merry Christmas.
Suzy Bogguss "Two-Step 'Round The Christmas Tree" album Country Christmas.
Willie Nelson "O Little Town of Bethlehem" album The Christmas Album.
(In the Guilty Pleasures section there is unavoidably also Tammy Wynette´s version of "Let´s Put Christ Back In Christmas".)
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 11, 2018 19:20:48 GMT
Notoriously weak for simple melodic southern country (mostly what were labelled neo traditional in the 80s and 90s) here are a few on the most often replayed Christmas tunes on my Spotify lists and some older cd records: Merle Haggard "Grandma´s Homemade Christmas Card" album Hag´s Christmas. Ralph Stanley "Christmas Is Near" album A Very Special Acoustic Christmas. Patty Loveless "Away In A Manger" album Bluegrass & White Snow. John Michael Montgomery "My Christmas Wish" album Mr. Snowman. Rebecca Lynn Howard "Jingle My Bells" album My Kinda Christmas. Reba McEntire "On This Day" album Merry Christmas to you. Shelby Lynne "Christmas Times Is Coming" album Merry Christmas. Suzy Bogguss "Two-Step 'Round The Christnas Tree" album Country Christmas. Willie Nelson "O Little Town of Bethlehem" album The Christmas Album. (In the Guilty Pleasures section there is unavoidably also Tammy Wynette´s version of "Let´s Put Christ Back In Christmas".) I love this thread! I actually decided to listen to most of these on YouTube-- at least, until I'd heard enough! The first one by Merle Haggard was nice. I also like "Two Step Round the Christmas Tree". I like songs with a little pep, a lot of these are too slow for my liking. |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 17, 2018 10:45:34 GMT
I like "Lonely This Christmas" too.
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Post by Séamus on Dec 18, 2018 12:28:45 GMT
I...etc... 2) Merry Christmas Everybody (Slade) 3) ....etc...br]2) A Fairytale of New York. A great song in its own right, but it's the kind of song that suffers from being played too often. There are some songs I could listen to any number of times, but this isn't one of them..etc.!". An Irish media group has just said that the former song by Slade is the biggest annual royalty grosser for Christmas, the latter being number two.(No mention of the PetShopBoys or Shane MacGowan's famous remark concerning their beating him to the British Christmas #1.) An Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane in conjunction with a group I hadn't heard of before (ARRCC)has achieved a minor notoriety by singing carols against climate change this year. SILENT NIGHT SMOKEY NIGHT and COOL DOWN THE WORLD were two cited |
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Post by Séamus on Dec 19, 2018 12:01:26 GMT
An interview with Liz Mitchell was printed in this week's international edition of EXPRESS to mark the 40th anniversary of BoneyM's version of MARY'S BOY CHILD, not a particular favourite of mine, except that I've always noted that it's one of the few carols that mentions Joseph by name. Interesting excerpt: "our record company's pressing plant in West Germany couldn't keep up with the demand...so they asked for help from a pressing plant in East Germany and then another in Poland, both behind the Iron Curtain...we received an invite from President Brezhnev to perform (in Moscow), which no other Western act had previously done"
comment: Remarkable, considering how many pop musicians were pro-communist at the time. Even the Beatles (Back in the USSR!) weren't invited
"we played ten packed out shows at the Kremlin in just seven days... We then had to perform in Red Square in front of St Basil's cathedral in our white furry Mary's Boy Child video outfits, which looked cosy but were actually paper thin, meaning that we had no comfort from the minus 30C temperatures. So the locals washed our hands in vodka, telling us it would keep out the cold, while advising us that drinking it would keep us warm on the inside"
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 19, 2018 12:48:12 GMT
I've never had so much as a sip of vodka, as far as I can remember. It looks vile.
Brandy and Bailey's are my drinks. Increasingly Bailey's.
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Post by cato on Dec 19, 2018 18:04:15 GMT
I used to take a nip of Brandy in a pint of Guinness. It tastes marvellous but the hangover is atrocious. Naturally you need to drink several pints of Guinness to get the undesired outcome.
I haven't patented the recipe.
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Post by cato on Dec 22, 2018 19:18:47 GMT
Has there been a decent Christmas song written in the last 30 years?
I think John Waters mentioned this in a talk somewhere.
Has there been a decent Christmas movie in the same period? I was looking at the Netflix selection and they look pretty insipid. I was watching E.T. with my nephews and nieces yesterday but I watched that myself as a child. I think Home Alone is the last classic Christmas movie.
I liked the recent movie Carol which has a 1950s Christmas backdrop . It's quite dark though.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 22, 2018 20:29:31 GMT
Has there been a decent Christmas song written in the last 30 years? I think John Waters mentioned this in a talk somewhere. Has there been a decent Christmas movie in the same period? I was looking at the Netflix selection and they look pretty insipid. I was watching E.T. with my nephews and nieces yesterday but I watched that myself as a child. I think Home Alone is the last classic Christmas movie. I liked the recent movie Carol which has a 1950s Christmas backdrop . It's quite dark though. I've never seen Home Alone. It's hard to think of a good modern Christmas movie. A Christmas Story (1983) is very popular in America, but I've only seen a short section of it. It's very sentimental and nostalgic-- which WE should like! |
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Post by Tomas on Dec 22, 2018 20:54:26 GMT
Has there been a decent Christmas song written in the last 30 years? I think John Waters mentioned this in a talk somewhere. Has there been a decent Christmas movie in the same period? I was looking at the Netflix selection and they look pretty insipid. I was watching E.T. with my nephews and nieces yesterday but I watched that myself as a child. I think Home Alone is the last classic Christmas movie. I liked the recent movie Carol which has a 1950s Christmas backdrop . It's quite dark though. I've never seen Home Alone. It's hard to think of a good modern Christmas movie. A Christmas Story (1983) is very popular in America, but I've only seen a short section of it. It's very sentimental and nostalgic-- which WE should like! I liked Home Alone at the time it premiered in late 80s. The Christmas feeling is probably the thing that does it! What little I can recall the story was a bit silly or naive otherwise. |
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Post by Tomas on Dec 22, 2018 20:58:38 GMT
Found this lovely version of Reba McEntire´s nice Christmas song with accompanying string orchestra the other day. A most special time of performance: at the White House, perhaps even on a special request, december 1991! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWMVf0qvUFk |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Dec 31, 2018 11:03:55 GMT
My local church has been playing (on CD player) my favourite Christmas carol as pre-Mass background music, yesterday and today: the First Noel. Hard to say exactly why I love it, but I like how gentle and undramatic it is, and also the phrase "born is the King of Israel".
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Post by faramir on Jan 1, 2019 3:10:22 GMT
My local church has been playing (on CD player) my favourite Christmas carol as pre-Mass background music, yesterday and today: the First Noel. Hard to say exactly why I love it, but I like how gentle and undramatic it is, and also the phrase "born is the King of Israel". It can have wider longevity, as it also covers Epiphany. Nobody's mentioned ONCE IN ROYAL DAVIDS CITY, I don't think.... Perhaps the most widely known Carol by a Dublin-born composer. I forgot to mention WAR IS OVER as one that I don't like...maybe just because of the duo that wrote it, but, outside of this, it's not terribly impressive anyway...although it probably makes a good one for a classroom that's only got a little time and/or effort for learning choral skills |
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