Twelve Songs of Christmas

Today's show is a lot about the backstage of the music business  as the Vancouver-based alternative rock band Mother Mother talks about finding a darker angle on Christmas music with "Cry Christmas" and their version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

This week Ryan Guldemond of the band and I talk about how a rock band finds a way to do Christmas music in a way that's authentic, as well as why a band like Mother Mother w...

This holiday season, Imogen Clark released "Not Christmas Here," talking about how all the wintery signs that Christmas is coming don't mean as much to her because she's from Australia. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's hot in December and white wine is their egg nog. 

The song is a bit of looking ahead for Clark because she’s moving to the States next year. It’s also her fourth Christmas song, so we spoke recently about them, Chris...

This episode has been a few years in the making, but I was finally able to find a quiet moment in the busy lives of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls. 

In 2010, they released Holly Happy Days, a holiday album that's very much an Indigo Girls album with their musical, personal, social and spiritual values shaping the songs in the way that they do on everything else the duo has released. 

We had a good conversation not on...

Unfortunately, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is no longer around to talk about his 1996 solo piano album A Dave Brubeck Christmas. Craft Recordings reissued the album this Christmas season, but Brubeck died in 2012 so I asked New Orleans piano player Matt Lemmler to help me get a handle on the album.

The resulting conversation is a deep dive into Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, and jazz piano. We talk about his most famous song, "Take Five,"...

I listened to one episode of Scott Leopold's "Holly Jolly Xmasu" podcast and I was sold. As a Stereolab and High Llamas fan, I felt like there had to be a High Llamas Christmas song, and Scott found one on Christmas Songs, which also included a great Bossa nova version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," a very unusual jazz piano take on "Sleigh Ride," and the ambient pop of Takako Minekawa on "Listen, the Snow is Falling." 

Fortunat...

Blue Man Group started in 1987 as a performance art concept by guys who also harbored rock 'n' roll dreams. It has grown into an institution that has ongoing shows in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Berlin. As of October, Blue Man Group now also has a Christmas EP, Overjoy to the World.

Today Blue Man composer Jeff Turlik and performer Bhurin Sead talk about all things Blue Man Group including how songs are written and rec...

I love when episodes overlap. Today, soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed talks about--among other things--his love of Huey "Piano" Smith's Christmas album, which we recently featured. 

Reed has a new album, Hits and Misses: The Singles on YepRoc Records, and today we're talking about that and his Christmas music, including a snappy version of "Last Christmas" by Wham!

Along the way, we talk about a couple of tracks that weren't availab...

Chuck Brown has been dubbed "The Godfather of Go-Go," the distinctive Washington D.C.-based funk sound that has its own aesthetics and culture. This week, New Orleans' musicologist and go-go aficionado Melissa Weber shines some light on go-go and Brown because in 1999, he released The Spirit of Christmas.

Weber is an archivist at Tulane University, and in New Orleans she DJs at WWOZ and throws parties under the name she's best know...

New Orleans venerates its R&B royalty from the early days of rock 'n' roll, and many of them stayed active until they died, including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Eddie Bo, Snooks Eaglin and Earl King. Huey "Piano" Smith was not one of them; he lived the last third of his life until his death earlier this year out of the limelight.

Since Smith also recorded one of my favorite Christmas albums, 1962's Twas the Night Before Christm...

Capitol Records tried to cash in on the '90s lounge revival with its "Ultra-Lounge" series--albums that pulled tracks from the label's vaults that fell under some of the umbrellas that came to associated with lounge including crooners, mambos, space-age sounds, and tiki bar music. In 1996, it released Christmas Cocktails, with series compiler Brad Benedict pulling together holidays songs from those genres.

It was so successful that...

The name "Sara Noelle" sounds like something made up for Christmas music, but she had been a recording artist since 2010, 10 years before she released her first Christmas track, "Christmas at Sea."

Since 2020, the ambient folk artist has made a tradition of releasing new Christmas music each year, and it's not a reach to think her songs would make sense on David Lynch's Twin Peaks Holiday Special. Noelle's songs aren't haunted, but...

In 2018 when I launched Twelve Songs, I published "The 12 Songs Manifesto," a statement of my core beliefs about Christmas music. 

Now that we're in our sixth season and have a lot of listeners who weren't around back then, I thought it was worth revisiting and documenting in podcast form. I flesh out my thoughts, add a few and revise a few that no longer seem as crucial to me. And, I have music by Luther Vandross, Rockin' Sidney, ...

Chris Marchand's blog post "On the Importance of Sad Christmas Songs" makes the argument its title promises, using "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as Exhibit A. Podcaster and writer Chris Marchand last appeared on Twelve Songs to break down Sufjan Stevens' Christmas albums, and this week he returns to talk about "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." 

The song written for Judy Garland to sing in the movie Meet Me in St....

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is an orphan, a Christmas song without a singer attached. "White Christmas" has Bing Crosby, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" has Andy Williams, and "Happy Holidays" has Peggy Lee. But who sang the early version of the Christmas classic that casts a shadow over all the versions that follow? Nobody. 

This week and next week, I'll tell the story of the song, from its writing to its place in t...

"Player's Ball" is a contemporary Christmas classic, but it's not very Christmas-y by design. Today, Big Boi of OutKast talks about why the song is the way it is, and how it ended up being the first solo release from the group. 

After that, we have an encore segment from 2018. At the time, I talked to writer David Dennis Jr. about the song. Today, David's resumé has expanded somewhat. He recently launched the podcast Rap Stories, w...

In 2021, I talked with music journalist Alison Fensterstock and singers Dayna Kurtz and Alexandra Scott about versions of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby." That was a good conversation, but I still had questions and found some of my answers in other less famous Christmas songs recorded by Kitt. Those songs and some others in her repertoire filled in some blanks that we'll explore today. 

This episode is based on an essay I wrote for The ...

The Roches' 1990 We Three Kings is the Christmas album you'd expect from the folk trio as sing a set of holiday classics gorgeously, often a cappella, and occasionally with their tongues ever so delicately in their cheeks. 

Terre Roche remembers their Christmas shows, the Caroling Carolers, and getting shooed off the sidewalk in front of Trump Tower in a conversation about singing with her sisters.

The occasion for the conversation...

This week's episode features indie Christmas music--indie hip-hop with DJ and producer Amerigo Gazaway, British indie rock with Les Bicyclettes de Belsize's Charlie Darling, and British music journalist Kevin McGrath, who compiled 108 indie Christmas tracks for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume 1 and Volume 2. All of their music is available now on Bandcamp. Right now, Amerigo is also selling a limited edition vinyl pres...