Twelve Songs of Christmas

The new season begins with versions of Darlene Love's Christmas classic. We hear the song we've known forever and ones that I think offer an interesting twist on the original. The episode doesn't include the versions by U2, Years, and Jewel Scheme though I'm entertained by all of them, and if you like the versions by Death Cab for Cutie, Suede Silver, Liela Moss and Chicken Happen, you can find them on Bandcamp.  The episode starts with "Secret Box" by Masato Saito, and in the episode I mention my interview with Scott Leopold, the host of the "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast.

Season eight ends with what I hope will be a tradition--a Christmas party, with a few guests and a lot of music.  This week's guests include comic artist Peter Bagge, singer Judy Whitmore, and indie rock artist Hibou. Bagge is coming to New Orleans in January for the Fan Expo, and I have been a fan dating back to his NYC punk days. He's best known for the comic Hate and the young-punks-in-love adventures of Buddy Bradley and his friends. Last year, he considered how they'd grow up in Hate Revisited.  While talking, we discussed his favorite Christmas music.  I also talked to vocalist Judy Whitmore, who has also been pilot Judy Whitmore, author Judy Whitmore, and ... I'll let her explain. Her album, Christmas, flies the flag for the classic aesthetics of Christmas music. I also mention in the episode an article by April Clare Welsh at ChartMetric.com that quotes me in her piece on the way Christmas music is become sadder. Is that perhaps because the world is getting sadder?  I also featured new Christmas music from É Arenas, whose 2024 interview ran in full earlier this season. This year, he recorded a new song, "Go Santa Go," and included it with all of his holiday music on the new vinyl album, Yo Soy Tu Santa. Earlier this year, I interviewed the indie pop artist Hibou for my non-Christmas website, My Spilt Milk, but while I had him on the line, I had to ask him about Christmas music as well. Finally, I mentioned this year's Christmas Underground playlist and the streaming version of my own playlist.

This week’s episode features two interviews—one with Grammy-winning jazz saxophone player Miguel Zenón helping us appreciate the salsa Christmas classic Asalto Navideño by Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe. Asalto Navideño was reissued on vinyl this holiday season by Craft Recordings.   The other is with music industry veterans Jonathan McHugh and Tamara Conniff, who worked together to produce A Life in Rhythm: The Ray Conniff Story about her father.  The episode also includes new Christmas music from Kristian Noel Pedersen, who appeared on the podcast earlier this season. You can find his new album, Bullshit & Gift Wrapping at his Bandcamp page. In the episode, we also hear music from the late Raul Malo of The Mavericks. I wrote about the Mavericks’ return in 2013, but never got a chance to interview Malo, whose Marshmallow World & Other Favorites is a wonderful introduction to his charms as a singer.  The episode also includes “Two XMAS” by New Fools from the New Orleans indie Christmas compilation, A Strange Daisy Christmas.  If you’d like this year’s Christmas mix, email me at Alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you have a cool mix yourself, send it or a link over. I’d love to hear it.

We're in the last weeks before Christmas and I have more interviews than I can handle.  This week starts with a version of "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Twanguero before we get to my interview with Roland Gift, ex of Fine Young Cannibals. He talks about the way a new Chanel ad campaign with Dua Lipa and Blackpink's Jennie has introduced a new generation to the Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," and about FYC40, an compilation of the band's hits with a second disc of dance remixes.  Gift also mentions the video for "Everybody Knows it's Christmas." I follow that with Ketch Secor and Morgan Jahnig from Old Crow Medicine Show, who this year released OCMS Xmas, their first Christmas album. There's a lot of good stuff in that conversation, more than we have time for in this episode, so I'll revisit it in its entirety next season.  Finally, I talk to Lorin Sklamberg of The Klezmatics about the reissue of their album, Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah, where they added music to lyrics written by Guthrie. Here too, there's more good stuff than we had time for, so I'll return to this next conversation next season as well.  One mea culpa: The most embarrassing moment of the season comes in conjunction with this interview because on Apple Music, the song I lead into the conversation with appears as "Ny Psycho Freylekhs." I pronounced it that way, then realized when I downloaded the song after the introduction had been recorded that it was "NY" as in "New York," not "Ny" as in the end is nigh. I never feel smart staggering through other languages, but I haven't felt as dumb as I did when I saw the proper spelling. The episode ends with music by Haunted House Party from A Strange Daisy Christmas.

We're in December now, and this week we have three conversations. William Shatner's face is on the pop culture Mt. Rushmore, and when I had a chance to interview him for The New Orleans Advocate in advance at his appearance at Pop Expo in town, I couldn't pass up the chance to ask him about 2018's Shatner Claus. It's a short interview, but I have it so you get to hear it.  The interview begins with us talking about You Can Call Me Bill, a documentary from 2023 about his life and career. The story I wrote for the Advocate deals with the way that his career has opened up opportunities for him late in life. The episode also features a new song, "I am Falling Snow," from Sara Noelle. In 2023, Sara was a guest on 12 Songs to talk about her body of Christmas music.  Jazz vocalist Jane Monheit has become well known for Christmas music with two Christmas albums and a yearly holiday season tour that will bring her to New Orleans on Sunday night.  This conversation is an edited version of a longer conversation that we'll run in its entirety next season  Finally, singer Kelly Finnigan has a new Christmas single. Earlier this season, I talked to Shawn Lee about recording "Say It Again" with soul singer Kelly Finnigan.  I first talked to Finnigan in 2020 when he released A Joyful Sound, which I consider to be a modern Christmas music classic. It sounds like a lost R&B record from the late 1960s or early 1970s with psychedelic and moody touches. We talk more about that album five years later and his new Christmas single, "I Can't Wait (for Christmas Time)."   Finally, we revisit the new A Strange Daisy Christmas, a collection of Christmas songs by members of the New Orleans indie rock community. A week or so ago I featured Loucey's "Christmas (bAbYpLeAze CoMeHoMe), and this week's show ends with The Self-Help Tapes' version of Christmas Treat." The song started as a late-in-the-show Saturday Night Live sketch that The Strokes' Julian Casablancas remade as a rock 'n' roll Christmas standard.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) made itself part of this year's music story with AI acts The Velvet Sundown, TaTa Taktumi and Breaking Rust making news one way or another.  This week, Ken Kessler of the podcast The Sounds of Christmas and Gerry D from the Totally Rad Christmas podcast join me to talk about the way AI Christmas music foreshadowed some of this. We talk about an early effort created by University of Toronto researchers, "Rudolph the All-Gracious King" and it's companion how-it's-done video), and the heavy metal "Christmas Overdrive." We also talked about faux-vintage Christmas songs posted at the RAI Music page.

Multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory remembers playing and recording with Brian Wilson from 1999 until he retired from live performances in 2022. We talk about the recently reissued Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy, Brian Wilson presents SMiLE, and his 2005 solo Christmas album, What I Really Want for Christmas.  In the process, Gregory provides insight into the later stages of Brian's life and musical career, including perhaps why What I Really Want for Christmas received a lukewarm response (other than following the completed SMiLE, of course). Last week started this look back at Brian's Christmas music with his biographer David Leaf on The Beach Boys' Christmas Album.  In the episode, I mentioned my 2005 interview with Brian and story on the remaking of SMiLE, and my review of Brian's 2017 show in New Orleans. I also mentioned Amazon Music's “Amazon Music Originals- Holiday” playlist.

I started thinking about how to address Brian Wilson’s death on the podcast since we learned of his passing. “Little Saint Nick” and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album are Christmas classics that needed to be addressed, but how or with who? The answer came when Oglio Records announced that it planned to reissue a 25th anniversary edition of Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy. The promotional efforts behind that release put a number of possible interviews at my disposal.  This week, writer David Leaf talks about Brian in 2000 and 1963’s The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. Leaf has written liner notes for numerous Beach Boys and Brian Wilson releases, and wrote The Beach Boys and the California Myth (1978) and SMiLE: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson, which was released earlier this year.  In the episode, I mentioned the new Beach Boys’ holiday EP A Little Saint Nick Christmas with The Beach Boys. It’s all previously released songs and mixes, but it’s on sale now.  I also mentioned the upcoming Strange Daisy Christmas, a compilation of Christmas songs by the New Orleans indie community on Strange Daisy Records. You can order it now online from Bandcamp. I featured Loucey’s version of Darlene Love’s “Christmas (bAbYpLeAze CoMeHoMe)” in the episode, and earlier in the year I interviewed Cherie McCabe of Loucey after the release of their debut album, Participation Trophy Wife. Next week, I’ll be back with more on Brian Wilson when I talk to musician Probyn Gregory about playing in Brian’s band in concert and in the studio when he recorded his 2005 solo Christmas album, What I Really Want for Christmas.

Producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee has a history of making recordings that hover uncertainly in time. Sounds from different eras and genres come together in his music to sound like lost, regional 45s.  We talk about his influences--library music and hip-hop--as well as his two Christmas albums: A Very Ping Pong Christmas from Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra (2007) and Kung Fu Christmas by Shawn Lee (2021).

Toronto's Kristian Noel Pedersen has released 27 EPs or albums of Christmas music, 26 of which are on his Bandcamp page. What started as a goof became a project that stretched him as an artist. We hear music from all phases of his Christmas career including (in order): 1. "Home Alone Pt. 1" 2. "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" 3. "All I Want for Christmas is You" 4. "A Step-Mother's First (and Worst) Christmas Ever" 5. "Merry Christmas Baby" 6. "Christmas Without You" 7. "Hard Candy Christmas" 8. "Silver, Never Gold" 9. "What Are You Doing (on Christmas Eve)?" 10. "Pack Your Bags!" We also hear a new song, "A Very Gen X Christmas" from The Static Dive.   In my conversation with Kristian, I mention the episode on Hanson with Isaac Hanson, and the one that traces the musical life of "Hard Candy Christmas."

I've been out of town this week, and when I thought of an episode from the archives to revisit, this one from 2021 with guitar hero Steve Lukather came immediately to mind. It's useful to remember that this was the second year of COVID--not full lockdown, but a lot of precautions and a lot of staying home. I gather Lukather is or has been a social animal, and in a time when it was hard to be social, I was the fortunate beneficiary of his willingness to talk and share. Since we talked, Lukather has released another album, 2023's Bridges with Toto singer Joseph Williams.

Since streamed playlists and all-Christmas radio are the way most people hear Christmas music, they're fascinations of mine. This week I'm back on the radio beat with long-time radio guy Kevin Robinson.  I wanted to talk to Kevin when I saw a post he wrote for the industry site Barrett Media on best practices for the all-Christmas format shift.  Since we talked, he interviewed me along with station programmers about programming Christmas stations and playlists.  In the episode, we hear music from The Glad Singers' awesome Christmas with a Beat. We also hear "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" by The Carpenters, "Frosty the Snowman" by Esquivel, "O Tannenbaum" by Vince Guaraldi Trio, and "Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande.  The episode finishes with the audio from a performance of a Christmas version of PSY's "Gangnam Style" performed at a benefit fundraiser in Washington, DC with an audience that included President Barack Obama and his family. The video is worth seeing to fully appreciate the moment.  Photo by selim buka on Unsplash.

Chris Murphy of the Canadian indie rock band Sloan describes them as "a cult band," but they're a cult band with legs. They started in 1991 and recently released their 14th album, Based on the Best Seller. This week Murphy talks about how a band with kids and members in their 50s works, and what democracy looks like in a band. Murphy talks about the fake B-movie trailers the band shot to draw attention to songs from the new album, and they're well worth seeing. We also hear part of three songs from Based on the Best Seller: 1. "Live Forever" 2. "Dream Destroyer" 3. "Capitol Cooler" Of course, we also talked about their Christmas recordings and a possible Christmas album. In the episode, I mentioned a story that quotes me on programming all-Christmas radio and Christmas playlists.   Finally, the episode ends with Los Del Rio's "Christmas Macarena," which has an entertaining video on YouTube.

Mark Davis has turned the in-store music cassettes he pocketed while working at a K-Mart in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s into “Attention K-Mart Shoppers,” a digitized collection of that background music at the Internet Archive (archive.org, not archive.com as I announced on the show).  Others have since contributed parts of the K-Mart and Kresge’s lore, augmenting his collection with tapes and vinyl records distributed 10 to 15 years earlier than Davis’ time with the one-time retail giant. Oddly, where Christmas music is concerned, it changed very little from decade to decade, and while Christmas 1990 has nods to modernity, there were still easy listening favorites including The Living Strings and Perry Como.  The episode deals with the enduring legacy of a formal, lightly orchestral musical ideal and the way certain musical values were assumed to be immutable. That’s a subject for future conversations, but we start it here. In this episode, I played a number of songs without identifying them. Frequently, the artist or song is obvious, but that’s not the case this week. You hear in order: 1. “Let It Snow” - Ferrante & Teicher  2. “Winter Wonderland” - Frank DeVol and the Rainbow Strings 3. “The Christmas Song” - Al Hirt (from an amazing Christmas album, The Sound of Christmas) 4. “This Christmas” - The Jets 5. “Christmas Tree” - The Glad Singers This episode also has information on JD McPherson’s Christmas tour this year. McPherson’s Socks is one of my favorite modern Christmas albums, and we had a good conversation about it on the podcast in 2019. Finally, we ended with The Weather Girls’ “Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas).” The song benefits from the video treatment.

Last year, Minneapolis-based jazz pianist Nick Bhalla released Saint Nick, a lovely album of solo jazz piano treatments of Christmas classics. His approach is interest in his laser-like focus on harmony, at the expense of the improvisation that dominates much of his musical practice. Rather than explore the melodic possibilities the best loved Christmas songs offer, he hones in on harmony, creating a tight, lovely half-hour of beautiful Christmas music.  You can find Bhalla's music at his Bandcamp page, and in the episode I mentioned the "Festive Foreign Film Fans" podcast, and you can find it on Spotify.

The headlines tell a version of the story:   “MARIAH CAREY SUED AGAIN OVER ‘ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU’ — BY THE SAME GUY,” according to Billboard.   “Mariah Carey is SUED AGAIN over All I Want For Christmas Is You... as two writers claim her 1994 classic is a ripoff of their song of the same name” according to The Daily Mail.   “Mariah Carey Sued By Random Man For Allegedly Stealing ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ From Him,” according to Pedestrian.tv.   The story of Andy Stone from New Orleans’ Vince Vance and the Valiants’ copyright infringement lawsuit over “All I Want for Christmas is You” was never taken seriously, as if the idea of suing Mariah Carey was absurd on its face. Withdrawing the suit once and re-filing it probably didn’t help, but Valiant/Stone got to market first with a song titled “All I Want for Christmas is You” in 1989, five years before Carey’s. It charted in the 30s on country radio and showed some durability including covers by LeAnn Rimes and Kelly Clarkson among others.    Carey’s song will never be mistaken for the Vince Vance and the Valiants’ song, but the specifics of copyright law dictate that there are other tests of copyright infringement, so the suit wasn’t obviously as frivolous as some headline writers implied.    This week’s episode tells the story as we know it so far based on media coverage. Along the way, we hear Vince Vance’s version, along with Kelly Clarkson and LeAnn Rimes’ versions. We also hear Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas,” along with the version from Love Actually and covers by She & Him and PJ Morton.

This week's guests are Black Market and Wise Owl (or Nate Bridges and Brandon Niznik) of the Los Angeles-based duo Black Market Dub. On their Bandcamp page, they introduce themselves with a series of questions: "What would happen if The Beach Boys had The Wailers as their backing band instead of The Wrecking Crew? What if David Bowie spent the summer of 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica with King Tubby instead of Philidelphia? Michael Jackson meets Scratch Perry?" Many of their releases give us the answers to those question by wiping the backing tracks to some of the most famous songs from the '60s, '70s and '80s and remaking the songs with dub-wise reggae instead. Their tracks with The Clash caught the ear of music critic Tim "Napalm" Stegall, who wrote about them on his Substack, and that's where I found out about them.  Those tracks are fun but a little too respectful of the source material for my tastes. I prefer their true dub projects including their Christmas album, A Black Market Christmas, from 2022. It honors dub's naturally psychedelic nature without selling out the Christmas classics.  We talk about their journey into dub, through a music teacher who introduced Brandon to the Trojan Box Set (we hear "The Death of Mr. Spock" by the Roots Radics Band) and Grand Theft Auto III, which introduced Nate and Brandon to Scientist and his 1981 classic, Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires (we hear "The Voodoo Curse)." Nate and Brandon have also started a podcast, Playback, that features the two of them discussing albums and artists who are important to them. This summer they interviewed Scientist, and we talk about their debut episode from December 2024, which focused on Bob Dylan's 2009 Christmas album Christmas in the Heart. The vinyl Black Market Dub releases are available on Escape Hatch Records. Nate says there aren't many copies of A Black Market Christmas left, so if you want one, get one.

These days, we take the all-Christmas radio format for granted. Every year, countless adult contemporary--AC--stations temporarily change their format and go wall to wall with Christmas music somewhere between Halloween and Black Friday. Jerry Ryan gets the credit for pioneering the switch when he was vice president and general manager of KESZ-FM in Phoenix in 1990. Once he did it in a market the size of Phoenix, others followed in his footsteps.  This week, Jerry Ryan tells radio stories, remembering his journey to the holiday season in 1990 and the thought process that led him to all-Christmas radio.  If you'd like more on all-Christmas radio, you can check out a piece I wrote for New Orleans' Times-Picayune in 2016, and my Twelve Songs episode with Steve Suter, program director for New Orleans' Magic 101.9. Suter's Christmas programming runs counter to some of Ryan's thoughts on the subject, but in other ways his ideas about radio line up nicely. The episode ends with one of my favorite categories of Christmas song--the holiday adaptation of a seasonal hit. One year, I couldn't get enough of "Macarena Christmas (Joy Mix)," and this week we're going back to 1993 when the vocal group H-Town turned the sexy slow jam "Knockin' da Boots" into "Knockin' Boots for Christmas" for the holiday season.

I think of this episode of Twelve Songs as a remix, a second pass at the same material with very different results.  In 2003, The Blind Boys of Alabama recorded Go Tell it on the Mountain, an album of gospel and gospel-inflected Christmas music that Omnivore Recordings reissued in 2016. Last season, I talked to the Blind Boys' guitarist and musical director Joey Williams about the project and how the gospel legends interacted with the musical guests brought in for the album, including Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, and Solomon Burke. He could answer some of those questions, but since some recorded their parts separately including Waits and Chrissie Hynde, there were parts of the story that he couldn't tell.  That episode is online now, but during the year I found an interview that I had forgotten about with the album's producer, John Chelew, when the album was released. Since he was a part of those sessions, he could tell stories about Waits, Chrissie Hynde, and George Clinton and the curveballs they threw the group.  With that in mind, I reconstructed this episode. I let the Chelew tape present a new side to the story of Go Tell it on the Mountain, and I went back to Williams to talk about a second Christmas album that the Blind Boys did, Talkin' Christmas from 2014 in collaboration with Taj Mahal.  The audio of the Chelew recording is not up to my usual standards for the show, but when we talked I didn't have a podcast or audio use for the interview in mind. It's the quality I could get from a phone, and I wish I could have talked to Chelew again to get better audio but he died in 2016. I got used to it very quickly and didn't find it off-putting, and I hope that will be your experience as well.

Eduardo Arenas surprised me in the first moments of this week's interview when he revealed that Chicano Batman had played its last gig for now and might be done. He played bass in the band since its start in 2008, and he reflects not on his band specifically but how musicians grow apart. As É Arenas, he has recorded at least one Christmas song a year since 2017, and what started as a challenge turned into a tradition. We talk about traditions and he helps me get a better handle on Mexican Christmas music while we talk about his own "Cumbia Navideñas"--a sound that is his own, half-joking invention following in the footsteps of Salsa Navideñas. Along the way, we visit Christmas music from Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe, Rigo Tovar, and the inescapable "Mi Burrito Sabañero."

Donna Summer has been a fascination of mine because she was on the cutting edge of electronic dance music, but since "I Feel Love" and other forays into early electronic music were produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it isn't clear what role she played in her sound.  Last season I talked to songwriter Bruce Sudano about that among other things. Sudano also wrote songs for Summer and became her husband and manager. This week, I'm running that conversation in its entirety, including material I didn't use then on Sudano's entrance into show business as a member of the one-hit wonder Alive N Kickin', who made their mark in 1970 with "Tighter, Tighter." He talks about learning songwriting from Tommy James, his early days with Summer, and the story behind her 1994 Christmas album, Christmas Spirit. We talked about her career path between her heyday in the late '70s to her faith-based Christmas album.

A new season of Twelve Songs begins with a conversation that is, frankly, more about AI—artificial intelligence—than it is Christmas music, but since we’re six months from the holiday, it seems like a good time for this conversation. Last year, I interviewed Steven Wilson of the British prog rock band Porcupine Tree about “December Skies,” a song he recorded on his own with lyrics written in part by Chat GPT, an AI program. We talked about the whys and hows and considered some of the issues connected to AI. At a time when the reflexive stance toward it is skeptical, I was glad to talk to an artist who is working out a more nuanced relationship to it. Part of this interview ran last year, but this is the first chance I’ve had to run it in its entirety. This conversation has become more relevant with the success of the AI “group” Velvet Sundown and the recent controversy over an AI imitation of the rock band Toto appearing for a short time on the band’s Spotify page. The episode ends with The Soul Duo’s “Just a Sad Xmas,” which is on sale now through the Numero Group.

Season seven of 12 Songs comes to a conclusion with three very different conversations and artists. Ha-Sizzle is one of the finest examples of the New Orleans-specific brand of hip-hop known as bounce. I talked to him about his Christmas in New Orleans in front of a live audience.  The members of the British punk band Goddammit Jeremiah talk about their irreverent approach to Christmas and Christmas music and share a few of their holiday favorites that haven't made much of an impact here in the States.  At the end of an interview with MacMcCaughan of Superchunk for another story, I got a few minutes to talk about their cover of John Cale's "Child's Christmas in Wales," as well as his other attempts to make music for the season.  In that conversation, The Kinks' "Father Christmas" was referred to for the second or third time this season, and it took a lot of discipline not to play it again.  We also hear new music from É Arenas and Saturday Looks Good to Me, the latter from the new compilation Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 4. I interviewed its compiler/producer Kevin McGrath in 2022.  In the episode, I mention a piece I wrote for The New Orleans Advocate. I also mention this year's downloadable Christmas mix, which you can get by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. 12 Songs will return on July 24, 2025. Mark that date on your calendar or subscribe to 12 Songs wherever you get your podcasts.

We're approaching Christmas, so this week I have excerpts from longer interviews that I'll run at full length next season. Steven Wilson is the driving force behind the British art rock band Porcupine Tree, and last year on a challenge he used artificial intelligence to write a Christmas song, something he felt that he couldn't do on his own. The whole conversation goes deep on the relationship between artists and AI, and the odd experience of encountering an AI version of himself online. Here I tried to capture part of that conversation and keep it relatively focused on Christmas.  I have a challenge for next season though, because he talked about his favorite album being a Christmas album by The Hiltonaires. I've seen it under two different titles, and he thinks there might be more. Unfortunately, none of them are for sale in any of the digital stores, so I couldn't find any music from it that I could play in this episode. If any of you have digitized a Christmas track from the Hiltonaires, please let me know.  The second interview is with É Arenas, the long-time bass player with Chicano Batman. We talk about his relationship with the band as it enters an "indefinite hiatus," and how he started a yearly project of making songs that he considered Cumbia Navideña--a genre he invited with cumbias for the holiday.  We only get part way though his catalogue of seasonal music, but in addition to talking about his own music, he turned me on to the Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón classic Asalto Navideño and music by Rigo Tovar. Then I talk to Kelcy Wilburn of New Orleans' Americana band Ever More Nest. In 2015, I wrote a story for The New Orleans Advocate on her first Christmas song, "Christmas with You (Merry Me)," which at the time doubled as a Christmas song and a celebration of the Supreme Court affirming the rights of same-sex couples to marry. As she explains, it also served as a quasi-proposal to her partner.  We talk about that, the Christmas music of her youth, and the way life as a working musician led to her new Christmas EP, Merry Little Thing.  This episode also features new Christmas music from Sara Noelle, Kristian Noel Pederson, and Popular Muzak.   If you'd like this year's exclusive listeners-only Christmas mix, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. Finally, follow, subscribe or do what you have to do to get 12 Songs in your podcast feed. We only have one more episode after this in 2024, then we'll return in time for Christmas in July 2025. If we're in your feed, new episodes will show up without you having to hunt for them.

We're officially in December, the Christmas season, and I have more interviews than I can get through in the weeks leading up to Christmas. From here on in, I'll run excerpts from the interviews I've done, and I'll run them in their entirety next season.  This episode starts with some clean-up business after last week's conversation with Midge Ure on "Do They Know it's Christmas." I referenced Ed Sheeran's complaint that he would have preferred to be left off the 40th anniversary mega-mix, and the charges against the song by Fuse ODG. In the episode, I reference Bob Geldof responding to criticisms of the song.  I also mentioned one of my favorite new releases of the season, Dadi Freyr's How Dadi Stole Christmas.  This episode, I talk to Joey Williams, musical director for The Blind Boys of Alabama. In the episode, I mention that they surprised me with a new release, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" with Jay Buchanan. We talk about their album, Go Tell it on the Mountain, and when we revisit this conversation next season, we'll also talk about their collaboration with Taj Mahal, Talkin' Christmas.  Another new track comes from Nick Bhalla, who recorded the album Saint Nick with his jazz piano trio. As this version of "Christmas Time is Here" shows, it borders on lo-fi in its emphasis on mood and melody. Hopefully I'll be able to get him for the show next season.  I also interview Bruce Sudano, who has a new album, Talkin' Ugly Truth, Tellin' Pretty Lies. When I revisit this interview in its entirety next season, we'll get into that and his start with Alive and Kicking, the band that recorded the one-hit wonder "Tighter, Tighter" in 1970.  We talk about his relationship with Donna Summer, who he wrote songs for, married, and managed. We start talking about Bad Girls, the first album he worked on, then move to Summer's 1994 Christmas album, The Christmas Spirit, which was reissued on vinyl this holiday season.  After that, I talk to singer, songwriter, and friend of 12 Songs Alexandra Scott about Sia's Everyday is Christmas. It's a loose conversation as we work through some thoughts about a Christmas album we both really like, but with a few reservations. Finally, on Black Friday I appeared on WBUR's "Here and Now" to talk about songs you might want to add to your holiday playlists. The segment is online now, and even if you've already heard it, you might want to visit the page since it has a playlist with some additional songs that I would have featured if we had another hour.  Finally, DJ David Kunian invited me to join him on his radio show to spin and talk about Christmas music on WWOZ in New Orleans on Tuesday night. The show is online for the next two weeks if you'd like to check it out.

Midge Ure from The Rich Kids, Ultravox and Visage co-wrote and produced "Do They Know it's Christmas" 40 years ago this week on November 25, 1984. He recently released a new live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall 04.10.23, so we talked about that, touring, the Blitz club and his memories of the sessions for "Do They Know it's Christmas."  In this episode, I talk a little more than usual to contextualize the song and the interview. We talk about the new 40th anniversary mega-mix, which is due out Friday but the video is already out. I'll talk more about it next week. I also mention the documentary Band Aid the Song that Rocked the World, where Midge Ure tells the story of the song in 2004.  I also found it interesting to think about this next to USA for Africa's "We Are the World." Band Aid led the way, and the American version feels very American because, as the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop showed, it threw cool out the window and simply marshaled the biggest names in music that they could get, whereas Geldof and Ure bet on the cutting edge of British pop to not only raise money but make charitable donations cool.  Next week I'll talk a little about the 40th anniversary mega-mix and some developments that have sprung up around it.  In the episode, I mentioned this year's playlist. I envision it as an alternative to the all-Christmas radio stations and recommend you listen to it on shuffle so you don't know what's coming next. It will also grow as I hear more songs that I want to share or listen to and decide what's missing. Once again, I'm also making a special, listeners-only downloadable Christmas mix. If you want one, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send it over.

Husband and wife duo Dean & Britta have a sound that suits contemporary Christmas music beautifully. They've done a few movie soundtracks including 13 Most Beautiful, an album of songs commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum to perform songs beneath Warhol's silent films shot between 1964 - 1966.  Their sound is evocative but spare, with deeply reverbed guitars and melodic touches that bring '60s scenes to mind without being stuck there. On A Peace of Us, they and frequent collaborator Sonic Boom from Spaceman 3 work a similar magic. It's easy to envision it as part of the soundtrack to an evening during the Christmas season, entertaining enough to get your attention and hold it, but it doesn't demand your time and focus.  As Britta Phillips and Sonic Boom - Pete Kember - explain, that's in part because the album is an expression of their relationship, and something they have been working on in bits and pieces since 2007 when Dean & Britta recorded a 45 with "Old Toy Trains" and "He's Coming Home." Kember talks about how he suggests covers, and how that too is part of their relationship. In the episode, I reference my 12 Songs conversation with the Drive-By Truckers' Jay Gonzalez. The episode also premieres a new Christmas song by the folk-rock band Dawes. I'm very entertained by the seasonal story-song "Christmas Tree in the Window," and you can stream it or download it at Dawes' Bandcamp page. I'm also happy to feature a new song by Gina Birch, who you know from the British post-punk band The Raincoats or from her art career, if you know her at all. (I recognize those are very specific bona fides, but they're meaningful to me) This holiday season, Birch covered Yoko Ono's Christmas song, "Listen, the Snow is Falling," which appeared as the b-side of "Happy Xmas (War is Over)." You can download it at her Bandcamp page. Finally, at the end of the episode I talk about the version of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown" by Jackie DeShannon. It's available in the main digital marketplaces, so you can check it out first and see if it's for you.

Twelve Songs goes to Las Vegas this week, first to talk with Sally Olson and Ned Mills of the tribute act Carpenters Legacy about The Carpenters and their Christmas music. This year, they took their affection for both subjects to the natural conclusion and recorded "Christmas Time with You," a Christmas song made in the mold of the Carpenters.  After that, I talk to comedian and ventriloquist April Brucker, who released a song sung by her and her puppet May Wilson, "Merry Christmas I'm So Glad I Didn't Marry You." We talk about ventriloquism, novelty songs, and the age-old tradition of using Christmas music to draw attention to your thing, whatever that thing is. In the episode, I mentioned ChristmasUnderground.com and my interview with its creator, Jim Goodwin. I also talked about the Holly Jolly X'masu podcast focused on Japanese Christmas music, and mentioned my interview with its host, Scott Leopold. Also in the hype department, I talked about appearing on Gerry Davila's Totally Rad Christmas podcast to talk about "Do They Know it's Christmas " by Band Aid Mk I and Band Aid Mk II.  The episode closes with a great version of "Christmas Time is Here" by Kelli Jones and Daniel Coolik from the EP A Very Melancholy Christmas.

Earlier this season, I interviewed The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood about his ambivalent relationship with Christmas music. This week I talk to the Truckers' long-time guitarist Jay Gonzalez, who takes a different path to a similar place. We talk about his relationship to the band as a full-time member since 2008 who isn't Hood, Mike Cooley, or long-time drummer Brad Morgan, and his love of Christmas songs that might or might not be Christmas songs. Along the way, I play music from his Roll Up a Song by Gonzalez Smith and Jay Gonzalez Inflatable Orchestra Vol. 1.

I've been out of the country, so this week is an encore presentation with two very different artists--pop instrumental piano player Jim Brickman and Jeff Plate, the long-time drummer for the arena rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When I conducted these interviews in 2020, I was really interested in how COVID-19 would affect two acts that have made holiday season tours a meaningful part of their business. I could imagine Brickman's music translating to a live-streamed show, but TSO delivers sensory overload with four forms of fire (if I remember correctly) and a lighting rig that itself moved like a Transformer regardless of what the lights attached to it did. I also interviewed long-time TSO musical director Al Pitrelli in 2018 during the first season of 12 Songs.

This week I'm talking with blues artist Jontavious Willis, who recently released his album West Georgia Blues.  I wanted to talk to Jontavious not because of his Christmas music--he doesn't have any yet--but because he's doing something that I've been trying to pay attention to as people make contemporary music in traditional forms. We go a little longer with Jontavious talking about the blues in general to help get at that thought a bit.  But we also got to a number of his favorite blues Christmas songs, and I like that he's not doctrinaire in his choices, folding in Rev. J.M. Gates, The Emotions and James Brown among others. Early on he mentions Minnie Ripperton, and it takes a bit before I get to her, but I played "Christmas Love" by the Rotary Connection, which featured Minnie Ripperton on lead vocals. In the episode, I also mentioned that I did a guest spot recently on the Totally Rad Christmas podcast, which focuses on Christmas in the '80s. We talked about "Do They Know it's Christmas" by Band Aid and Band Aid II from 1989 with a version of the song produced by the British pop hit making team of Stock Aiken Waterman. It's a fun conversation and worth the time.  Finally, Jontavious mentioned Lowell Folsom's "Lonesome Christmas," then rolled on to other songs so I never got to include a song by him. If you haven't heard it, here it is.

This season has featured surf Christmas music, calypso Christmas music, Sicilian Christmas music and smooth jazz Christmas music, so it can't be too much of a surprise that we finally get to Cajun Christmas music. I think Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are an important band as they picked up the work of maintaining endangered musical traditions that was started by a generation before him, and he influenced the generation that followed by finding contemporary ways to express those traditions. In today's interview, we talk about Feufollet's Chris Stafford, who I wrote about shortly after he died at My Spilt Milk. When I played "Silent Night" by Harry Fontenot, I didn't identify it. It's from the album Merry Cajun Christmas. I also mentioned that you can find Riley's Party at the Holiday, All Night Long and other contemporary Cajun music at ValcourRecords.com. If you're interested in taking Cajun accordion lessons from Steve, you can reach him through his Facebook page or the Contact info at MamouPlayboys.com.

Americana artist Mindy Smith has been referred to on 12 Songs before. At some point in the COVID years I talked about my love of "Santa Will Find You" from her 2007 album My Holiday, and last year when I talked to The Indigo Girls, we talked about the song "It Really Is (a Wonderful Life,)" which they recorded. It turns out it was written by Chely Wright, but the only version I knew was Smith's from My Holiday.  For me, this was an interview I had long looked forward to, and it was made possible by the release of Quiet Town, her first album in 12 years. The album will be out tomorrow, though the song we play, "Something to Write in Stone," is out now along with two other songs. On October 4, it will all be for sale.  In the episode, I mention the heartbreaking (to me) Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club on Bandcamp, which I just heard will have two new singles available this year.  Mindy Smith will be on tour much of the rest of 2024, and you can find out where she'll be at MindySmithMusic.com.

Music journalist Annie Zaleski returns to 12 Songs this week. She last appeared in 2022 to talk about Wham!'s "Last Christmas." In 2023, she wrote This is Christmas Song by Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits, so she's back to talk about a few of the songs she wrote about. In the episode, we talk about the Kate Bush Christmas special and the Kacey Musgraves Christmas special, both of which are awesome in their ways.

I've long believed that if you can't get a good interview out of the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood, you should hang up your keyboard and mic. The Truckers are a richly layered project with the loud guitars and pounding drums used to drive a lot of meatheaded lyrics instead supporting subtle storytelling that deals class and race as well as rock 'n' roll. For much of their career, they've used their albums to come to grips with the American South as it exists today, but the songs sound like songs, not a sociology textbook.  I caught up with Hood between legs of the "Southern Rock Opera Revised 2024" Tour. Southern Rock Opera put the band on the map in 2001 when it used the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the pry bar to get into some of the issues mattered to them. It charted the course for the band since then, so it has a lot of legacy. I expected the Christmas end of this conversation to be Hood talking about the Christmas songs he likes and his relationship to Christmas music, but while prepping for the interview, I discovered there are two Drive-By Truckers Christmas songs in the world. Those, obviously, get the 12 Songs breakdown as well. To see if the Southern Rock Opera tour is coming your way, visit DriveByTruckers.com. I wrote about the New Orleans stop on the tour on my Substack page, The Cream.  UPDATE: Since this episode went up, Hood announced his upcoming solo album, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, due out February 21, 2025. The first song, "Werewolf and a Girl," is out now.

Saxophone player Boney James has two Christmas albums, Boney's Funky Christmas and Christmas Present. Both make sense as the place where jazz and R&B meet, and that was transparently the case when he recorded his first album, Trust, in 1992. We talk about those early years in addition to his Christmas music, and we discussed having an album of new music in the can that he wasn't at liberty to talk about or play. Since we recorded the interview, the album's title--Slow Burn--and its release date were released, along with two songs. It's due out October 18, and we feature one new song from it, "Butterfly," with guest spots by Cory Henry and Marcus Miller. I wrote a piece on James based in part on this interview for My Spilt Milk. The episode ends with a Christmas song from British punk band/cult fave Helen Love. If anybody knows where I can get an mp3 of this half of a split single, please let me know. The song is too awesome not to be in my collection.

Our surf Christmas episode inadvertently laid the groundwork for this week’s, which focuses largely on Calypso Christmas music. New Orleans’ Charlie and the Tropicales released Presents for Everyone, an album of Calypso Christmas songs, in 2023. This week I’m talking to trombone player and bandleader Charlie Halloran about the album, Calypso Christmas music, Mighty Sparrow, tiki bars, and being a working working musician in New Orleans. We talk briefly about an indispensable Calypso Christmas album, A Calypso Christmas, which includes classic tracks by Lord Kitchener, Lord Nelson, The Mighty Spoiler and more. You can find it in the digital marketplaces.   You can get Presents for Everyone on vinyl on Charlie and the Tropicales’ Bandcamp page, and you can also find a digital version of their new album, Jump Up, which we hear in today’s episode. We also talk about Mighty Sparrow Christmas music, which is available through the digital download stores. I finish this episode with another New Orleans project, Haunted House Party and music from last year’s The Spirits of Christmas. The DJ-oriented beat tape for the holidays is also available in all formats including vinyl on the Haunted House Party Bandcamp page.

In 2021, I interviewed Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, a band I've only grown to appreciate more over the years. They released their first three albums--Cheap Trick, In Color and Heaven Tonight--in 18 months, and Dream Police followed a whole year later. They toured constantly at the time, which makes that productivity all the more impressive.  In 2017, they released a Christmas album, Christmas Christmas, an album that's easy to like and easier to admire after Petersson talks about the inspirations for the songs.  I talked to Petersson because the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers had a new album out, In Another World, and the conversation was a lot about what a band that tours as much as they do does when COVID forces it off the road.

I don’t usually get to end a conversation on Christmas music with memories of radio legend Art Bell and his late night deep dive into the paranormal, After Dark with Art Bell. But that’s what happened when I talked to Mark Christopher Lee of the British lo-fi indie rock band The Pocket Gods. It took a lot of discipline not to end the show with After Dark’s theme, “Chase” by Giorgio Moroder. Instead, the episode ends with “Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers,” a new-to-me track by the Edinburgh indie band ballboy.  My conversation with Lee on The Pocket Gods covers a lot of ground as we talk about influential British DJ John Peel, Phil Spector, John Cage, and the way Lee morphed the band into a conceptual art project that explored how musicians do and don’t get paid in a streaming ecosystem dominated by Spotify.  Late in the conversation, we talk about Lee’s forays into documentary films. You can find Weird: The Life and Times of a Pocket God, Inspired: The 30-Second Song Movie, God Versus Aliens, and The King of UFOs: Royal UFO Secrets Revealed at Tubitv.com or the Tubi Roku app.  All of the music on today’s show is available at the iTunes Store, but 2021’s A Quantum Christmas Song, which is more than 115 hours long, can only be purchased as a full album and requires more than 8 GB of disc space to download. I think Mark will understand if you choose to stream rather than buy that one.

This week, Michela Musolino visits the Christmas music podcast to talk about ”La Notti Triunfanti” and Sicilian Christmas music.

I have so little surf Christmas music in my collection that I turned to WTUL DJ Hunter King, host of "Storm Surge of Reverb" to see if there was a substantial body of surf Christmas music. As I expected, the answer is yes.  We talk about old and new Christmas surf, Hunter's relationship to Christmas music, and vinyl because it almost goes without saying that as a surf music fan, he's a vinyl guy. In the episode, I mention my insane Dick Dale interview--really a monologue--and it's so dizzying it's worth your time.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy much of today's playlist was to find. A lot is on Bandcamp, and I found The Avalanches' Ski Surfin' at the iTunes Store. I only had to ask for mp3s from Hunter for The HE 5, and you can find their excellent version of "Auld Lang Syne" on the 2015 Psych-Out Christmas compilation. I assume Iggy Pop's version of "White Christmas" was the album's sales pitch, but I got it for the versions of "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bell Rock" by New Orleans' Quintron and Miss Pussycat.  Finally, in the closing notes I mentioned the best-of shows I did after reaching episode 100. Here's the first of that series.

The new season of Twelve Songs starts with an interview with Thomas Mertz, one of the founders of the social media game Whamageddon. To win the game, you must go from December 1 to Christmas without hearing Wham!'s "Last Christmas." Hear it and you're out. People play on social media on the honor system, but for Mertz, the fun is in the way the game has created a community.  Since he is in Denmark, he and his friends have a slightly different Christmas canon, and when they started playing almost 20 years ago, "Last Christmas" had the kind of ubiquity in Denmark that "All I Want for Christmas is You" now has in the United States.  We talk about Wham!, "Last Christmas," social media and Christmas music among other things, and I have scattered versions of "Last Christmas" throughout the episode. Covers are acceptable, so I have saved Wham!'s version to the very end and given listeners fair warning so that if people hear this episode in December, it won't put them out.  I don't stop to identify the versions in episode, but this episode's playlist is (in order): "Last Christmas" - Carly Rae Jepsen"Last Christmas" - Lucy Dacus"Last Christmas" - Cano Caoli"Last Christmas" - Sweet Crude"Last Christmas" - Leo Moracchioli"Last Christmas" - Aloe Blacc"Jus Det Cool" - MC Einar"Last Christmas" - Stardeath and the White Dwarfs"Last Christmas" - Wham!

Last Christmas, I promised that 12 Songs would return with Christmas in July 2024. Since July 25 falls on a Thursday, it seemed like an appropriate day to return with the first episode of the new season. Here are a few notes on the upcoming season including a song that hints at a direction we'll go in the first month.

Season six of 12 Songs comes to a close with some of the highlights from the 2023 holiday season and a conversation with DJ/producer/business guy Raj Smoove and rapper/producer 504icygrl about the new Christmas in New Orleans EP. Raj and Icy talk about Christmas, community, business, and the historically awkward fit between hip-hop and Christmas music.  In the episode, I mention the Daily Beast story I wrote on Cher's Christmas and Christmas music in October, the streaming version of my Christmas playlist, Bill Adler's Xmas Jollies 2023 and Jim Goodwin of ChristmasUnderground.com's I'm an Igloo playlist. If you haven't already done so, please subscribe, follow, or do whatever you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. That way, you'll know when we return in time for Christmas in July.

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 would even do one in the first place. In this episode, I also talk about new Christmas releases by Sara Noelle, My Morning Jacket, and music writer Kevin McGrath, who compiled Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 3 in time for this season. If you like their music, you can go back and hear my interview with Sara from earlier this season and Kevin from last season.  I also mentioned in the show that listeners can still request my free playlist by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. You can also hear my "Twelve Songs of Christmas Christmas" mix on Apple Music and Spotify.

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, Christmas in Australia, and Australian Christmas favorites.  In the episode, I mention "A Twelve Songs of Christmas Christmas," a five-hour streaming playlist on Apple Music and Spotify that, if shuffled, will give you the effect of an all-Christmas music radio station minus the songs you've heard to death.  I also mentioned the 2023 Twelve Songs mix, which you can get free if you email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to request it. It is a shorter, programmed mix, and it includes some songs that aren't on any of the streaming services including some great indie and Japanese Christmas songs.

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 only about the album but how it fits into the long arc of their career--25 years when it was released. Along the way, we get a little electronic bacon crackling while Amy is talking. I got it figured out fairly quickly, but there was no good edit point unless I dumped that section of the conversation, and I thought what she said was worth a few moments of crackle.  In the episode, I mention that this year's Christmas music mix is available. Send me a request at alex@myspiltmilk.com.  In the episode, I also mentioned an interview I did with Amy Ray for MySpiltMilk.com and my 12 Songs interview with Terre Roche.

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," and detour to talk about A Charlie Brown Christmas because it really is that seminal a recording. Lemmler also helps us understand stride piano, a style Brubeck explores on his Christmas album. One quick note: This is the rare episode of the podcast recorded me and my interview subject in the same room. That created a few audio complications, most of which I dealt with but there may be a few I couldn't catch. Thanks in advance for your patience, and I know how to prevent them in the future.  You can find A Dave Brubeck Christmas wherever you buy or stream music, and you can find Matt and his music at MattLemmler.com.

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."  Fortunately, much of that album--but not all of it--was available to purchase in the States. Much of the music he plays and all but one song that we play today aren't available for stream or download in the States.  Today, Scott and I talk about and play Japanese Christmas music, Japanese Christmas, and how he got into it. Collectors will recognize the contours of his story if not the specifics.

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 recorded for a band known for playing percussion instruments made of PVC, and how holiday music fits into their shows.

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 available on mp3, "What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas" by The Emotions and Reed's "Party Hard for Christmas." The link will help you get you to the first track, but he and/or his management appear to have taken down "Party Hard for Christmas." You'll hear why in the episode.

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 known by, DJ Soul Sister. We talk about Brown, his Christmas music, and the 1991 compilation, Let's Go-Go Christmas.

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 Christmas, I invited journalist John Wirt on the show to talk about Smith--his heyday, his heartbreaks, his later years, and his Christmas album, which comes with a story that I learned reading John's 2014 book, Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rockin' Pneumonia Blues.

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 Capitol released Christmas Cocktails Vol. 2 in 1997, then Christmas Cocktails Vol. 3 much later in 2012 with a different, more pedestrian creative team. By that point, Benedict and the Ultra-Lounge creative team had gone on to Shout Factory Records for the "Wonderland" series, three similar compilations of Christmas music that had different label libraries to draw from. Christmas Cocktails was influential at the time and is still fondly remembered, so this week I'm discussing it with the King of Jingaling, Brad Ross MacLeod from one of the OG Christmas mp3 blogs, falalalalala.com. We talk about his site, lounge, reissues, nostalgia, the contemporary music that bridged these songs from the late 1950s and early '60s with the music of the '90s when the first two volumes came out. Along the way, we talk about Peggy Lee, who I discussed in an episode with her granddaughter Holly Foster-Wells in 2021.

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 the electronic atmospherics paired with her treated voice make her songs sound like they come from somewhere else, even while they sound very human.  We talked about her Christmas music, New Mexico, and her recent releases, a cover of The Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" and her most recent album, Do I Have to Feel Everything? We also discussed a creative writing journal she edits, Lyrics as Poetry, with writing from members of the rock 'n' roll community.

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, Paul McCartney, Alexander O'Neal, The Bird and the Bee, SUNBEARS! and more to put some musical meat on those bones.  There was one late edit that some of you will notice. There is no Number Eight in my manifesto, not because I didn't have one but because I discovered while looking for an image to accompany this episode that the musician I featured had been found guilty of some extremely un-Christmas-y behavior. It was too late in the process to redo the whole passage, so I simply cut it.

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. Louis was too bleak in her mind for the situation, so it was revised to be merely guarded and tentative. We have her version, a performance of the original lyrics, and a few that followed to see how artists handle the song's mood and message.

Last week, I started the story of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," taking the song from being written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots, to the first version by banjo player/bandleader Harry Reser, to the version that popularized the song by Eddie Cantor.  This week, the song grows up with the help of Phil Spector, The Crystals, and Bruce Springsteen.

"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 the Christmas canon today. I'll tell the story of the song growing up, starting this week with its early days.

"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, which features interviews with rappers about albums important to him. Last year he released the book The Movement Made Us, in which he helps his father tell some of the stories of his early days as a worker in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. David is also a regular participant on ESPN's Around the Horn.

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 Daily Beast than ran on Christmas Day 2022.

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 is Christmas and the release of Kin Ya See That Sun by Terre and Maggie Roche. It's a book that reflects on their first foray into the music business with humbling results. Terre talks about being young women in music in the early 1970s and some of the challenges they faced.  In the episode, Terre talks about a video of one of Suzzy's introductions to "Good King Wenceslas."  I also mention my Christmas mix, which I'll send you. Write me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to get one. You can also find Jim Goodwin's indie Christmas mix at ChristmasUnderground.com, and Brad Ross-McLeod's old vinyl Christmas mix at FaLaLaLaLa.com.  We also heard "Marshmallow World" from Nikki Yanofsky, which you can hear now on all the streaming services.

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 pressing of his A Christmas Album paired with a vinyl pressing of the accompanying remix album with vocals.  During my conversation with Amerigo, we talk about his collaboration with rapper Mega Ran, who appeared on 12 Songs in 2020. While talking about his search for indie Christmas music, McGrath mentioned visiting the Christmas Underground website. Last week, I talked to Christmas Underground's Jim Goodwin on the show.

With Christmas approaching, it's time when I have more good conversations than I have weeks until December 25. Today, I have two conversations that I really enjoyed, one with Dennis Diken of rock band The Smithereens, and one with Jim Goodwin, who runs the indie rock Christmas website ChristmasUnderground.com. The Smithereens' 2007 Christmas album Christmas with The Smithereens was released on vinyl this holiday season, and Goodwin has been busy posting new and new-to-you indie Christmas tracks that he found on Bandcamp. During the episode, I mentioned this year's Christmas music mix, which you can get by writing alex@myspiltmilk.com. For those who would rather stream music, I have posted a four-hour holiday playlist on both Spotify and Apple Music. Not only will you not hurt my feelings if you shuffle it; you'll make the experience better. I didn't sequence the songs because at that length, I can't feel like there's a right or wrong sequence to the songs. Besides, I shuffle it when I listen to it, and it helps keep it fresh for me.

British pop/soul singer Joss Stone released Merry Christmas, Love earlier this year, and it's a bit of a departure for her as she set out to make a "posh" album, something on the surface very different from the music she's known for.  It's still very much a personal project, down to the influence of her daughter and the son she was pregnant with while recording the album. We talked about the ways that personal choices show up in a project as big and orchestrated as Merry Christmas, Love.  In this episode, Alex also talks about The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, The Old 97s, and two British indie Christmas compilations, Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

In 2020, I had a good conversation with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips about the surprising amount of Christmas music they have, starting with Atlas Eets Christmas, which they recorded and credited to "Imagene Peise." We talked about that album's origins, which make sense when you hear them, as well as the Christmas on Mars project and a host of other holiday one-offs the band has recorded. I ran this conversation that fall, but since I'm on family vacation this Thanksgiving week, I'm re-running this episode.  This year's "Twelve Songs of Christmas" Christmas mix is available now. Write me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send you a folder with the file and a song list. You may know some of the songs from the show, but I think it's a safe bet that most of these songs or versions will be new to you.

Laurie Berkner had one of those days when we got together to talk. A plumber came to work on her bathroom while we did our interview, and his work is the occasional backdrop for our conversation.  Still, the children's music artist talked at length about the making of her second Christmas album, Another Laurie Berkner Christmas, and the way making music for children affects her art. She's part of a generation that grew up with rock 'n' roll and makes music true enough to its spirit that parents who themselves love music use her music as a first step in that direction for their kids. In our conversation, we talk about musicality, faith, and the song she'd love to do but won't. It's a lot of fun and shines a little light on the children's music world.

In 2020, I interviewed Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of the indie rock band Low, whose 1999 album Christmas is one of the great indie Christmas albums, and a bold one because rock bands didn't record Christmas music at the time--at least not like that. Maybe they'd contribute a track to a label promo compilation, but they wouldn't tie their financial and artistic futures to such an unlikely project.  Low's music at the time was dubbed "slowcore," and while it wasn't necessarily slow, they did stake out a very individual musical space that was driven by introspection and meditation more than energy.  When I interviewed Alan and Mimi, they were sitting at a table at home in Duluth, Minnesota, and even though we were on opposite ends of a Zoom call, the coziness of their space and the conversation gave the conversation a vibe I'll remember.  I'm re-posting this interview because on the weekend, Mimi Parker died of ovarian cancer. People have been sharing photos and memories of Mimi on social media, so I wanted to add our conversation to the demonstrations of love for her, the band and the way they moved through the world.

Vince Guaraldi scholar Derrick Bang wrote the liner notes for the 2022 Super Deluxe edition of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas, and this week he talks about the 1965 cartoon, Guaraldi, and the soundtrack album sessions included in the digital and CD packages.  The digital version is out now and up on streaming platforms, and it includes the original 1965 mix, a new mix, and all of the sessions that have been found so far. The CD version also includes a Blu-Ray disc with the animated special, and it's due out December 2. The two-record vinyl version includes the album's original mix and a record with highlights from the sessions.  I've talked about Guaraldi and A Charlie Brown Christmas on 12 Songs with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, Kristin Chenoweth, George Winston, and The Ornaments, and I wrote about Guaraldi's impact last year for The New Orleans Advocate.  If you want to read more by Bang, you find his film writing at his Blogspot.

Last year, Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn belated launched a tour celebrating 50 years in music. When we ran an excerpt from this interview last Christmas season, we started off talking about the tour. Since he's not on tour now, I cut some of that material but did start with a conversation on how someone with 50-plus years in the business relates to the music he wrote decades ago.  We focused our attention on Christmas, his 1993 album of Christmas music. We talk about its humble origins and the versions that inspired some of his takes. To let you in on the conversation, I also included Sam Phillips' version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon's "Christ was Born on Christmas Morn," which Cockburn recorded as "Early on One Christmas Morn."  He also talks about why he chose to sing the Huron Christmas carol "Jesus Ahtonnia" in its native language. It's a good conversation that fits the album into conversations about faith and life, and what can happen over the course of more than 50 years.  On November 25, he will have three new releases—the digital album Rarities, which features songs previously on the Rumors of Glory box set along with tracks recorded for tribute albums to Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Sheiks and Mississippi John Hurt. He will also release vinyl versions of 1997’s The Charity of the Night and 1999’s Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu. You pre-order all of them now from his label, True North Records.

In 2008, the garage rock legends The Fleshtones released a Christmas album, Stocking Stuffer, and in true Fleshtones fashion, they made Christmas sound like them. Since 1976, they have delivered a brand of garage rock influenced by punk, R&B and soul with more than a hint of glam in their style and sound.  In this interview from 2021, singer Peter Zaremba talks about the album, its origins, and what was most important to them while working on it. He also talks about where the audiences for '60s-inspired rock 'n' roll are and how those communities come together. He reveals the bands that inspired the way they covered some of the songs, and those bands help explain why nobody sounds quite like The Fleshtones.

One of my favorite Christmas albums of 2021 was Merry Christmas from José James, which featured the jazz vocalist in a classic quartet that included pianist Aaron Parks.  We talked in 2021 and ran part of the conversation last holiday season, but we covered a lot of ground, some of it COVID-related but a lot of it focused on James and the way he bridges musical genres. We chew on jazz, hip-hop, and some of the subtle challenges involved in making Christmas music. The music's good, but I also love the way he turns conventional narratives and hierarchies on their head. It's tempting to give jazz musical primacy--certainly here in New Orleans--but he talks about how hip-hop set him on his jazz journey. If you want more Christmas music news, follow 12 Songs on Facebook, and if you miss any episodes, you can find them at your podcast provider or TwelveSongsOfChristmas.com.

The world met Julian Koster as part of the Elephant 6 Collective in the 1990s, when he played a variety of instruments with Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and his own projects, The Music Tapes and The Orbiting Human Circus. In 2008, he released The Singing Saw at Christmastime, and part of the conceit is that the saws actually do the singing. He's not playing the saws; he's encouraging them to sing. That element of whimsy is part of the fun of Koster's projects and our conversation, though he brought engineer Nesey Gallons on the call with him to be a lifeline when Koster starts to drift too far out.  Our conversation covers some ground, from an unexpected appearance by Leadbelly to a Christmas interlude courtesy of Japanese filmmaker Akira  Kurosawa. Koster and Gallons also turned me on to a Folksways compilation of Ukrainian Christmas songs. The song we hear is "The Miracle of the Birth."

The Cowsills answer a number of pop culture trivia questions, starting with "What real life family pop band inspired the 1970 television show, The Partridge Family?" They had hits with "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things"--best known for the refrain, "I love the flower girl"--and "Hair," but the experience took a toll on family members, particularly Susan Cowsill's older brothers. She was a kid along for the ride and still under 10 when it hit, but as she talks about during our conversation, her teenaged brothers with rock 'n' roll dreams had a hard time dealing with what they became.  The Cowsills are a starting point for today's conversation because while Susan and her brothers worked for a few decades to establish themselves as solo artists, she regularly performs now as The Cowsills with Bob and Paul, and the three of them have a podcast now, The Cowsills Podcast. This summer, they performed on the Happy Together Again tour, and from November 1-December 10, they'll be guests on the Andy Williams Christmas Show at the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. There are musicians who might have a hard time adjusting to a Branson residency, but Susan compartmentalizes her creative endeavors. She was part of the Americana/indie pop supergroup The Continental Drifters and she still plays solo gigs in New Orleans in support of solo efforts, but after all these years, singing with her brothers remains a powerful, important of her musical life. Today we talk about the Christmas music she made and the Christmas music she loves.

Documentary filmmaker Mitchell Kezin released the movie Jingle Bell Rocks! in 2013. In it, he focused on the human side of Christmas music, whether with the musicians who make the music--much the same way we do on 12 Songs--or by talking to collectors about the music they're passionate about. Last year, I talked to Kezin about the movie and his Christmas music collection, and ran part of the conversation during the holiday season.  This week, I'm running a longer, more complete version of that conversation, where we talk about collecting, the song that got him started on Christmas music, and the lengths he went to get one of the interviews for Jingle Bell Rocks.  Right now, Kezin is at work on his 2023 "Merry Mix," the name he gave to his series of Christmas music compilations. You can get a hold of Kezin and see the songs he has used on previous compilations dating back to 1998. It's a dizzying compendium of songs you don't know by artists you haven't heard of, but they're consistently entertaining.

Twelve Songs returns after a life-induced hiatus with a good interview with Ray Benson from the Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. We talked in the spring when the band was coming to New Orleans to play Jazz Fest, and you can see my story focusing on the band celebrating 50 years in the game with its Half a Hundred Years album and tour. That tour is always going on or soon to restart, so check your local listings because if they aren't coming to town, they'll get there sooner or later. We talk about COVID, which became very real for the band when members of the band were hit hard by it earlier this year. We also talk about his long-time musical friend Willie Nelson, Benson's admiration for his "Pretty Paper," and hear Christmas music by the band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, The Resentments (on a song by one of my favorites, Jon Dee Graham), and Folk Uke, which features Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie's daughters.

In 2014, Molto Groovy Christmas remade holiday favorites inspired by Italian and French movie soundtracks from the 1960s. Tracks also reference Esquivel, Jimmy Smith’s soul-jazz, and other out-there sounds, and the project as a whole is defined by unlikely, psychedelic textural juxtapositions over gently funky grooves. The album came with a mystery, though. The cover reads, “Roman Coppola and Alessandro Cassella presents,” but it’s not until you open the package that you discover who actually made the music. That task fell to Italian musician and producer Carlo Poddighe, who arranged the songs and played all the parts.   This week, Carlo Poddighe tells the story of the album and talks about the fun and the challenges that accompany having a studio full of the vintage gear needed for a project like this one.    Molto Groovy Christmas isn’t on Spotify or Apple Music, but CDs and mp3s are available through Amazon and a few vinyl copies remain for sale at the album’s Bandcamp page.    Poddighe talks about the influence of a number of Italian soundtrack composers including Ennio Morricone, the best known in the United States. A Morricone track is included, as is a track from the 1995 album Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party, a very psychedelic collection of soundtrack music that prompted renewed interest in European soundtrack music from mid-‘60s to the early ‘70s.  If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to Twelve Songs wherever you get your podcasts so that you don’t miss an episode.

Twelve Songs returns to regular programming this week with writer Annie Zaleski joining me to talk about Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and our favorite versions of it.    On Christmas Day last year, Zaleski told the song’s story at Salon.com, which is just one of the places where she has covered pop music and Christmas music over the years. She also wrote a book on Duran Duran’s Rio for the 33 1/3 series.    The song has become a fascination of mine for a lot of reasons, one of which is that I’ve only really come around to it in the last few years. For a long time, I understood those who played Whamageddon online during the holiday season, but eventually the durability of the song and its stylish, bonkers, of the moment video won me over.    Annie and I also talk about cover versions by Jimmy Eat World, Carly Rae Jepsen, Manic Street Preachers, and Lucy Dacus. The episode closes with one of my favorites from last year by Japanese noise rock band Boris. If it speaks to you, you can find it at Boris’ Bandcamp page.    In the conversation, I mentioned the video for the version of "Last Christmas" by the Japanese rock band Chai, and Annie and I break down Wham!'s video.

When I started to look back at the highlights of our first 100 episodes, I envisioned it taking an episode or two, but once I started, I couldn’t keep the number down that low. Here we are with the fifth and final installment, and I can easily envision another episode or two of interviews conducted before 2021.  This week’s episode includes a few interviews that were special for me, including Steven Drozd of Flaming Lips, 11 Acorn Lane, guitar hero Steve Lukather, jazz vocalist Jacqui Naylor, ZE Records’ Michael Zilkha, Latin ska band Mento Buru, and singer Danny Boy and label exec John “JP” Payne of Death Row Records. There’s something special in each of these for me. Some were people I had really wanted to talk to, others were really good, provocative conversations, and in the case of the Death Row interview, it led to a story I wrote for The New York Times.  Next week, I’ll get to work on the next 100 with a new conversation. If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe, like, follow, or do what you have to do with your podcast provider to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed weekly.

We're in the home stretch of the look back at highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs, with this episode getting into interviews during the pandemic when COVID affected everybody's plans. Guitarist and producer Chas Justus from Lafayette, Louisiana talks about how COVID made his collection of Cajun French versions of Chrlstmas classics--Joyeux Noel, Bon Chrismeusse--possible.   I really appreciated getting romantic pianist and composer Jim Brickman on the show because someone who has 10 albums of Christmas music has a more nuanced take on it than those who have only dipped their toes in the water. We talked in 2020 about how his Christmas music relates to the music he makes the rest of the year.  Many of my guests are indie musicians, in part because their music frequently lines up best with my aesthetics and ethics, but it's also important to me that we hear Christmas music as something people make today in a variety of forms and not simply nostalgia from our parents or grandparents' generations. Excerpts of conversations with retro soul artist Kelly Finnigan (who made the modern classic A Joyful Sound), Christian vocal group leader Ernie Haase, Jamie Hilsden of the Christmas punk band The Myrrhderers, and Amy Carlson of pop band Office Romance all come from that place, though the conversations are very different.  I hope after hearing this show and the other retrospective shows in this series, you'll want to subscribe to Twelve Songs (if you haven't already), listen to back episodes, and tell your friends. I hope these looks back make it clear that conversations about Christmas music aren't necessarily about Christmas or to be set aside until that time of year.

My look back at the highlights of The Twelve Songs of Christmas this week come from from a transitional period. I had good and very different conversations with musicians with very different careers, including the pop purists Hanson, the bluegrass crossover artist Rhonda Vincent, and indie rapper Mega Ran.  This week's show includes excerpts from those conversations, along Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low, and Martin Lynds and Jen Gunderman of The Ornaments, a band of Nashville session players who at the time of the interview had played the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack for 14 years running.  One note on this episode: I was surprised when I grabbed the file for the Rhonda Vincent interview that I found my voice distorted on it. It didn't sound like that when I produced the episode, but there's not much to do about that now. I tried to minimize how much of me you needed to hear in that excerpt, but you needed some of my fuzzy voice to give her answers context.  If this is the first of your retrospective episodes, you can hear the first two here and here.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.  Here in New Orleans, it's Mardi Gras, so I'm taking the rest of this week and the start of next week to be part of my city. We'll meet again in two weeks.

Last week, I started a look back at some of the highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs of Christmas. This week, Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5 talks about his relationship to his Christmas songs when a stroke prevented him from playing them at their CD release show. Americana rocker JD McPherson talks about the inspiration for the songs on his modern Christmas classic, Socks, and Magic 101.9 program director Steve Suter takes us behind the scenes on the all-Christmas radio format. New Orleans singer Debbie Davis talks about what it's like to have a Christmas show that becomes a tradition, and songwriter Josh Rouse remembers Christmas music in Spain.  In the episode, I mention a few stories I'd link to--my piece for Nola.com on the all-Christmas radio format, and my interview with Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.

The previous episode with singer Meryl Zimmerman was number 100, and now that I've made it that far, I think it's time to stop and help some of you catch up. I've had a lot of episodes I'm really happy with that have moments I'm glad I helped to get into the world. Some realizations probably came together for the first time when we talked. The conversations shed light on creativity, musicality, business, and spirituality--aspects the pop music enterprise that are too often overlooked or treated with too much care. I'm interested in all of these things, and Christmas music is a great vehicle to get into those topics.  You can hear all that in these excerpts from season one with guests Panorama Jazz Band, Robert Earl Keen, The Waitresses' Chris Butler and Mars Williams, PJ Morton, Pink Martini, and Lowland Hum. Originally, I thought I'd simply do one retrospective episode, but I realized pretty quickly that it would be three to four hours' long, or it would leave out too much to be satisfying for me. So I'll be back with more next week and likely the week after that. Listening back is a little humbling, hearing some ratty production and a laid back intro affectation so extreme that I don't need to share any of that with you. You can't help but notice it though if you go back and check out the early episodes.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.

This is the 100th episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas, and I’m spending it with New Orleans' jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman. In late November 2022, she released her second album, A Very Meryl Christmas, so we talked about it as a business proposition and chewed on the uncommon song choices she made for it. Some standards are there, but so are some less common choices. As you’ll see, the more familiar ideas are dressed up in uncommon arrangements that take them into interesting places. Her bossa nova version of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” was compelling enough to make me seriously consider an episode focused on versions of that song to fit in the week after Christmas. It didn’t happen, but maybe next year.  In this episode, we talk about her cover of Louis Armstrong’s “Zat You, Santa Claus?” and I mention how Buster Poindexter’s version helped me see the song Meryl’s way. Here’s that version.  On this episode, I also draw attention to Attention K-Mart Shoppers, and online archive of digitized albums of background music played in the 1960s and ‘70s in Kresge and K-Mart stores. I’m fascinated by the Christmas albums, of course, but there’s a lot to hear there.  After this episode, I’m going to take a week off the start the next hundred episodes with a look back at the best of the first seasons. That will take more listening and editing than I can manage in a week, but I’ll be back with that in two weeks.   If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.

One sidebar in the last few years of 12 Songs has been the role of COVID in the creation of Christmas music. Some artists recorded Christmas albums to remind themselves that they were musicians during the pandemic shutdown of 2020. Some were able to get musicians who would otherwise be unavailable because COVID forced them off the road, and others had specific circumstances related to COVID that led to their Christmas albums.  San Antonio-based roots rocker Patricia Vonne falls into the latter category. In this week’s episode, she tells the story of what prompted her to record My Favorite Holiday, and how she got an army of musical friends including Rubén Blades, Alex Ruiz, David Grissom, Rosie Flores, Stephen Ferrone, Carmine Rojas and more to participate.   I love Vonne’s energy and positivity in this conversation. She never stops selling, but that makes sense. Her story is a working artist’s story, and she lives from gig to gig and album to album. That’s a perspective that’s easy to overlook in the show biz world that many Christmas albums live in.    This week’s episode also takes a quick look at the last Christmas-related hit of 2021, “Christmas Tree” by V of K-pop stars BTS. I argue that it’s not really a Christmas song and pay more attention to an earlier, truer Christmas song from BTS, “Christmas Day” by Jimin and Jungkook.    If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.

How does a white guy from Detroit end up playing Latin music? Pianist Arthur Hanlon, one of the stars of the HBOMax concert film Piano Y Mujer, talks about that and his relationship to Motown in this week's conversation. We talk about the EP he released before Christmas, A Holiday Christmas Piano, and the roles Facebook and COVID played in making it happen. Along the way, we also talk about earlier Christmas releases and how Christmas music fits into Hanlon's big picture.  This week, we also look at one of the bigger songs of the 2021 holiday season, "Merry Christmas" by Ed Sheeran and Elton John, and the song that beat them to become number one on the British pop charts at Christmas. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.

This is the last episode of the Christmas season, but The Twelve Songs of Christmas is a year-around affair, so the conversations will continue in January after I take a much-needed week off. This week's episode includes an interview with filmmaker Mitchell Kezin, whose documentary Jingle Bell Rocks! takes a deep dive into the world of Christmas music, talking to people who collect it and create it. It's streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime, and we'll talk more about the movie next year, but this week we discuss its origins including the songs and ideas that set him on the path for a documentary on Christmas music.  Then I talk to songwriter Jim McCormick, an old friend and successful songwriter in Nashville. Last year, he co-wrote his third number one, Gabby Barrett's "The Good Ones," and we catch up on the story behind that, as well as some of his favorite country Christmas songs. We talk about Kacey Musgraves, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan and more, thinking about the songs from the songwriter's or the industry's perspectives. Finally, I talk to young country artist Bailey James, who is still finding her audience. We talk about dealing with COVID times and her two Christmas recordings, which at the time of the interview made up a quarter of her output. How does Christmas music create marketing opportunities?  Alexandra Scott returns this week to discuss two of Phoebe Bridgers' Christmas songs--"The Christmas Song" and her cover of Merle Haggard's "If We Make it Through December."  We also hear some of our favorite contemporary Christmas albums, JD McPherson's Socks and Kelly Finnigan's A Joyful Sound, and The Polyphonic Spree, who put tickets on sale for their 2022 Holiday Extraganza this week. JD, Kelly, and Tim DeLaughter of the Spree have all appeared on Twelve Songs. We also heard new lofi Christmas music this week from Brooklyn's The Fundamental Sound.  Last week, my story on the influence of Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas appeared in The New Orleans Advocate. This week, a story I wrote on Christmas on Death Row, the Death Row Records' Christmas album, appeared in The New York Times. It's based in part on an interview on the podcast with Death Row vocalist Danny Boy and label exec John "JP" Payne from earlier this year. I'm going to take a week off and return in January with a new episode. Christmas will be over the conversations continue.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   Thanks to Car Floats for the sponsorship.

This week, we have a few guests again as Christmas nears. Americana artist Amanda Shires is on hand to talk about For Christmas, and the way it reflects some of the less common impulses behind Christmas music. The husband and wife team of Rod and Rose—country singer Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon—talk about why they recorded “Winter Wonderland,” and how their conflicting writing styles got them to a new song for this holiday season. Finally, indie multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster drops by to talk about his role in the 2008 album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime.    We’ll have more with all three in 2022.   In the news this week, host Alex Rawls contributed a story on the influence of Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas to The New Orleans Advocate. The story includes quotes from George Winston, Steven Drozd, Kristin Chenoweth, Joey Burns of Calexico, Mega Ran, and Jen Gunderman of The Ornaments, all drawn from episodes of this podcast.    If you’re maxing out on the Christmas music you have, let us help. At Spotify, you can listen to our 24-hour “Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio.” Just click Shuffle and you get the Christmas radio experience minus the repetition. Or, you can email Alex@myspiltmilk.com to get an mp3 of our 90-minute holiday mix.    If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

Last year, Twelve Songs did its first crossover episode with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of the Ranking the Beatles podcast. During the COVID shutdown in 2020, Jonathan took the time on his hands as an excuse to rank all of The Beatles’ songs, from his least favorite to his favorite. That list morphed from a Facebook conversation into a podcast with his wife Julia as the voice of reason. Since The Beatles didn’t release any true Christmas songs during their time together, last year we ranked the annual fan club-only releases, testing Julia’s patience in the process. This year, we got together for a second crossover, this time ranking their post-Beatles Christmas music. Julia had reached a saturation point between watching, discussing, and podcasting about Peter Jackson’s Get Back and opted for a badly needed night off. Jonathan and I discussed the obvious choices by John and Paul as well as less obvious ones from George and Ringo. If you like what hear, you might consider adding Ranking The Beatles to your podcast feed. Thanks as usual to our sponsors at Car Floats, who asked me to contribute a Christmas music playlist to their website. I’m pleased to have curated a number of playlists this season including the 23-hour “Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio” playlist on Spotify. Go to it and click Shuffle to get the all-Christmas radio experience but with a greater variety of music. You can also still get this year’s downloadable listeners-only playlist by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to request it.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

Last week, Kristin Chenoweth was part of the episode focused on A Sentimental Christmas, an album of remakes of songs by Nat "King" Cole. Today, we continue that conversation to cover her new Christmas album, Happiness Is ... Christmas and 2008's A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas.  This episode also includes my interview with country legend Ronnie Milsap, whose Christmas with Ronnie Milsap was reissued this year, and guitar hero Paul Gilbert, who got in the Christmas music game this year with his new album, TWAS. Unfortunately, we had a wifi disconnect and, as you'll hear, had to pick up more or less where we left off. That gives us a choppy moment part way in, but that's life on the Internet.  This episode also includes new music from New Orleans-based jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman, who released A Very Meryl Christmas this year, and a cover of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" by Aidan & the Wild, Lewin, and the Revanche Family. It's on Another Christmas Vol. 2, and I'll talk to someone from Revanche Records in Amsterdam next year about the label sampler as a marketing strategy.  This episode also includes new music from Americana band Loose Cattle, who recently cut a version of Neil Young's "Star of Bethlehem" with the holidays in mind. Michael and Kimberly of Loose Cattle were early guests on Twelve Songs, and if you're in New Orleans, they'll play a holiday show Saturday at The Broadside with many of their musical friends. Finally, the episode closes with a version of "The Christmas Song" by The Polyphonic Spree. I interviewed Tim DeLaughter of the Spree last summer about their then-new album Afflatus and their Holidaydream Christmas album. At the time, he said that they planned to bring back their Holiday Extraganza this year in Dallas. It's on for December 18, and last time I checked, there were a few tickets still on sale. I'll be there this year, and if your tastes run toward the maximalist and psychedelic, it might be for you too.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

For this Christmas season, producer Jay Landers put together "A Sentimental Christmas with Nat "King" Cole," an album that refreshes some of Cole's holiday classics with new arrangements and a handful of new duets with new singing partners Johnny Mathis, John Legend, Gloria Estefan and more.  Today on the show, Landers talks about the hows of whys of putting together this kind of project, and why Cole continues to sing these duets well after his death. Kristin Chenoweth and Calum Scott are two of Cole's singing partners this time around, and they talk about the experience, Cole, and what they learned about him in the process. Singer Alexandra Scott returns this week to talk about Icelandic pop artist Dadi Freyr and the Christmas songs he released in 2020 and 2021.  This episode ends with a lovely cover of Low's "Just Like Christmas" by Gabrielle Aplin. Last year, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker appeared on Twelve Songs in an episode that felt surprisingly intimate and, perhaps for that reason, became more personal than I expected.  This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

This episode drops on Thanksgiving, and if you're listening on Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving. Friday is Black Friday, the official, incontrovertible start to the Christmas season, and just in time for it, Twelve Songs has created an alternative to the all-Christmas radio station, Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio on Spotify. It's a 20-plus hour playlist of songs that are or should be Christmas favorites, and all you have to do is click Shuffle to get the radio effect, minus the commercials and station breaks.  If that sounds a little daunting, you can also email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to get a copy of this year's 90-minute listeners-only Christmas mix. It covers a lot of ground and offers some new takes on Christmas classics, and it will almost certainly introduce you to some Christmas songs you haven't heard before. For those looking for a more irreverent, indie-oriented Christmas collection, I recommend XO for the Holidays Vol. 10, which fits the bill nicely. In this week's episode, I'm again featuring excerpts from interviews I conducted this fall. José James presents himself as a jazz vocalist for the hip-hop era, but that's only occasionally obvious on his new Merry Christmas from José James. On it, he and a traditional jazz trio give us a beautiful, timeless Christmas album that sounds like what might happen if a Sinatra-like singer fronted a Bill Evans-led band. I also talk to Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn, who is starting his tour celebrating 50 years in the business in December. The tour should have started last December, but, you know, COVID. We talk about the tour and his 1993 Christmas album, Christmas, including one of the less likely songs on the album and where it came from. Finally, I talk to Nashville's Twangtown Paramours, who have a new album, Double Down on a Bad Thing, due out in February. We talk a little about that, about how its recording was affected by COVID, and how they used a new Christmas song, "My Gingerbread Man," as a marketing tool. This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

Twelve Songs of Christmas is based in New Orleans, so in the spirit of the season and podcaster camaraderie, I recently recorded a crossover episode with friends who figured out how to shoehorn their two great passions into one podcast. Who Dat Jedis usually talks about the New Orleans Saints and Star Wars, and this week they asked me to join them to add a conversation on Christmas music to that mix. I enjoyed this conversation because Aaron, Fredo and Dave's questions are the ones casual listeners to Christmas music have, and it was fun to connect them to some of the themes that run through this podcast and tie some of them back to specific episodes I've done over the course of the last three years. We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find it at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   The next regular episode will be in your feed on Thanksgiving.

Last year, some time after Thanksgiving I had to change format and use excerpts from a few interviews to get to everybody I've talked to about Christmas music before the holiday comes. This year, I have to start now since I already have enough interviews to get to February if I ran one per show.  This week, I'm talking to some of my favorite people. The Fleshtones are the long-time garage rock gold standard, and singer Peter Zaremba is always a great person to talk to about that corner of the rock 'n' roll world. Since it seems like a shrinking one, we talk about that and how their most recent single, the Spanish-language "Mi Engañaste Bien," plays into that. We talk about the bond between record collectors and, of course, their 2008 Christmas album, Stocking Stuffer. This week also features Susan Cowsill, the youngest member of the '60s family pop band The Cowsills. Susan has never stopped singing or making music, and has been part of New Orleans' music community since she moved here in the 1990s with The Continental Drifters. Cowsills memories are inevitable for her, particularly now that she and two of her brothers have a podcast of their own, The Cowsills Podcast. We talk about that, Branson, some of her favorite Christmas songs, Karen Carpenter, and the experience of recording a Christmas song for Debbie Davis and Matt Perrine's Oh Crap! It's Christmas Vol. 2. Recently, the Numero Group reissue label released the very entertaining Christmas Dreamers: Yuletide Christmas (1960-1972), and this week I talk to Adam Luksetich about the process of pulling the collection together, and how his own relationship to Christmas music affected his choices. Finally, singer Alexandra Scott returns to discuss Mariah Carey's re-entry into the Christmas music arena with her new song, "Fall in Love at Christmas," featuring Khalid and Kirk Franklin. This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  f you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

It's mid-November, and with COVID numbers trending in the right direction, Mannheim Steamroller will return to the road soon. One of the Monsters of Christmas Rock, the group will start on Tuesday, November 16 in Loveland, Colorado, and it will have two companies on the road until December 30, when they'll finish up in Dallas and San Diego. The tour schedule is online, and tickets are on sale now. The tour will take place as it has since 2008 without founder/composer/arranger Chip Davis, who talks about why in today's episode, along with his journey from a series of albums with "Fresh Aire" in the title blending classical music, electronic music, and prog rock to 1984, Christmas, and Christmas music. Davis talks about his electronic music influences, as well as how he found an audience for an act that didn't fall neatly in any musical camp. He also talks about managing his success and dealing with the reality that Christmas music had become central to the Steamroller's identity, even if Davis didn't see it that way.  Also in today's episode, host Alex Rawls and singer Alexandra Scott discuss two Australian Christmas songs, Paul Kelly's "How to Make Gravy" and Tim Minchin's "White Wine in the Sun." We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  This episode is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, purveyors of removable, reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

This episode is bittersweet for me. The things I love on Quad City DJs' All-Star Christmas make me very happy, and this week one half of the Quad City DJs, CC Lemonhead, tells the story of the Jacksonville, Florida DJs' journey from "Whoot! There it Is" to "Tootsie Roll" to "C'mon and Ride It (The Train)" to "What You Want for Christmas." It's the kind of story I love, with people working up homemade solutions to musical challenges, and what happens along the way.  Unfortunately, one of the things that happened is that CC and his partner Jay-Ski fell out during the recording of Quad City DJs' debut album for Atlantic Records, Get on Up and Dance, and he was out of the picture entirely for the recording of All-Star Christmas in 1996. Equally unfortunately, I didn't know that until a half-hour into our interview. So far, Jay-Ski has not responded to interview requests, but I'm going to keep trying. Fortunately, last episode's guest, Bill Adler, tracked down one of the singers on the album, an artist who goes by the name of Big Tyme and recorded "Xmas Blues," otherwise known as Bonquisha and Otis, which bounce rapper Big Freedia turned me on to on a previous episode. Adler wrote the story for LL Cool J's Rock The Bells website, so I this episode I read an excerpt of it to help answer one more question about the album. In this episode, singer Alexandra Scott returns to talk with me about new Christmas music from Meghan Trainor, Ingrid Michaelson, and Amanda Shires. You can hear Alexandra's music on her Bandcamp page. This episode is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, purveyors of removable, reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

The impulse to share my findings while collecting Christmas music led me to this podcast, and it led Bill Adler to Christmas Jollies, an annual Christmas mix that he has made and distributed to family, friends, and folks in the music industry since the mid-1980s.  Adler started his career in the music industry as the director of publicity at Def Jam Records and Rush Management from 1984-1990, so while his tastes are much broader than simply hip-hop, hip-hop Christmas music by Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC play a meaningful part in his own Christmas music story.  We talk about their Christmas songs today, along with the self-imposed parameters that anyone who makes mixes will recognize immediately. We also talk about some of the songs that he has and hasn't included on mixes in recent years including songs by Joey Ramone, Irma Thomas, and Aaron LaCombe.  The episode ends with a track that I incorrectly identified in the episode as "Santa Rap." I have thought of the song as "Santa Rap" for so long that it didn't occurred to me to check the title of the Treacherous Three's track from from the Beat Street soundtrack from 1984. If I had done so before I packed up my recording gear, I might have correctly identified the song as "Xmas Rap." In the episode, I said that you can email me to get a special, listeners-only 2021 Christmas mix. Send me an email at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send one your way.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has worked to be more than just the jazz band your parents knew. Creative Director and tuba player Ben Jaffe has worked to ensure that the New Orleans musical institution has a place in the contemporary music conversation. That has led to some choices that purists have questioned, but it also means the band still has a presence in the culture, unlike many of its peers. This week, I talk to Jaffe about the hall’s holiday traditions and its own Christmas recordings, including a collaboration with singer Irma Thomas for the 2013 Holidays Rule compilation, and four Spotify Sessions recordings that the band did for the streaming service with previous 12 Songs guests Big Freedia, Boyfriend, and PJ Morton. In this week’s episode, I also talk to Alexandra Scott about new Christmas music from Norah Jones and calypso Christmas music from Mighty Sparrow, Lord Nelson, and Lord Kitchener. This week on the pod, I announced that am making a special listeners-only Christmas mix. If you wish to receive a copy, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.

We met Dan Zanes as the singer of The Del Fuegos in the first generation of America's indie underground in the mid-1980s. As he explains in our conversation, he discovered after the band broke up that people were more interested in a cassette he made of family-oriented folk he made with his daughter, her friends and their parents in mind than they were in his solo album. That set his course, and he has been working in the family-friendly field for more than 20 years now.  We talk about family-friendly music, folk music, and how his Christmas album, Christmas in Concord, fits in to that musical world. His wife and musical collaborator Claudia is part of the conversation as well, even though she wasn't with him on Christmas in Concord. She is on their new album, the social justice-oriented Let Love Be Your Guide. This episode also inaugurates a change as singer and friend Alexandra Scott joins to talk about Christmas music with Alex, this week focusing on Kelly Clarkson's new "Christmas Isn't Cancelled (Just You)" and her biggest Christmas song to date, "Underneath the Tree." If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.