Blue Christmas

Looks like I'll be drinking Christmas dinner alone again this year.

These songs are for the those of us who think that Christmas is the saddest, loneliest, most depressing time of year. This mix will make you cry. Consider yourself warned.

1. Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas.mp3
Buy: It's Christmas Time (2000, orig. 1957)
Gotta start off with a classic.

2. Okkervil River - Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas.mp3
From: Golden Opportunities Mixtape (2007)
This song slays me. I like this version better then their studio recording because the string part is killer and lead singer Will Sheff's voice is so much more mature than on the 2002 release.

3. Jim White - Christmas Day.mp3
Buy: No Such Place (2001)
Christmas at a bus station. Gulp.

4. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas.mp3
Buy: Etiquette (2006)
You can imagine the young lady in this song listening to the Replacements, scowling about the Minneapolis weather, and cursing her irritating family over the holidays. In fact, if this song took place in Wisconsin, that might have been me.

5. Red Star Belgrade - Xmas Day.mp3
From: Fractured Hymnal (1999, out of print)
The most depressing of all the depressing Christmas songs. Listen at your own peril.

6. The Emotions - What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas?.mp3
Buy: Sunshine! (1977)
You can actually hear their hearts breaking in the soul ballad.

7. Little Johnny Taylor - Please Come Home for Christmas.mp3
From: Christmas in Soulsville (1989, out of print)
This song may sound familiar to you as both The Eagles and Bon Jovi did popular radio versions of it. It was originally written by Charles Brown in 1960. Little Johnny puts slightly more soul into it than Don Henley does. Slightly

8. Over the Rhine - All I Ever Get For Christmas is Blue.mp3
Buy: Snow Angels (2007)
This one has a bit of jazz flavor to it. Whether it's rock, jazz, country, or soul: Christmas is depressing.

9. Asleep at the Wheel - I Hate Christmas.mp3
Buy: Santa Loves to Boogie (2006)
What's Christmas without a little alt country heartache?

10. Buck Owens and Susan Raye - All I Want for Christmas is My Daddy.mp3
From: Merry Christmas from Buck Owens and Susan Raye (1971, out of print)
If Red Star Belgrade's "Xmas Day" didn't make you cry, this one will.

11. Red Simpson - Blue Blue Christmas (For this Truck Drivin' Man).mp3
Buy: Trucker's Christmas (1973)
As if working on Christmas didn't suck enough, working away from home is even worse.

12. Terry Fell - >Let's Stay Together Until After Christmas.mp3
From: Truck Driving Man (1993, out of print)
Yes, let's keep this toxic relationship going through the holidays, and then you can break my heart!

13. Paul Kelly - How to Make Gravy.mp3
From: Songs From the South (1997, out of print in North America)
One of my favorites. Not only does it suck to be in jail on Christmas, missing your kids and the family gossip, but in Australia Christmas is in the summer, so you also miss a day at the beach.

14. Emmy the Great and Lightspeed Champion - Christmas in Prison.mp3
Buy (MP3: It's Not Like Christmas (2006)
I have about a dozen covers of this John Prine classic, but this one is fun as it's told from a female perspective.

15. The Carpenters - Merry Christmas Darling.mp3
Buy: Christmas Portrait (1978)
If Karen Carpenter's voice doesn't melt your cold, black heart, then you are a Scrooge (like me).

16. Joni Mitchell - River.mp3
Buy: Blue (1971)
And we end with a classic, "a river to skate away on." Mitchell obviously wrote this song after leaving Canada for sunny California. Now go get a hankie and dry your eyes!

Sunday Videos: Must Be Santa

The best Christmas party video of all time was put together last year by the one and only Bob Dylan. Bobby is mixing drinks, smoking cigars, hanging out with Santa, and throwing one hell of a house party. He has an accordion player, and even participates in some polka dancing, which is in his blood per his Northern Minnesota upbringing. I want an accordion player and polka dancing at my next party! Then things get rowdy, as they tend to do at holiday parties, and a fight breaks out. Santa and Bob just shake their heads. What can you do?



Dylan took this arrangement directly from the Grammy award winning polka group, Brave Combo who released this song on their 1992 album It's Christmas, Man! Bob is a big fan of polka and Brave Combo.



"Must Be Santa" was originally written by Mitch Miller, and released on his 1961 album Holiday Sing Along With Mitch Miller. Miller was a major force in the music industry from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, serving at the head of A&R for both Mercury and Columbia Records. With Columbia in the 1960s he was responsible for signing and producing many important pop standards. However, he did not like rock and folk music, and he greatly disapproved of Columbia's signing of a certain 1960s folk singer named Bob Dylan.

Concert Review: NQ Arbuckle with the Warped 45s, Horseshoe Tavern, Dec. 2

I was in dire need of a rock and roll soul cleanse, so I headed out to the Horseshoe last night to catch a few of my favorite locals acts. I had a late conference call, so I missed opener The Matthews Brothers, but made it just as The Warped 45s started their set. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Horseshoe was at about three-quarters capacity. Lots of fans out to support the local acts, plus a bunch of grumpy Leafs fans, with a few noticeably double fisting bottles of beer.

The Warped 45s played a 50 minute set which leaned heavily on new material. They announced that they will soon be recording their follow-up to their 2009 debut, 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan. The new songs sounded great. One was about bootlegging liquor to Dee-troit via Windsor during Prohibition in the US. Another, called "Live Bait," was a a rocking little number about a down-on-his-luck man selling bait to get buy. Between the storytelling and the amped up guitars, I could really hear the Drive-By Truckers influence in their new material. I'm looking very forward to the new release.

Why Have You Passed Me By Grim Reaper.mp3
Buy (Amazon): 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan (2009)
Buy (Maple Music): 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan (2009)

Neville Quinlan stumbled onto the stage in his perpetual blond bed-head, wearing bright red corduroy pants, and carrying four bottles of Blue. This is a dude who doesn't fuck around when it comes to drinking and rocking. NQ Arbuckle played for about an hour and a half, playing a set very similar to the one they played at the Dakota Tavern back in September, with only one cover ("Atlantic City"), and the addition of a keyboard player (Jason something? I was drinking). The addition of keyboards really filled out the sound of the band. I can't wait to hear more from the keyboard player.

Quinlan is so awesomely goofy on stage. You can sort of see the rest of the band members thinking, "I hope he doesn't embarrass us too badly tonight." But I suspect the band is used to various high jinx. Regardless, they sounded fantastic, playing tracks spanning all three of their studio releases plus a few off of their wonderful 2009 collaboration with Carolyn Mark. I didn't take a set list because I was busy drinking, but they played all of my favorites including "I Liked You Right from the Start," "In Another Time," "I Can See The Moon," "Downtime," "Don't Remember Me," and "Goodnight Irene On New Years Eve."

I can't remember during which song, but somewhere along the way Quinlan incorporated lyrics from New Order's "Temptation" into one of his songs, which completely freaked me out. In a good way. I had flashbacks to listening to Substance on my Sony Walkman when I was in high school. I also wondered how many people in the audience caught the reference. Not many, I imagine. I'm old.

Quinlan mentioned that they will soon be touring Japan and Italy. I can't find any official info on these tours, but here's to hoping that Italians and Japanese speak the universal language of killer drunken bar band.

Don't Remember Me.mp3
Buy (Amazon): XOK (2008)
Buy (Maple Music): XOK (2008)

Downtime.mp3
Buy (Amazon): Let's Just Stay Here (2009)
Buy (Maple Music): Let's Just Stay Here (2009)

I was looking for some NQ Arbuckle vids on Youtube, and came across this one posted by their label Six Shooter. That's Justin Rutledge and Royal Wood (on keyboards) to Quinlan's right (your left), and Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland on Quinlan's left.

Fuck Christmas, I Got the Blues

Christmas gives me the crazyhead. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the baby Jesus, it's just all of the expectation, commercialization, greed, neurosis, travel nightmares, and terrible, god-awful music that gets me down. What happened to peace on earth and good will towards men and all of that crap? Bah humbug.

Here are some good blues, punk, country, and rock songs about having the Christmas doldrums.

1. The Legendary Tiger Man - Fuck Christmas, I Got the Blues.mp3
From: Fuck Christmas, I Got the Blues (2003)

2. Asylum Street Spankers - Red Nosed Reindeer Blues.mp3
Buy: A Christmas Spanking (2001)

3. Stompin' Tom Connors - Down On Christmas.mp3
From: Merry Christmas Everybody (1970)

4. Guitar Slim and Jelly Belly - Christmastime Blues.mp3
Buy: Carolina Blues NYC 1944 (1997)

5. The New Duncan Imperials - Santa Claus is a Lie.mp3
Buy: Fried (1996)

6. Jimmy Witherspoon - How I Hate to See Xmas Come Around (Christmas Blues).mp3
Buy (MP3): Blues, Blues Christmas (1925-1955) (2005)

7. Mel Brown and the Homewreckers - Don't Plan No Party This Christmas.mp3
Buy: Santa's Got Mojo (2002)

8. Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December.mp3
Buy: Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard (2006)

9. Jaimi Shuey - Christmastime Blues.mp3
From: Christmastime Blues (2009)

10. Mike Nicolai - Christmas if for Losers.mp3
From: I have no idea...

11. Ramsey Lewis Trio - Christmas Blues.mp3
From: Sound of Christmas (1961, reissued 2004)

12. Fear - Fuck Christmas.mp3
Buy: The Record (2000)

13. Ray & Clover - I'm Mad at the Fatman.mp3
From: It's Finally Christmas! (1995)

14. Blink-182 - I Won't Be Home for Christmas.mp3
From: Santa's Swingin' Sack (1998)

15. The Swingin' Neckbreakers - Santa Claus Ain't Comin' This Year.mp3
From: 7 Inch Single (1999)


16. The Black Ace - Christmas Time (Beggin' Santa Claus).mp3
Buy: Blues, Blues Christmas 1925-1955 (2005)