The Bruised Hearts Revue's Christmas Playlist
One of the biggest musical surprises for me in 2014 was the discovery of a local Seattle band called The Bruised Hearts Revue.
If you're a fan of Wilco, Over the Rhine, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, or Neko Case, you'll hear their influences here. I'd have a hard time picking a favorite cut from the album, but if you want to sample just one song, try the title cut of their debut record — "As Bright as It Burns" — here at Bandcamp, where you can also purchase the CD or download the whole thing.
The biggest Bruised Hearts Revue surprise for me: The band is led by a musician named Knathan Ryan, whose work I've followed for years.
And I don't just mean his work as a musician, which has always been impressive, but also his hard work serving communities in a variety of roles through local organizations, churches, and Seattle's Union Gospel Mission. He is also a devoted family man. And I am grateful for his friendship... even if he is skeptical of my ongoing loyalty to the band U2.
When I asked him if he'd consider contributing a playlist, he surprised me by coming back with picks from the rest of the band as well.
So here's a Christmas "revue" from some beautifully bruised hearts.
Knathan Ryan's Picks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvX8HKuDpHA
"I'll Be Home on Christmas Day (alt Take 4)" - Elvis Presley
I grew up listening to everything Elvis from a very young age. I guess I kind of got burned out of Elvis in high school, but had a reawakening in college. This recording of Elvis' was released on the Platinum Collection in 1997, 20 years after his death. I was away from home, away from my girlfriend (who was at a university in Minnesota and later became my wife) — and this song resonated and articulated the warmth and the desire to be home. When I listen to this song, I hear a true longing in Elvis' voice to get home — wherever that might have represented to him... maybe home was anonymity, true relationships, or just simply Graceland, I'm not sure — but his performance of this song stirs up a lot of emotion for me.
https://youtu.be/qf5MzJBxLCQ
"Salvation is Created" - Bifrost Arts
This piece was written by Pavel Tchesnokov, who was forced to hand over his religious compositions to the newly established Soviet power, unfortunately never heard this masterpiece performed. I think he would have loved this version by Bifrost Arts — the arrangement by Isaac Wardell and Mason Neely is absolutely beautiful and Aimee Wilson's performance literally brings me to tears.
Norman Baker's Picks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upuUV_TdmtM
"The Night Before Christmas" - Louis Armstrong
One day when I was young, my family was doing Christmas prep stuff while listening to the radio. My mom put a tape in the tape deck to record a Harry Belafonte song that was to come on KPLU. That went down as planned. Approximately an hour later, after we'd all moved on doing other stuff, she realized she never stopped the tape. Apparently later on in that program, this version of Louis Armstrong narrating "The Night Before Christmas" came on. It's the only part of that tape we listen to now. That's how this version of Satchmo narrating this classic story accidentally became a yearly tradition in my home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDqiz5MGglU
"Christmas Coming" - Alton Ellis & the Flames
Alston Ellis is one of my favorite reggae / rocksteady singers. He has an album and song called "Sunday Coming." He parodied his own tune into a lovely Christmas song. One of "The Flames" (Alton Ellis' harmony singers) named Winston Jarrett has a vast discography and long career of his own. He's been based out of Seattle since 2000. I was fortunate enough to be his bassist and backing vocalist for 7 years a while back. I always love hearing his voice on these old Jamaican recordings from the 60's.
AC Purdum's Picks:
https://youtu.be/WdFDNLqIioA
Christmas with the Chipmunks - Full album by Alvin and the Chipmunks
Growing up as a kid we had an old record player that we would play this album on when we were decorating the tree. It would then go into high rotation along with John Denver and the Muppets Christmas as me, my brother and sister would continually request to listen to it over and over again. It was joyous, festive, and funny at the same time. Now, as a father of five, my kids love listening to the same albums during Christmas. It's a nice combination of nostalgia and seeing the joy the album brings all these years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
"Fairytale of New York" - The Pogues
This is a favorite of more recent vintage. I love the contrast between the music and Shane Macgowan's voice. The song has great imagery that includes the down and dirty of living life even though it's Christmas. Also I love the Pogues and their tremendous blend of traditional Celtic music and instruments with punk rock.
Kevin Veatch's Picks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKwOByDgW3I
"Tender Tennessee Christmas" - Amy Grant
One favorite of mine is Amy Grant’s 80’s version of “Tender Tennessee Christmas” because the recording quality (acoustic guitar tone, arrangement, etc.). It just blew me away at the time. I’ve never been able to figure out how to record really great acoustic guitar finger picking like that. Is it the player? The guitar? Mic position? Mic? I haven’t cracked the code on that yet. I completely acknowledge that this is a boring "recording geek" answer. However, on a more human-level, my kids were toddlers at the time, and the song does bring back good family memories for me.
Suzanne Brewer's Picks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSfg6TylQ9M
"Let it Fall" - Over the Rhine
My newest favorite song is from Over the Rhine's new Christmas album, Blood Oranges in the Snow, "Let it Fall." I heard them perform it at the Triple Door (Seattle) in November... just hauntingly beautiful. "Whatever we lost I think we're gonna let it go / let it fall... like snow."
https://youtu.be/YF3X4cdL9p4
"Julens Klockor Ring" - Evie, on her Swedish Christmas album
Haha... Oh, Evie. I still have this record, although it barely will play on my little Fisher Price record player. My family listened to this record every year, putting up the Christmas tree, arguing about who would get to put the star on the top, baking cookies. I have such great memories with Evie's Swedish singing as the soundtrack. I would try to sing along to it in Swedish, but would inevitably end up making up most of the words.
https://youtu.be/NHhA-R0netY
"Joy to the World" - Whitney Houston
This is for when I've listened to too much sad Christmas music and I need to dance it out. :)
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Okay, now that you've tasted their Christmas music preferences, serve yourself a full-course meal of The Bruised Hearts Revue's new album: As Bright As It Burns.
Novelist A.S. Peterson's Christmas Playlist
“Redcoats, pirates, orphans — and Fin Button, a passionate and savvy young woman who is a treasure all by herself. Here is high adventure that feels like truth."
That's what novelist Jonathan Rogers said about The Fiddler's Gun. Then he added, "Three huzzahs for A.S. Peterson: The Fiddler’s Gun is an achievement.”
And he's only scratching the surface of A. S. Peterson, who is much more than just an adventure novelist.Just look at that face: Doesn't he look like a character? He is. Pete — those who know him call him Pete — is the sort of fellow who dreams up adventures on the high seas, and then goes out sailing to have his own adventures. (What good is an action-adventure storyteller if he's not writing from experience?)
Peterson is also the managing editor of The Rabbit Room, one of the only collaborative blogs I read regularly. And he also serves as managing editor of The Rabbit Room Press, which has been producing handsome handbound volumes full of inspiration and imagination. He is married to another accomplished novelist — Jennifer Trafton, author of The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic.
And I know them because, in 2013, they — and Peterson's brother Andrew, who is an accomplished and beloved singer-songwriter — were gracious enough to invite me to join authors Leif Enger and N. D. Wilson as speakers at the Nashville hubbub called "Hutchmoot," the Rabbit Room's annual conference: a celebration of imagination, community, writing, music, and faith. I had an extraordinary time there, so much so that I urged a friend of mine, the poet Luci Shaw, to accept an invitation the following year... and she's still talking about how glad she was to discover the flourishing community of creativity that the Peterson brothers and their co-conspirators have cultivated there.
Hmmm. Redcoats, pirates, orphans... I wonder what kind of Christmas music A. S. Peterson prefers.
Let's ask him! Please welcome today's Christmas playlist DJ... A.S. Peterson.
•
A. S. PETERSON:
Confession: I don’t like Christmas music.
I know, I know. Stop looking at me that way. Every time I make the admission, my wife looks at me as if I’ve just insulted a baby. But it’s true. Every year I dread hearing the first sentimental notes of the Christmas season as they drift down through the speakers at the mall and whisper in my ear that, no matter what, they’ll be here to torment me until December 26th. So when Jeffrey asked me to put together this list, my first thought was: Impossible. I loathe Christmas music.
But here’s the thing, it’s not really Christmas music that I dislike; it’s the sickly-sweet sound of a certain type of song played over and over again that gets on my nerves. I started thinking about it and quickly realized there were a whole bunch of Christmas songs that I do, in fact, love — most of them just don’t make the playlist at the mall.
So here we go:
1. "Winter Wonderland," by Stryper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB5_QVnD_g8
This is proof that dueling electric guitars and men in tights can redeem anything. The song itself sits firmly within the category of Christmas songs I can do without, but honestly (hah!), add Stryper to anything at all and it immediately gets better. They are like the bacon of the Christmas music genre. I’d pay good money for a speed metal cover of “Silent Night.” It’s obvious to me now that hearing this song when I was fourteen marked the beginning of my long and sordid rebellion against Christmas music. If I couldn’t get rid of the stuff, the least I could do was dress it up with big hair, make-up, and a yellow and black Flying-V.
2. "Baby, It’s Cold Outside," by Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn
http://www.rabbitroom.com/2011/11/song-of-the-day-jill-phillips-and-andy-gullahorn/
Sure Zoe Deschanel sings it in Elf and it’s adorable, but have you really listened to the lyrics? It’s a creepy song in which a man tries to prevent a girl from leaving his apartment by drugging her drink and exaggerating the weather report while whispering that her lips look delicious. Seriously, google the lyrics and then go hide your daughters. Enter my good friends Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips, a husband and wife team of singer-songwriters who put out a Christmas record a couple of years ago (creativity titledChristmas so that you can tell what its about). They covered this song but rewrote the lyrics so that instead of a creepy jazz tune about date rape, we’ve now got a hilarious jazzy tune about a husband's poor decision in gift-buying. Spoiler alert: It’s a toilet brush.
3.
"I Will Find a Way,” by Andy Gullahorn (cowritten with Jason Gray)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBJEzwE-8Mw
Also on the Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips Christmas album, this is not just one of the best Christmas songs I know, it’s one of the best songs—period. Its inspiration is a short story by Walter Wangerin, Jr. called “An Advent Monologue” (found in his book Ragman and Other Cries of Faith). I don’t want to spoil the experience of the song so I’m not going to say much about it, but it’s a masterpiece of storytelling. Go listen. You’ll thank me.
4.
Years ago, I was living with my brother, singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson, and one night I wandered into the kitchen where he was working on some new songs. He told me about his idea to write an album that would tell the story of Christmas, and I’m ashamed to say that my first reaction was deep reservation. The idea seemed about as cliche and unoriginal as a Kenny G collection of smooth jazz favorites. But then Andrew started playing me the songs he was writing — and I got it. He was thinking on a whole different level, creating something deep, powerful, epic, timeless.
Later that year Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ was born. I was lucky enough to be with Andrew and the band (Silers Bald) on the first tour and had the pleasure of watching audiences shocked and awed as they encountered the work for the first time. It was one of the highlights of my life and I’m so proud that all these years later, the tour is bigger than ever. In fact, the band just left on the tour bus earlier this morning. They’re headed out across America to spend a few weeks telling the old, old story in a unique new way. It’s hard to pick a single song off the album (it’s kind of like trying to pick a favorite chapter of The Lord of the Rings), so I’m going to cheat and pick two.
"Matthew’s Begats," by Andrew Peterson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOXeUAZjppI
What’s the most boring part of the entire Bible? I’ll tell you. Matthew 1:1-16. “And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; and—“ it goes on that way, and on and on and on. So here’s your assignment: take that passage and put it to music. Now make it catchy. Now make it dramatic. Then for bonus points, make it funny—oh, and do it with a mandolin. If you can do all that and turn it into a song that I never get tired of hearing, you are a musical genius. That’s my kid brother, people.
“Deliver Us,” by Andrew Peterson (sung by Derek Webb)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMcxIuVJqDA
Lest you think the entire album is about comical begetting, here’s one of the best of the lot. The song does a masterful job of laying open the desire of Israel for her Messiah. Derek’s vocal is raw and painful, building to a crescendo of longing and loss—and finally being answered by the voice of the One who has, all along, been drawing up plans to sate that ancient hope in the quiet-yet-thunderous arrival of the Incarnation.
Nothing cracks me open and lets in the story of Christmas like this album. If you plan to be at the December 15th performance at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, I’ll see you there.
5.
“Joy to the World,” by Isaac Watts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHIx6ViBplo
I dislike most of the usual carols, but this one I love. Why? Because it’s not a Christmas song at all.
Have you ever wondered why we sing it at Christmas? It doesn’t fit, does it? It’s not about the birth of Christ. I’m serious. Go read the lyrics. Here’s the thing: It’s a song we don’t know what to do with. It’s a song that doesn’t have a place in the world — not yet. It’s a celebration of the Kingdom Come — even though the Kingdom is still on its way. The fascinating thing is that Isaac Watts wrote the song in the present tense. This isn’t a song that looks forward to the time when all things will be made new, it’s a song that proclaims the joy of a present kingdom and the present perfection of its arrival in the here and now (even though that “now” isn’t yet). It’s as if he sat down to write “Joy to the World" in preparation for a single moment in time. A moment that he knew would come and would need a proper hymn to employ in celebration when it did. Writing the song was an act of faith, an act of belief in the concrete fact of a world yet to be, a world toward which every atom of creation groans and stretches and yearns. And I don’t think churches know what to do with it — so they sing it at Christmas because that seems the the next best thing (though they should also be singing it at Easter) — when in reality, maybe it’s a hymn we should be saving for its true purpose.
One of these days we’re all going to sing it at the inauguration party of a new Heaven and a new Earth, and for that bright moment, Isaac Watts is going to smile and nod his head and mutter, “Yes, this is just exactly what I planned for.”
Every time I hear his song, I’m reminded that the Kingdom is something that's coming closer every day, and it’s worth investing in and building for right now, right here, with everything we do, say, create, and celebrate.
Merry Christmas, and come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
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Be sure to check out A. S. "Pete" Peterson's books, and so much more, at The Rabbit Room.
Sarah Masen 's Christmas Playlist
I began listening to this post's guest DJ late, and by a rather circuitous route. First, I discovered the writing of David Dark, whose books are among some of my favorite cultural commentaries. Then I began hearing about his immensely talented "better half": Sarah Dark.
Or, as she is better known: Sarah Masen.
The name Sarah Masen rang a bell, but I still, to this day, do not understand how I missed her idiosyncratic art-pop records. Her distinctively ethereal vocal style, her meditative lyrics, her atmospheric and dreamlike orchestrations could easily be packaged as a new wave of Christmas music, but I find the struggle and comfort in these songs compelling all year round. Listen to The Trying Mark and you'll hear what I'm talking about.
(How did I miss an album titled The Dreamlife of Angels, which has the same title as my favorite film of 1998?)
I've been playing catch-up.
When it came time to ask around for some Christmas music playlists, hers was one of the first names that came to mind... so early, in fact, that I was far along in sending invitations when Todd Fadel of Agents of Future recommended that I ask Sarah, and I was so excited about that idea that I thanked him for it and prepared a second invitation, only to realize I'd already sent her one.
So it is with gratitude and pleasure that I introduce to you — if you haven't been introduced already — one of my new favorite singer-songwriters, a voice unlike any I've enjoyed.
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SARAH MASEN DARK:
About 6 or 7 years ago I started thinking a whole lot about the Magnificat. And Mary. And the possibility that while magnifying the Lord there was probably a tremendous amount of, “Seriously?! How is this going to work?!?!” From the bewildering mother-country of the hand upon the forehead, I offer up my contribution to the Christmas Party list 2014.
1.
“Mary,” by yours truly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05I4gW2yFPs
I am both disgusted and rolling my eyes at the audacity of listing one of my own, but I know very few people have heard it and I love this song. I offer it as one really believing that it’s a hum-along-dinger for the season in spirit and in truth. It is my shout-out to a long time game of call and response with a major source of inspiration to me and the number two songstress on my party list, Jane Siberry.
2.
“The Gospel According To Darkness,” by Jane Siberry, from her album When I Was a Boy
https://youtu.be/Y7oljfNc6c4
This. Song. Rawks. It matters in such a deep and tender way. For instance, when she says, “I see you looking around at the people on the streets/well things aren’t what they seem/If you push them hard enough you’ll find that most of them do not feel worthy of love/Now how did that come to be?” I mean for real people. What a question to ask during the holidaze?!
(Shout out to the very talented Tony Miracle for introducing her work to me in the 20th century. His music also rawks.)
3.
“Sisters,” performed by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, from the 1954 movie White Christmas
https://youtu.be/PG7x8HWbDzU
I hope Mary had sisters. I mean cool sisters. Like my sisters who watched White Christmas with me over the years and who, if I was Mary, would take my mind off of the fact that I may be stoned for being pregnant without a husband in first century Palestine and stuff. (Side note tune to add is “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” sung by Danny Kaye. He is so funny!)
4.
"Must Be Santa," by Bob Dylan, from Christmas in The Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qE6WQmNus
My second-born remarked that he sounds a little homeless. His adaptation of “Must Be Santa” is a particular favorite. I’m not sure what the Holy Mother would say about Dylan, but I suspect she could relate to being a little homeless what with the manger and all.
5.
Final pick takes me to a song that isn’t necessarily filed under “Christmas,” but I was listening to it recently and it struck me as deeply in keeping with the Magnificat. Deeply.
https://youtu.be/CYJLT1z0jNQ
On December 22nd, 1964, shortly after his death, Sam Cooke’s own amazing orchestral Magnificat was released as a single. “A Change Is Gonna Come” became an anthem for the American Civil Rights Movement, “scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” It feels particularly right this year in light of recent events in Ferguson and New York.
I hope everyone’s holiday is a Merry one. They have been full of strange negotiations since that first one way back when a young couple housed a holy baby (by the way, “Strange Negotiations” is another great song for the list from Dave Bazan. Probably best listened to as a centering exercise before entering family get-togethers).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVJtWhkA6rg
Chris Willman's Christmas Playlist
I was already a fan of Chris Willman's work in the early '90s when he singled out U2's greatly misunderstood, hastily dismissed album Pop as the #1 record of that year. I was glad to find somebody who was listening closely enough to appreciate the complexity and stylistic audacity of the record. I already knew about his appreciation for Bruce Cockburn. Many years later, I'd have the privilege of meeting him during a press junket for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in L.A.
So I was already impressed with his discernment and his tastes. Today, though, I must say — the dude is resilient. He has sustained a prolific writing career through all of the ups and downs of an ever-changing media world.
You'll find his work in the archives of Entertainment Weekly, and more recently in Rolling Stone. (And he had a rather memorable and ongoing, um, conversation with Michelle Shocked a short while back, but let's not go there.) He's writes for TV Guide, Yahoo!, The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, Parade, New York magazine, The Wrap, The San Francisco Chronicle, Spin, Billboard, People, Relix, Country Weekly, CMT.com, M: Music & Musicians, T-Mobile magazine, JCK, Popdust, and for various record label and management clients. He's spotlighted Jack White, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, The Dave Matthews Band, Alan Jackson, Taylor Swift, Natalie Maines, Rod Stewart, Pink, Fleetwood Mac, LeAnn Rimes, Buddy Miller, Aerosmith, Kacey Musgraves, and many, many more.
Further evidence of his credibility: Kanye West once told him to kill himself.
Impressed yet? His name is also on the front cover of a book! He's the author of Rednecks and Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music.
I figured it was a long shot to ask for Christmas music recommendations from a guy who's that busy. But that's the thing: For Chris Willman, it's a labor of love. And he loves Christmas music. So it is an honor, a privilege, and — personally — a thrill to introduce him to you here, even though you probably know him already.
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CHRIS WILLMAN:
I’m a Christmas music fetishist. My storage bills will attest to that; being a record collector is bad enough, but having boxes and boxes and boxes full of nothing but nearly identical recordings of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” testifies to some kind of Post-Tannenbaum Stress Disorder. How many versions of “Little Jack Frost, Get Lost” does one man need to own? But a lot of it really comes down to the search for the needle in the manger-side haystack — finding that one obscure 45 that will crystallize the true meaning of Christmas, at last.
Asking me to pick favorites is like asking Mia Farrow to pick a favorite child: Why, of course I’ll try. In years past, when I was at EW, I came up with a list of the 50 greatest Christmas records; since that hardly began to satisfy the completest in me, I subsequently did a list of the 100 best sad Christmas songs, and even that barely scraped the surface. Why so obsessive? I think it’s partly because it’s a chance to go genre-skipping in a way I don’t find time for the rest of the year — jazz feels beyond my sphere, except in December — but largely because holiday music is a canvas upon which to paint the most unabashed sentiments and emotions, pumping up both the childhood exhilaration and adult melancholia. Or childhood melancholia and adult exhilaration. These are a few of my favorites.
Judy Garland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (film version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CreWsnhQwzY
To me, this is the great Rorschach test: is it a hopeful song or a heartbreaker? I even wrote a substantial feature about it for EW some years back, interviewing the song’s writer, Hugh Martin (since deceased), about its creation and the multiple versions of the lyrics that exist. Most of today’s singers use the rewritten, happier lyrics that promise to “hang a shining star upon the highest bow” instead of the original “until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” I have to admit: I judge anyone who sings the cheerful version quite harshly. (I may be revealing a bit too much about my character here.) None of the tens of thousands of versions that have been recorded beat the original use in Meet Me in St. Louis, where Judy Garland sings it to Margaret O’Brien as an attempt to stop her from worrying about the family’s imminent move out of their longtime homestead. O’Brien is so cheered up that she bursts into tears and destroys a snowman. In its original downtrodden form, it’s that kind of song. Really, it’s the goyim version of “Next year in Jerusalem,” knowing that, no, there is no such travel budget.
Bill Monroe, “Christmas Time’s A-Comin’”
http://youtu.be/EXfBYXElPII
For many years, I would put together a holiday music compilation every year, and I would always start it with a different version of this bluegrass chestnut, by Monroe or Emmylou Harris or Ricky Skaggs or Rhonda Vincent… until I finally ran out, since the song is not in any danger of being recorded enough to start turning up Mel Torme-level royalties. For many people, the anticipation of Christmas is sweeter than the day itself, which can turn out to be a letdown for any number of reasons. Whether or not Dec. 25 turns as joyful as hoped, there’s something about the promise of reuniting with family, home, and hearth. And all the urban complications of that journeying slip away in this more rural rendering of the lead-up to a trip back to the land of your roots. “Tall pines are humming”? That’s so much more idyllic-sounding a runway toward home than the one that runs through Chicago-O’Hare.
Chris Stamey and the dB’s, “Christmas Time”
http://youtu.be/_ZtfhH19JgU
For me, this is the rock equivalent of the Bill Monroe song, celebrating the holidays’ homecoming spirit with sheer jubilation — but also a spot of young-adult wistfulness from the singer who laments that his girlfriend is “far away in (her) hometown.” “Time stands still at Christmas,” he sings… if only it were so.
Roy Wood & Wizzard, “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”
https://youtu.be/IJPc7esgvsA
This early ‘70s rocker is much better known in the UK than in the States. It ends with a children’s chorus, but up until then, its sax-laden wall of sound is about as Spectorian as pop got after the ‘60s. As puffy as holiday music gets, it still captures the childhood wish for the season to never end… and doubly appeals to me since, when I was a kid, I was very much into the glam-rock that Wizzard tangentially represents.
George Jones and Tammy Wynette, “Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Afv3xrim6Q
The parents deserve their own song, too? For those of us whose lives have been affected by dysfunctional families and/or divorce, this might sound as dreamily naïve and wishful as “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day” — and George and Tammy themselves didn’t exactly live happily ever after at the North Pole. But its domestic contentment isn’t just aspirational for everyone, thank God.
Dwight Yoakam, “Santa Can’t Stay”
http://youtu.be/l4653rGQQ5E
Reba McEntire, “Santa Claus is Coming Back to Town”
https://youtu.be/5_JNLtqamyY
Is it too abrupt just to proceed right to the Christmas divorce songs? Both of these ‘90s country picks deal with a dad who comes back to visit the ex-wife and kids — played for tears, in Reba’s case, and laughter through the tears, in Dwight’s. “Santa Can’t Stay” is really my favorite kind of song: musically exhilarating to the point of nearly obliterating a fairly tragic lyric. Are those bells we hear, or sirens responding to a domestic dispute?
The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl, “Fairytale of New York”
http://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8
I almost hesitate to include this one because it’s so well-known nowadays, as pretty much the token go-to for anyone who wants some rock & roll dysfunction in their holiday mix. But its ubiquity — well, in the musical circles I run in, anyway — doesn’t make it any less great. I’ve always been a little disappointed that Broadway and rock didn’t overlap more, but this adversarial duet really gets at that theatrical sense of how a song can truly be a dialogue. And while most of us will never spend Christmas in the drunk tank, there’s one exchange here that year after year keeps coming back to haunt me… and to make me laugh: “I could’ve been someone.” “Well, so could anyone!” When I look back at some of my own lost professional dreams as a year comes to a close, that equalization just about sums it up.
Nancy Griffith, “On Grafton Street”
http://youtu.be/npaG55vfe9c
A lot of my favorite “Christmas songs” are the ones that don’t have anything specifically holiday-related in their titles or even many of the lyrics. Joni Mitchell’s “River” is a good example of just such a song that somehow, improbably, is suddenly being recorded by about three-quarters of the people cutting Christmas records. Nothing wrong with that, but I wish some of those artists would be adventurous enough to find another sad, barely-Christmas-themed ballad to pick on… like, say, this one from Griffith. In a far-away land, she’s suddenly reminded of a lover she hasn’t seen or heard from in years, even though there’s no good reason to get lost in that kind of reverie at that moment. Except: that’s what the holidays do. You’ve been there? Don’t worry, I’m not asking for raised hands.
Joni Mitchell, “Face Lift”
https://youtu.be/PgVz_oqdJAA
Here’s Mitchell’s other “Christmas” song. Already in middle age, she takes a boyfriend home for the holidays, only to have her much more aged mother object to the sleeping arrangements. It’s a very particular kind of domestic disagreement being described, but it speaks to how many of us grown-ups revert to our childhood roles, agreeably or against our wills, when we rejoin family at Christmas. Fortunately, unlike “River,” there’s a happy ending here, as Joni determines her own holiday happiness, however mama chooses to feel.
Jackson Browne and the Chieftains, “The Rebel Jesus”
http://youtu.be/rD-lZJnApl4
Not to ignore the elephantine reason-for-the-season in the room. As spirituals go, Bruce Cockburn’s Christmas album is my favorite, but it’s hard to choose a single favorite from that collection — although I don’t blame Joe Henry before me for going with Cockburn’s epic Nativity original, “Cry of a Tiny Babe.” But I’m taken by the take on Jesus by Cockburn’s non-believing pal, Browne. Much of the religious Christmas music we hear is about infantilizing the Christ child, as if to say, “You were such a beautiful baby — why’d you ever have to grow up?” Browne aims to bring the adult messiah into this, and very nearly overturns the moneychangers’ tables before wryly adding that he doesn’t want to disturb our party. Although he later recorded a solo version of this track, I prefer the one he first did with the Chieftains, which sort of disguises it as an old European folk song — and warms it up as well — instead of having it come off as a blatant political complaint.
Darlene Love, “All Alone on Christmas”
http://youtu.be/P97ZcMP5PtU
Home Alone 2 didn’t contribute a great deal to our understanding or enjoyment of Christmas, but it did as a side effect produce one of the greatest holiday songs of the modern age. Steven Van Zandt and the E Street Band looked to reunite Love with the glory that was Phil Spector’s early ‘60s Christmas album, even lyrically referencing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (which is my favorite Christmas record, but too universally beloved to require any evangelizing from me). Joy and melancholy don’t get any more expertly intermingled... By the way, she makes her last Letterman appearance Dec. 19. When we come to the final Friday before Christmas of 2015 and there’s no Darlene Love on TV, I for one, will really feel what it’s like to be alone at Christmas.
Over the Rhine, “We’re Gonna Pull Through”
http://youtu.be/IHSnnEmExto
I almost always end a holiday compilation with a New Year’s song, and it helps that they’re invariably upbeat, since I’ve usually included so many downer Christmas songs. This one is the rare Dec. 31 anthem to split the difference between despondence and hope, with the title providing an obvious tip as to which side they mean to err on. I love all three of Over the Rhine’s holiday collections, and could have pulled just about any song from any one of them, including the one that just came out in 2014. But this track had some meaning for me when it came out in 2008, right as I was getting laid off from my long-time gig at EW, at the height of the recession. I did pull through… so roll over Judy Garland, and tell Margaret O’Brien the news.
The Fault in Our Stars (2014): First Impressions
"It was unbearable. Every second worse than the last."
For the record, I hate cancer, and I'm in awe of those who bear that burden through unimaginable challenges. What's more — I love a good love story.
With that settled... wow, this movie has some disappointing "faults" such that I couldn't rate it with "stars" (plural). One... okay, one and a half, for Shailene Woodley (who is excellent), and I'll leave it at that.
[Caution: Spoilers ahead.]
Agents of Future's Christmas Playlist
Ready for another Christmas playlist? This one's full of surprises.
So far, we've heard from Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, Sara Zarr, Alissa Wilkinson, and Over the Rhine.
The Portland improvisational punk-rockers and worship-songleaders Agents of Future are hard to sum up. Their Bandcamp description describes them as...
Jesus-loving, jalopy-gospel way-backers get 2gether & do cre8ive things: Shrieking, speaking, flailing, failing, storytelling, fear-quelling. In the process, songs & stories R smithed & written, friendships & families R stretched & shaken,stirred & strengthened. Genre-gender-class-past-death-defiers & town-crying demystifiers of mystery history lead these pacifistic, full-frontally ballistic missives.
I could rattle off the occasions that they've made the news... like the time when NPR noticed their "Beer and Hymns" project, reported on it, hosted a chat about it, and then got schooled on doing their research about it.
I could rave about the tremendous heart known as Angie Fadel, who is a musician and a spiritual director specializing in intensive journaling, Enneagram, conflict styles, and active listening. And I could recount the influence of Todd Fadel in teaching, in church leadership, and in helping Portland become a vital community of artists and a region exploding with great live shows. I could talk about Todd's other musical inventions — like The Beauty, a band honored by Rolling Stone in 2006 as "one of the top 25 bands on MySpace"; or Meow Meow, an all-ages music venue that he managed in Portland for years.
I could go the personal route: I've known Todd since the two of us were toddlers playing with hand-puppets. (I fondly remember my first covetous sin: I envied Todd his hand-puppet of Sesame Street's The Count.)
Since then, we've organized and starred in high school productions based on Late Night with David Letterman (I was Dave, he was Paul); attended college together at Seattle Pacific University; and collaborated in an improv comedy band in which we recorded over 1,000 songs. He's been, quite literally, a lifelong friend.
Be sure to find, play loudy, and download Agents of Future's latest album Ballistic Mystery at Bandcamp.
And now, here's what a Christmas party DJ'd by Agents of Future might sound like...
1.
"O Holy Night," by Burl Ives
"Born to be our friend..." A lyrical fave from the old guard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L33JVkD_3ic
2.
"Ice," by Daniel Lanois
Last heard this literally stuck in a snowstorm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhIfbUsptw
3.
Heat Miser's Song from "The Year Without a Santa Claus"
The kids sing this one all year long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfgVEk-mxQ
4.
"Little Drummer Boy," by Bing and Bowie
The lords of smarm.
https://youtu.be/n9kfdEyV3RQ
5.
"See Amid the Winter's Snow," by Annie Lennox
"Hail the ever blessed morn / Hail redemptions happy dawn..."
Power throat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4AcvPIwPgA
6.
"Running Up That Hill," by Kate Bush
"Make a deal with God / And get him to swap our places..."
The whole package.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014): Or, "Moses and Errin'"
Dear Ridley Scott,
My name is Aaron. I'm the brother of Moses.
In the Holy Scriptures, when Moses balks at God's call for him to go and free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, claiming a lack of eloquence, God gets aggravated and assigns me to travel with him, to face Pharaoh, and to act as Moses' translator.
"Moses and Aaron." To anyone of any religion who has grown up valuing this story, my name has belonged beside my brother's like Jacob and Esau. Like chocolate and peanut butter. Like Mulder and Scully. Like Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Like Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch. Frankly... the Bible doesn't get into this... but I wasn't my brother's biggest fan, but he was gifted and I had to work with him, so maybe I should say "like Siskel and Ebert."Read more
Zemeckis's High-Wire Act
Robert Zemeckis took us back in time with Marty McFly and again with Forrest Gump.
This time around, he might as well recycle a famous Back to the Future quote: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."Read more
Over the Rhine's Christmas Playlist
Looking Closer's month-long celebration of Christmas music continues with a new Christmas music playlist as imagined by Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine.
If you're just joining us, we're well along in our playlist series. So far, I've published imaginative programs of music from Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, Sara Zarr, and Alissa Wilkinson.
Then, yesterday, I interviewed Linford Detweiler about Over the Rhine's new Christmas album.
Here now, is what Over the Rhine would play for you if you asked to hear something besides their own extraordinary Christmas recordings...
•
LINFORD DETWEILER:
By way of preamble I will just say that my father was a great hunter and collector of off-the-beaten-path Christmas songs. So as a child I remember hearing recordings of Mahalia Jackson singing “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” Nat King Cole crooning “O Tannenbaum” and waking up on a December Sunday Morning to some foreign philharmonic playing “For Unto Us A Child Is Born” from Handel’s Messiah, as we set about brushing our teeth and having Brylcreem combed through our unruly hair. He also loved gospel quartets and trios. He seemed to have a knack for finding records by women’s trios, often sisters singing blood harmonies.
He also had us young children and the kids in various Sunday School’s that he presided over, sing angular carols such as “O Thou Joyful Day” and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night” often by candlelight at Christmastime in a darkened church sanctuary. So that music is woven through the fabric of my earliest musical memories and performances.
And I will just say that Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the greatest Christmas album ever recorded bar none. That record taught me so much about playing the piano, and how I wanted certain recordings to feel and flow. It really wears so well and sounds so good all these years later. A masterpiece.
Karin and I as songwriters both became curious about Christmas songs that hadn’t yet been written – there are so many great standards out there, sacred and secular – so we’ve been trying our hand at it off and on for a few decades now. Karin decided that we’ve stumbled onto a new genre of music called “Reality Christmas.” We certainly didn’t invent the concept, but I think we may be the only recording artists that have explored it across the space of several records. So in that spirit we’ve decided to limit this particular list to a handful of great reality Christmas songs.
1.
"Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis," by Tom Waits
https://youtu.be/mxVo5mjK4eg
I remember playing a lullaby once for my piano teacher in Canada with a bit too much enthusiasm/verve, and he commented, “I think you just woke the baby.” I’m not sure if Tom’s singing “Silent Night” at the beginning and end of this piece would soothe babes to sleep or not, but it has a certain undeniable weariness that makes the old carol feel strangely real. For any of us who lived in old neighborhoods that were considered the bad part of town, and encountered various characters on the street during the holidays, this tune has a certain resonance.
2.
"Christmas In Prison," by John Prine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj-Vff5HPhc
Considering several million Americans will spend the holidays behind bars this year, I’m glad to have this song pop up on my radar once in awhile…
3.
"Christmas in Paradise," by Mary Gauthier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwmM5hUkaLE
Perfect song, great storyteller…
4.
Cry Of A Tiny Babe, Bruce Cockburn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmZlYiMCvSc
Love this reimagining of the Christmas story. Also love knowing it was one of Joe Henry’s first recording sessions, a session that somehow gave him permission to go on to produce so many records.
5.
"River," by Joni Mitchell
https://youtu.be/F8MqF7xEGhs
I know, I know, it’s been covered to death. But I remember listening to Blue at Christmastime over and over, years ago, because the record embodied something I needed to feel. This is certainly one of the great Christmas tunes of the modern era, and the original can’t be improved upon. Joni recently said that anyone who covers this song “with a smile” (pay attention, Idina) has got it all wrong.
6.
"If We Make It Through December," by Merle Haggard
https://youtu.be/U9TByT3QlWc
One of the great reality Christmas songs to be sure... After Karin and I heard it on a late night drive, we knew we had to sing it together.
Coyote Hunting at Christmas with Linford Detweiler
"Reality Christmas." That's the genre that Over the Rhine are making their own: A catalog of Christmas music that shuts down sentimentality, embraces honesty and authenticity, and insists on reaching through the darkness, the hardship, the heavy-heartedness, toward hope.
In this, my fourth Looking Closer conversation with Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine, we talked about the stories behind the songs on the band's third "Reality Christmas" album, Blood Oranges in the Snow.
Want to listen to the album while your read the interview? You can, thanks to The New York Times.
And if, when you're done reading, you want to look back at my past conversations with Detweiler, here they are:
- Making Songs Out of Stories: Over the Rhine’s Linford Detweiler on 10 Years of Songwriting (2000)
- Coming Home to Ohio: A Conversation with Over the Rhine’s Linford Detweiler about the New Double Album (2003)
- "The Stuff of Staying Together: A Conversation with Over the Rhine’s Linford Detweiler about the Story Behind the Music of Drunkard’s Prayer (2005)
Overstreet:
I have to know: Where did the title come from? Have you ever eaten blood oranges in the snow?
Detweiler:
Yes. My parents, having both survived the Great Depression as small children, both grew up during a time when receiving an orange as a child for Christmas was significant and very special. We always had oranges (including blood oranges) on the table at home for Christmas. The smell of oranges was as important as the smell of pine boughs. Regarding the title, I can’t remember when it popped into my head, but the writer part of my brain immediately began vibrating and I knew there was a song there.
Overstreet:
The harmonies in this opening track are dreamy. Now that you’re singing more harmonies, I wonder: Are there couples or duos you’re listening to more intently?
Detweiler:
The Milk Carton Kids did a few tours opening for us, and sat in on a Hank Williams song that we would all sing in the room together away from the microphones. I must admit, hearing Joey and Kenneth sing together made me want to sing more with Karin. Beyond that, Karin has been gently encouraging me to sing with her for years. We both grew up in churches where there were always people gathering around singing harmonies. Somewhere along the line though I acquired a bit of a hang up regarding my singing voice. Singing more with Karin these last few years has been a gift for me. Singing is tremendously empowering.
Overstreet:
There are several songs mentioned in this title track: “Red Wing,” for one, and another that you’ve often mentioned in onstage banter: “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” Can you say a bit about the significance of those?
Detweiler:
My Dad used to play “Red Wing” on his harmonica, an old fiddle tune. I name checked four old Gospel Hymns in the song “Blood Oranges In The Snow”: “Who Made The Lilies,” “On The Jericho Road,” "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning,” and “Be Still My Soul.”
“Let The Lower Lights Be Burning” has always been an important song to me because of the evocative name, and because it was based on a shipwreck in Cleveland, Ohio, that was quite tragic. The man who was supposed to turn on the harbor lights in the fog was drinking and fell asleep, and a passenger ship ran aground. “Be Still My Soul” is an important song to my family because those words are on my father’s gravestone.
Overstreet:
I love these lyrics in "Another Christmas":
Another Christmas is drifting in softly
Like the ghost of my innocence lost
And the tree in the corner burns brightly
I turned all the other lights off
I think we love Christmas carols for a lot of reasons, but one of the most important is that they become these little time capsules of memory that we get to open up each year. They bring back what we were experiencing in past years when we heard them.
It just so happens that my most vivid — and my favorite — Christmas memory is of coming home after the crowded, noisy hubbub at my grandparents’ place. I collapsed on the living room couch, and my parents and my brother went to bed. I stayed there, watching the blinking lights of the Christmas tree cast wild, needled shadows across the ceiling, and they would change, creating mysterious pictures across that white canvas. And I knew as I lay there that this would always be my favorite Christmas memory: Occasional gusts of wind blowing sleet against the window, a pile of unopened presents under the tree, and all of these beautiful, terrifying, abstract figures fading in and out on the ceiling. So this song super-connects a powerful childhood memory with my more complicated holidays in a way that blesses me.
I get the feeling that there are distinct personal memories here in your lyrics. What are some of the most vivid images of your childhood Christmases — those that are most important to you?
Detweiler:
The song “Blood Oranges In The Snow” contains memories of an era of my childhood that I haven’t written about much. My parents moved to Montana for about 6 years when I was eleven, and though they didn’t have much money, they sent all of us kids to a boarding school in Canada in Alberta, where they thought we could get a good Christian education. (Actually, that school gave me my most important piano teacher.) But anyway, getting home at Christmastime, crossing the border and negotiating snowy mountain passes was always an adventure that would have made Laura Ingalls Wilder lose sleep at night. But we knew the glowing lights of home were waiting for us. That’s always been part of Christmas for me: the melancholy of trying to overcome the odds to find a place called home.
One of my favorite memories that I mention in the song is the fact that my mother would often give me a pass on washing dishes if I would play hymns for her out of an old hymnbook – try to find an old song that she didn’t know.
I never did find a hymn she didn’t know.
Also, one of my favorite (and most humorous to me now) Christmas memories is coming home to Montana broke from boarding school and being determined to shoot a coyote. Back in the day a coyote was worth about $125, and I had decided this was our ticket to financial stability. My brothers and I spent our two precious weeks of vacation getting up early, traipsing up and down mountains, trodding river bottoms and fanning out across foothills armed to the teeth. We saw mule deer, porcupines, jack rabbits, elk, who knows what all. We never so much as grazed a coyote.
Overstreet:
Your Christmas songs often express the struggle to hold on to belief in the midst of trouble. Does the process of writing and singing songs like "Another Christmas" strengthen those muscles of belief in something that the rational mind struggles to hold? Or does it feel more like a lament, more like a way of voicing what you wish for?
Detweiler:
That’s a great question. All I can say is that those of us who grew up with the Christmas story were taught that something incredibly redemptive happened. Angels were singing, Good news! Peace was coming to earth. Good will and mercy, abounding. The cycle of violence that we humans are so addicted to was going to be broken once and for all by this little child.
The distance between that ancient dream of peace on earth, and the reality of where we are today, can feel like a wound too deep to heal. I think a lot of our Christmas songs live in that gap, that distance, that tension.
But yeah, peace coming to earth, wrongs being put right, forgiveness replacing violence, who doesn’t want to believe in that possibility? I still do.
Overstreet:
I’m reluctant to ask about the third track, "My Father's Body": It tells such a perfect story. And it would land on a short list of my favorite Over the Rhine songs. How did it come about?
Detweiler:
After my father’s funeral, my sister-in-law Kathy said, "I envy you. You have your songwriting. You get to go process your grief and do something constructive with it." I thought, Well that’s a lovely word of affirmation. I’ll try to receive that. But the years passed, and I wasn’t writing anything. Then a year ago, that title popped into my head, and it has a sort of Robert Frost rhythm about it. I grabbed a manila envelope that had arrived in the mail and scribbled those verses down as quickly as I could before they vanished. And I think I found some healing in the song.
Overstreet:
Did it occur to you that this would be the first time you sang lead twice? Is this a special occasion, or will future Over the Rhine albums likely see this shift continue?
Detweiler:
When Karin heard my demo of “Another Christmas” she, as a producer on this project, made the call that I should sing lead on that one. “My Father’s Body” is more of a straight duet, really. I’m hoping we do much more singing together moving forward. I believe it was The New York Times that recently referred to us as “close harmony singing duo Over the Rhine” so we’ll receive that. It’s great fun to sing together.
Overstreet:
I was surprised by the inclusion of the Merle Haggard cover, "If We Make It Through December." Joe Henry included that on his list of favorite Christmas songs, which I published at Looking Closer last week. Did he recommend it for you, or who picked it out?
Detweiler:
We heard it on a late night drive several years ago and knew we had to sing it. One of the great reality Christmas songs to be sure…
Overstreet:
"Let It Fall" has been a highlight of your live shows for a few years now, and I’ve been looking forward to finding it on an album. It reminds me of REM’s “Everybody Hurts” or Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up” … two of the great "consolation anthems." I’m sure it’s going to be an audience favorite, one they’ll turn to in hard times.
Detweiler:
Wow, that’s good company. I like both of those.
Overstreet:
And, speaking of past tours... it's quite a pleasant surprise to find Jack Henderson back playing with you on this record... and an even bigger surprise to find him singing on "Bethlehem"! How did that come about? Do you know anything about what inspired him to write ?
Detweiler:
Jack is a great songwriter. We asked him and Kim Taylor, another friend, to write songs for this project, and both contributed beautiful songs, Kim’s being “Snowbirds.” Again, when Karin heard Jack’s demo of “Bethlehem” she, as a producer on this project, made the decision that he should sing lead (mostly) and she should sing harmony. We all see it as sort of a sister song to “Little Town,” a song I wrote for Snow Angels, our second Christmas record. There is some version of “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” on all three of our Christmas records – the only tune that has appeared in some form on all three.
Overstreet:
This album reminds me, in a way, of your anniversary concerts in Cincinnati, the way you’ve brought back so many former collaborators: Mickey Grimm, Jason Goforth, Jack Henderson, Kim Taylor, Jay Bellerose. Was it part of the plan to make this a sort of reunion record?
Detweiler:
It just felt right. We felt that all those players had something significant to contribute to a particular song.
Overstreet:
"First Snowfall" is one of the most epic Over the Rhine songs. That’s a lot of lyrics. Did this one just show up all at once? Or did you write it over a long time? It almost feels like a short story, something a little more fictional than you usually write. Am I right on that, or is this another song born of places and events you’re remembering?
Deteweiler:
Several people have talked about this feeling like a short story. It’s kind of a mash-up of memories, not strictly autobiographical, of course. But having lived for ten years in the neighborhood of Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, which could get pretty dirty and dingy back in the day, trash blowing in the streets, it always felt like the first snowfall of the year was a fresh start of some kind. After dark during a snowfall, when each streetlight would turn into its own little snow globe, and things would slow down and go quiet in the city, it always felt like something sacred was happening.
Overstreet:
Closing with a New Year’s Song make me wonder: There’s a sort of through-line from The Long Surrender, Meet Me at the Edge of the World, and this record — a sound that makes them flow seamlessly. Before that, you seemed to take sharper turns in style from record to record. Have you settled into the sound that feels like home? Or do you still get any itch to do a noisier rock record, or something strange and different?
Detweiler:
We get the itch. The reason we wanted to have Jay Bellerose, and Eric Heywood, and Jen Condos play on this Christmas record was because we toured with them last fall and had a truly memorable, lovely time. We wanted to bring that chemistry to these songs. And we weren’t thinking of mixing it up from Meet Me At The Edge Of The World to Blood Oranges… That wasn’t the issue. The issue was mixing it up from Darkest Night Of The Year to Snow Angels to Blood Oranges In The Snow and in that regard, I think all three of our Christmas records occupy unique landscapes. But no, we never want to make the same record over and over.
Overstreet:
You’ve been teaching songwriting at The Glen Workshop for a lot of years now, and the plans for your upcoming "barn-raising" are steering you toward a new kind of role in a creative community. For those who have entertained the notion of coming to your workshop: What they can look forward to if they register?
Detweiler:
Well, each workshop is a little different and takes on its own life, but basically we just tell those who attend everything we know about songwriting, anything that’s been helpful to us over the last 25 years. And then we gently explore each other’s songs-in-progress, and do some writing together. It’s a very restorative, inspiring week, partly because we are exposed to the work of other artists throughout the week – poets, painters, novelists etc. The cross-pollination is priceless.
Overstreet:
Tell us about the event coming up in May 2015, and the opportunity that we have to help you build the next chapter of Over the Rhine’s story.
Detweiler:
Karin and I are tying a bow on 25 years of making music together. It has become plain to us that there is no way we can repeat those 25 years moving forward. So we have to reinvent what we do somewhat, or perish.
There are different questions artists can ask (especially young artists). You can ask, What must I do to be famous? In which case, you will open yourself up to all kinds of destructive forces within and without.
Another question you can ask is, What must I do to make this sustainable, to practice a craft for the long haul?
Years ago, Karin and I realized that there was no way we could sustain a career if we kept giving away our music to major labels. So we decided to only license our music so that we could retain ownership, even if it meant operating on a smaller scale.
Well, we’ve concluded we can’t sustain our career moving forward in the modern era of streaming etc, unless we establish our own creative home base. So (in the spirit of Levon Helm) we are restoring a 140-year-old barn into a performing arts center and recording studio. As we continue to grow older, we hope to begin traveling less, and hosting more events at home. What a dream it would be to play a great show and then sleep in our own beds.
We have made three records now with the help of our fans. Building the barn will be the biggest project of our career, and we won’t be able to bring it to completion without the help of our extended musical family.
We’re hosting barn raising concerts on Memorial Day Weekend 2015 to raise funds for this project. And we hope people from far and wide will make the trek to Ohio to see the farm and the barn and be part of this big step. It feels pretty special. If people are interested in obtaining tickets to this picnic/party/musical gathering, they can check out our website.