Acknowledgements and Inspirations

For my second blog post, I'd like to acknowledge some great folks out there on the interweb, those who have, through their generosity and sacrifice of personal time, have inspired me to create this blog.  A primary intent at Merry and Bright! is to join the Christmas music sharity community.  I hope to find the time to rip Christmas music from vinyl albums to digital format, clean it up as best I can, and share the music here.  The following sites are some of the best, and are inspirations for Merry and Bright!

FaLaLaLaLa.com

The King of Jingaling is the proprietor of FaLaLaLaLa.com, the epicenter of Christmas music sharity from vinyl.  If you are interested in vintage Christmas music, or want to relive the sounds of Christmas past, here is the place to start.  I first heard of FaLaLaLaLa.com through a now-defunct e-mail distribution called Trio Online, based on the also defunct Trio cable channel.  One stop at “The Fa” and I was hooked.  The King and his Elves provide the best from vinyl.  You won’t find anything currently available on CD or commercial MP3 here (or at any of the other sites below).  It’s strictly a labor of love to resurrect and share Christmas music from out of print vinyl.

Ernie (Not Bert)

Ernie is an Elf at The Fa in a class of his own.  At his blog, Ernie has shared Santa-knows-how-many albums of Christmas music.  I’ve downloaded more from Ernie than I’ve been able to listen to (so far).  And, for 2010, he’s over 70 (seventy!) albums and 1000 songs for sharity season (beginning November 1 right after Thanksgiving [thanks for the correction Ernie]).  Go visit Ernie, browse through his archive, and enjoy his contributions to this great hobby.

A Christmas Yuleblog

CaptainOT is another major player in the vinyl Christmas music world.  Amazing seasonal samplers, deep knowledge of the subject, and generous sharing make his blog a required Favorite in your Christmas Music folder.

Cheerful Earful

Inkydog keeps Cheerful Earful open year-round, and shares out more than just Christmas music.  Need some Hawaiian tunes?  Cheerful Earful is the place.  Come Christmas season, though, and Inkydog is another great contributor of holiday music.

There are many more sites offering Christmas music, but these are four of the best.  The King, Ernie, CaptainOT, and Inkydog have high standards for copyright respect, and will not share out currently available albums or songs.  That’s the way it should be.

I’ll be highlighting a couple more sites in forthcoming posts, where the content is a little differently notable than the four here.

And finally, I am sincerely grateful to the gentlemen who run these blogs.  They contribute their time, and ultimately the music, just for the love of the music.  We all benefit from their generosity.