Thanks and Acknowledgements

I'd like to take a few minutes here for some thanks and acknowledgements to the folks that help keep this blog going through their support and kinship in Christmas music.

First, thanks to all the readers who stop by here during the season.  This blog is a hobby, but I try to provide good, informational, and entertaining material for you each season.  I'm especially happy with the artist interviews each year, and grateful for the musicians who agree to spend some time being "interviewed" via e-mail.  I hope you all have enjoyed the interviews, features, and shares this season.

And thanks to:

• Russ Hitt, Katie Garibaldi, and Cassandra Kubinski for being the interviewed musicians this year
• Old Sound, Bett Butler, Sophia Talvik, and all the other musicians that sent music my way
• Kasey Rausch and Scottie Stanton, hosts of River Trade Radio on KKFI 90.1 for letting me come aboard for an hour again this year and play some Christmas tunes on your show.  You really make it easy and fun every time!
• Christmas music buddy Greg - it's great to hang out with a fellow Christmas music nut a few times each yet
• Buddy Tom for loaning his records for sharing this year
• Ernie - for setting a high bar for Christmas music sharity
• Stubby - take care of yourself, my friend.  So happy to see your late season posts!  Hope you make it back for a full season next year.
• All the guys/gals at Christmas Underground, Christmas-a-Go-Go, Hip Christmas, and all the other blogs doing such a wonderful job at promoting the best new Christmas music every year
• Joanna at Christmas TV History - a new friend made this season!
• Brad - who, for me, was the catalyst that really got this thing started
• All the folks at MyMerryChristmas
• Jon Solomon - 25 hours, once again
• Tim Neely - another great year of your Christmas Song of the Day, which I will of course seek out and find them and get them into a playlist
• And Matt at 200 Days of Christmas - thanks for letting me be a part of your awesome Facebook group - it's an honor and a pleasure!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve Mass - check.
Christmas Eve dinner and watching "A Christmas Story" - check.
Stocking stusffed - check.
White Christmas - check.  :-)
Guess who was the first one up in our house this morning - yep, none other than Der Bingle.  When the youngest Bingle child is 16, there's not quite the mad rush in the morning anymore.  So it was me, ready for the morning coffee...
(Well, actually it was the oldest Bingle child who was up first, but that was because she had a 6AM shift as a hospital pharmacist...)
All children here, presents opened, merriment and joy by all - check!
Now we're preparing for the 2nd half of the day.

Check back in here through the new year for a couple of wind-down posts, and news about a recurring feature I'm planning to run throughout the year that will keep Merry & Bright from hibernating quite as hard as in years past.

Once again - Merry Christmas!  Happy Hannukah!  Joyous Kwanzaa!  Many festive wishes for you however you choose to spend the holiday season!

Christmas Eve in a Season of Change

Here in Kansas City, in the north part of the city where I live, Snow Miser finally visited us early this Christmas Eve morning and left us with about an inch or so of fresh snow, our first snowfall of the year.  It was a welcome site, making for a beautiful Winter's day, and, with temps not expected to top 30 degrees, guaranteeing us a White Christmas for the first time in several years.

So it's with the oft desired wintry backdrop that we enter into a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of change this year.

We gained a daughter this past Summer, as my son married his long-time sweetheart, on, literally, the hottest day of the year.  The thermometer reached 99 degrees on that July day, but the heat did not damper the celebration.  So we welcome Kristina to her first Christmas as an official, recognized by church and state, part of our family.

We have a bittersweet change this Christmas Eve.  For the past eleven years my mom has lived in Kansas City, and the past several Christmas Eves have been spent with her.  Earlier this year she moved to Tennessee to live with my sister and her husband.  She moved, at age 97, and she recently celebrated her 98th birthday.  She is doing wonderfully, eating well, being more active than in recent years, and enjoying the Tennessee countryside.  While we will miss her this evening, we are very glad that she is happy and healthy as she prepares for her 99th Christmas day tomorrow.

And we have had sad change this year as well.  We lost my dear father-in-law early this year, and while the circumstances were, in some ways, as good as can be possible, it was still a time of great sadness and loss.  Fortunately for our family as we celebrate Christmas, we have many years of great, happy memories that will counter the inevitable sense of missing that everyone will feel.  His wife, four children, their spouses, and twelve grandchildren will celebrate and remember over these next two days.

As I write this, I'm about an hour and a half away from starting the festivities.  Four o'clock mass, followed by, instead of dinner with my Mom, a lighthearted dinner with my lovely wife and children at my son's apartment, where we will, in the apartment complex's "theatre", watch "A Christmas Story" for the hundredth time, east soup, sandwiches, and Chex Mix, have a few holiday beverages, and enjoy the Eve.  Oh, and the children will open their very special presents from their Tennessee-resident Grandma, which will surprise them greatly, I predict.  And then back home for the night, to see if Santa will still visit the children who are here with us at home this holiday.  Even though they are 22, 19, and 16, I suspect he will.

Final Share of the Year: The Bells of Bethlehem

For my final share of the year, I present the three-album set "The Bells of Bethlehem", a Columbia Special Products package featuring "A Christmas Festival of Song from the Holy Land, Europe, and America".

Record 1 in the set is "Christmas in the Holy Land", opening with the Bells of Bethlehem and continuing with a recording of a holy Mass at Christmastime.  Record 2 in the set is "Christmas in Europe", featuring traditional carols from England, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.  Record 3 moves to America with performances of traditional and American-written carols from such artists as the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Norman Luboff Choir, and the great Mahalia Jackson.

I have kept this share as six distinct sides, without attempting to break down each side into individual tracks.  Sides 1 and 2, the recording of the Mass, are especially more proper as single continuous recordings, so I decided to retain the entire set this way.  For the adventurous and skilled with Audacity, I have a separate link to wav format files, if you would like to break them into single tracks on your own.

Also included in the set is the 6-page booklet that accompanies the records, with information about the collection and about the individual tracks.

Booklet page 2

So, in time for the penultimate evening before Christmas and a day prior to Christmas Eve, here is the three record set of beautiful music "The Bells of Bethlehem".  I hope you find time to enjoy these as the season winds down and we approach Christmas day.

download link

wav file download link

As Local As It Gets: Christmas on Beardsley Rd

Last night on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, in the quite pleasant 30 degree temperature, I stopped and listened to one of the local street musicians that grace the plaza this time of year.  Between songs I chatted with him just a bit, as he had copies of "A Christmas on Beardsley Rd" available for a donation.  The musician, Mark Brown, shared that he had produced this 6-song EP, which features himself and seven other Kansas City buskers, those who play on the plaza, at the River Market, and at other locations around the city.  Liz Lambson, Paul Carter, Steve Burns are the principle musicians along with Mark, and guests include "The Mysterious Piano Maestro".

I do what I can to support local musicians - going to their shows, featuring them on my rare guest DJ appearances on local radio, buying their music (bolded and italicized for your convenience), dropping a couple of bucks in the buskers' buckets, and for what it's worth, giving them a shout out here on Merry & Bright. 

This EP is a super little collection of Christmas songs.  A highlight is Mark Brown's recording of "O Holy Night", recorded live one chilly night on the Country Club Plaza.  You can even hear the sounds of traffic in the background as it passes by on 47th St.

"Christmas on Beardsley Rd" isn't available commercially, so for now you have to be in Kansas City and happen upon Mark (and perhaps some of the other musicians) performing to get one.  KC peeps - donate a few dollars and pick up a copy if you see a musician with them.  Do what you can, large or little, to support local music.

Friday Two-Fer: Rod and Roger

It's the Friday before Christmas and we here at Merry & Bright are heading toward the final shares for the season.  Working in to today's schedule (after "The Last Jedi" this morning and prior to fancy pizza followed by the fancy lights of the Country Club Plaza here in KC) I have a pair of albums to share with you, both on loan from buddy Tom (although only one has the mysterious "W" on the front cover...).

First up is "Rod Kincaid Sings Both Sides of Christmas".  Rod Kincaid, a local Kansas City talent according to the album's back cover, performs songs from the spiritual side of Christmas on Side 1 of the album, with selections such as "O Holy Night", "What Child Is This", and "God of Miracles".  Side 2 showcases the more secular side of the holiday with "Home for the Holidays" and "White Christmas", among others.  Slightly unusual is the mini-medley of "Exodus/Born Free" that is included on Side 2.  Not something you usually hear on a Christmas album, but listen, lift a glass to Elsa the Lioness, and enjoy the bari-tenor talents of Rod Kincaid.

Rod Kincaid download link

Next up is "Christmas Time" by Roger Williams.  I recall Roger Williams being a well-known performer, and was somewhat surprised to not find this available in any of the usual digital formats.  It's a fine selection of music - well-orchestrated instrumental accompaniment to Mr. Williams piano.  The album contains twelve holiday favorites, including "Jingle Bells", "Silent Night", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", and "The Christmas Song". 

The album contains twelve songs, however the download has only eleven.  Try as I might, I could not get a clean rip, or even a listenable attempt on track 4 - "The First Noel".  So I had to omit it from the share package.

Even one song short, I think you'll enjoy this album by Roger Williams.  It's the type of music to serve as a great background to your at-home Christmas activities - baking cookies, trimming the tree, staring down the elf on the shelf, and so on.

So, please enjoy Roger Williams "Christmas Time"  download link

And thanks one last time to ol' buddy Tom for loaning me some Christmas records this year!

Solstice Share II: Robert Rheims

What better way to celebrate the longest night than with another Christmas music share?  So, that's what I'm-a gonna do.

Waaaaay back in 2010 I shared out "Merry Christmas in Carols" by Robert Rheims.  So, now seven years later I have a companion piece "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" by The Robert Rheims Choraliers. 

Under Mr. Rheims' direction, his Choraliers - Chorale, Chimes, Harp, Organ, Symphonic Carillon - give us twelve tracks of Christmas carols, each track being a mini-medley of two or three songs.  There are a few songs that may be unfamiliar, most notably "The Christmas Chimes Are Pealing", which is paired with "Here We Come A-Caroling", but most are the old familiar tunes that make us nostalgic ans warm.

Musically, the arrangements are quite good and pleasing.  The record transferred pretty well too, so the tracks are clean, with nice depth and audible separation of the vocal parts.

The 2010 album I shared out was in a red album cover and pressed in beautiful red vinyl.  This album by Mr. Rheims has a striking green cover, and the record is pressed in - hey! - what's this? - beautiful red vinyl.  Must have been able to buy red vinyl in bulk back in the day.

And the astute readers of the blog this year will notice the slightly askance "W" crayoned on the front cover, meaning that this is another album from my buddy Tom (courtesy of his Mom).  Thanks Tom!

Please enjoy "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" by The Robert Rheims Caroliers.

download link