12 days featured

Our Christmas Best to You

An unassuming tape from the late '80s, sent as a holiday gift to media friends by what its now BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL, turns out to be the most heartwarming of Yuletide messages, an instant seasonal classic.
by David McGee
 

 
 
longfellow

‘How Inexpressibly Sad Are All Holidays’

1863. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW's wife had died in a fire, his son had been seriously wounded in the Civil War. The poet, in despair, still found a reason to believe and wrote the stanzas that later became a beloved seasonal s...
by David McGee
 

 

 
silent winters christmas morning

Alternate Routes, Same Destination

New holiday fare by KRISTIN KORB and Canada's folk duo SILENT WINTERS take alternate routes to arrive at the same destination: the heart--ours and the season's.
by David McGee
 

 
 
marley featured

The Deep Roots Video Holiday Card

From DEEP ROOTS to our readers, a holiday card of the video variety, featuring the ghost of Jacob Marley, Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners and Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong in memorable seasonal moments
by David McGee
 

 

 
spector christmas1 featured

The Mythic Weight Of Phil Spector’s Christmas Gift

In 1963, PHIL SPECTOR thought his CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU album would be a career-defining event. Then a not-so-funny-thing happened to him on his way to musical world dominance. BILLY ALTMAN fills us in.
by David McGee
 

 
 
B.B. Christmas Celebration

A Soul Ever More Grateful For What It Knows Of Love

An updated review of a holiday classic: B.B. KING's A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE. Indeed it is.
by David McGee
 

 

 
death might be featured

Christmas in All Hues of Blues

CHRISTMAS IN ALL HUES OF BLUES, an updated review from 2012, spotlighting four classic blues-oriented Yuletide collections: DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS and tBLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS, Vols. 1-3
by David McGee
 

 
 
dickens featured

What Christmas Is As We Grow Older

From CHARLES DICKENS's twopenny weekly, Household Words, a 1951 meditation, 'What Christmas Means as We Grow Older,' an optimistic paean written the same year the author's father and daughter died.
by David McGee
 

 

 
vince guaraldi featured

Sublime & Swingin’

A tribute to the late, great VINCE GUARALDI, and his masterpiece within a masterpiece, the score for the holiday classic TV show, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
by David McGee
 

 
 
david wood christmas gift

The Greatest Gift

A solo acoustic guitar masterpiece, DAVID WOOD's A CHRISTMAS GIFT captures the true spirit of the season as few Yuletide efforts ever have. Originally recorded for family and friends, it's a gift to the world now..
by David McGee
 

 

 
classical featured

From Advent to Epiphany

Classical editor ROBERT HUGILL rounds up the best in Classical Christmas albums for 2016.
by David McGee
 

 
 
niles featured

‘I WONDER AS I WANDER’

STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS: JOHN JACOB NILES's own account of writing 'I Wonder As I Wander,' plus an online discussion of the meaning of 'on'ry' in the first verse.
by David McGee