Declaring War on Bad Christmas Music

By ROB PATTERSON

With the holiday season upon us, I take great pleasure in letting everyone know that the War on Christmas that had right wingers more fearful than ISIS is over! And Christmas has decisively won!

With Christmas creep leaping past Halloween now to stock store shelves before even the first snaps of winter cold, anyone who thinks that it’s embattled in America is blind or certifiably paranoid. But as long as the War on Christmas has been won – actually, the real victors are capitalism, consumerism and commercialism – efforts can now be devoted to a new campaign: The War on Bad Christmas Music.

As the Christmas season overtakes the last months of the year, bad Christmas music has expanded its reach and assaults us everywhere. Far too often it’s saccharine, cloying, mushy, cheesy, tacky... I could go on. But instead I’ll reach back to Christianity’s Jewish roots and simply say in Yiddish that it’s largely dreck.

This sad situation is exacerbated by how it’s largely de rigueur for musical artists to sometime in their career release a holiday album. That works against a genuine creative motivation being at the center of such endeavors.

But when Christmas music is sincere and stays away from cliches and soapy sentiment, I love it. Here’s some holiday albums that even non-believers, Scrooges and Grinches can enjoy.

One of my most treasured ones is the 1991 release by The Chieftains, The Bells of Dublin, which has historical and classical strains and features guests like Jackson Browne, Rickie Lee Jones, Nanci Griffith, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Marianne Faithfull and even Burgess Meredith. Another of my standards of the season is by late steel guitarist and frequent Neil Young collaborator Ben Keith & Friends, originally released in 1994 as Seven Gates and later issued as Christmas at the Ranch. It’s a lovely and low key affair that has the feel of a chilly night of freshly-fallen snow as seen through the window from beside a roaring fireplace.

Since Pope Francis says you don’t have to be Christian to get into heaven, a corollary would be that you don’t have to be Christian to make worthy Christmas albums. This is certainly proven by one classic: A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector from back in 1963 on which the “wall of sound” producer and his acts give seasonal stuff a rock-pop kick. And though it was met by skepticism and even horror from some music buffs, Bob Dylan’s Christmas In The Heart is rich with lovely and sometimes imaginative arrangements and an undeniable sincerity of intent.

In country music doing a Christmas album seems all but required by law, resulting in much chaff. But Christmas with Johnny Cash (which collects his best holiday recordings), Christmas with The Louvin Brothers, Willie Nelson’s Pretty Paper and the 2005 Americana artist compilation to: KATE – A benefit for Kate’s sake are all worthy offerings.

James Brown’s Funky Christmas is an R&B standout, while The 25th of December compiles wonderful gospel takes on Christmas songs from the career of The Staple Singers. The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album applies their delicious vocal harmonies to seasonal stuff. And the holiday discs from singer-songwriters Sarah McLachlan (Wintersong) and Joan Osborne (Christmas Means Love) are redolent with the right spirit.

There’s other gems – both albums and single songs – to be sought out within the huge holiday music pile. That way you have something for headphone listening as you shop to avoid the pollution of so much other icky Christmas music.

Populist Picks

Music Album: Bit Logic by The Bottle Rockets – The roots rocker from Festus, MO have proven themselves one of the consistent acts within that style, almost always delivering smart songs and taut performances since 1992. On this one there’s a thematic undercurrent of brushing up against modernity within its 12 tasty and nicely varied tracks of real American heartland rock’n’roll.

TV Documentary: Hee Haw Documentary – The humor was corny and silly, and its stage setting was as downhome as a cracker barrel in an old general store. But from 1968 to ‘71 (and ever since in syndication, “Hee Haw” brought country music to its fanbase on TV as well as people like me – at the time a hippie teenager – who were just discovering the truly American genre with great performances by regulars Roy Clark and Buck Owens and guest appearances by just about every blue-ribbon country star of that time. This doc explores how its on-set family atmosphere and unpretentious approach fostered a genuinely classic variety show.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2018

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