A Christmas Yuleblog

Several weeks ago, I posted a yuleblog entry about electronic music, the theremin, and the Moog. To quote from that entry: " Any other Christmas Moog albums out there that I missed? I know of one which I found sealed in a Chicago record store that I'm planning on sharing next month... " Well, here it is. My final offering for my Christmas in July celebration. Guess I saved the best for last. There's not much out there on Douglas Leedy. According to a rather meandering Wikipedia entry, he was born in 1938, studied many varied styles of music all over the world, and has been composing and conducting music for most of his life. He eventually ended up in Brentwood, California at UCLA. It was here that he founded UCLA's electronic music studio and specialized in the Moog and Buchla synthesizers and an electronic gizmo named the Ognob Generator: (Click on image to enlarge) Being so close to Hollywood, the good folks at Capitol Records soon came ca...

Here's the final batch of 2006 albums I've just pulled and reposted from the oven: Bowen & Csehy - Christmas Steepletime A Country Christmas DeWayne Fulton - Christmas Greetings From Earl Grant - Winter Wonderland Jim & Tammy - Christmas With Sy Mann & The Malvin Carolers - Let's All Sing Christmas Carols The Bob Mantzke Choralaires - Christmas Songs Pat O'Brien - A Quiet Christmas The Piano Rolls & Voices - All Time Christmas Hits Bob Ralston - Christmas Hymns & Carols Happy listening... Capt

I've gone back and answered comments left here at the yuleblog for the past two months. If you've left a comment here during that time, the answer now awaits you at the post you left it at. Or simply click on the link: Zube has left a new comment on your post " JohnsCDs 2006-1172-001 - A Sleigh Full Of Joy: Sharity Rarities 2006 ": Love your site, have been enjoying it for some time. I would love to have a copy of this CD, but I can't make it work for me. I have dialup at home and the download never finishes. I have some blocking at work so fileshare is off limits. Would it be too much of an imposition to get you to upload this CD to filehosting.cc? That one I can download at work without problems. Thanks, Zube Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " April 2007 ": All right Captain. You do deserve a break! In fact, you deserve a raise! Thanks for all the elbow greese on the keyboard! I have enjoyed the ride immensely! Jonatha...

Earlier this year, I travelled solo to Chicago and raided every thrift store, Salvation Army, Goodwill, and vinyl record store in search of new and exciting Christmas albums. The trip yielded quite a harvest and this little nugget was one of my finds. The Beverly neighborhood in the southwest corner of Chicago is a blue-collar, middle-class neighborhood that has flourished over the years. While other parts of Chicago look like Baghdad, this part of the city prides itself on its work ethic, family principles, and an urban sense of community that never went out of style back in the late 1960s like it did throughout the entire country. Back in 1967, John Dreznes decided to buy a record store on South Western Avenue for his wife Christine. Christine wanted a positive place for neighborhood kids to visit, get after-school jobs, and a place where "Mrs. Dee" could keep an eye on her friends' kids. Her choice of name for this place? Beverly Records. As the business to...

I'm still hustling here... here's some more goodies from last year freshly updated: Jimmy Dean - Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card Pete Fountain - Candy Clarinet: Merry Christmas From (STEREO) Will Glahe & His Orchestra - Christmas Greetings From Germany Shirley & Squirrely - Christmas With Happy listening... Capt

Wow... time has certainly had its way with me over these first few weeks of July. Between the T-ball games of my oldest daughter, chaperoned day care outings, theater obligations, travels to Chicago to see my family and my beloved Cubs, I have had zero time to do anything Christmas related. Especially when the kids don't want to play in the hot Indiana summer and rather play computer games. And the scary thing is... my family and I are about to head to Chicago (again) and the rest of my July is booked solid. The silver lining around this is between today and Wednesday, I have a window to actually work at the computer (since I've hidden all my kids CD-ROMs but you didn't read that here). My original plans were to share out around eight new Christmas albums and any re-link requests you submitted. Due to all my activities with the family, these have been scaled back. Not as bad as you think, though. There will be four new Christmas albums to offer... and I'm wor...

Dear readers of the yuleblog, If you haven't noticed, there hasn't been much activity around here for a while. It seems just as I'm ready to get into a flow, a routine, a schedule that I can follow to crank out some reviews, the fates conspire and I find myself back at square one. About a week and a half ago, the play I was involved with since the beginning of March of this year ended, leaving me with actual free time to devote to whatever I wanted. This is also where my summer began. The house & yard needed attending, the kids were thrilled to have their daddy back, we all travelled to Chicago to take in a Cub game and some museums, and the wife needed some much deserved time with all of us and by herself. Yesterday was the first time I sat down in front of my computer in over a week. I was planning on working here yesterday and today but the backlog of e-mails from family and friends, and the yuleblog backlog of questions and comments still need to be addre...