A Christmas Yuleblog

Here's another forgotten vinyl Christmas album, rescued from the Goodwill bin of obscurity by Pastor McPurvis and the good folks at Vinyl Orphanage . To quote Pastor McPurvis: "Up today are the happy holiday sounds of Roy Meyer and his group of Singing Swingers. Hailing from the great state of New Jersey, Mr. Meyer founded this community group as a non-profit agency dedicated to providing music scholarshops to high school students, as well as promoting vocal group singing throughout the New York Metro area. "Mr. Meyer penned some ambitious arrangements for the group, and though the singers may falter a bit on the more complicated harmonies, they more than make up for it with their enthusiasm and sincere delivery." Pastor McPurvis hits the nail on the head... At first glance, this album looks like a church group recording but the arrangements more than make up for it. It seems Roy Meyer is alive and well and still swinging in New Jersey. And if you got voca...

Last December, I was so busy downloading stuff left and right that I never got a chance to listen to it all. During the last two weeks, I finally burned the last 40+ albums I downloaded to CD and have finally just begun to listen to the music. Smack in the middle of full albums by Hugo Winterhalter and Menudo (watch for those reviews soon) was this little Internet gem of a find from a band whose existence is largely due to the Internet itself. Arcade Fire hails from Montreal and formed in early 2004. Utilizing a massive amount of instruments (including harp, viola, cello, xylophone, even accordian!), they recorded an EP that they sold at their first live gigs (known to fans of Arcade Fire as the "Us Kids Know" EP). They went on to record their first album Funeral around this time and got a small label to distribute the album. Music critics praised the band, word of mouth amongst their fans was aided by the Internet, and David Bowie was so impressed he asked to recor...

If you are a Christmas music collector like me, you probably know that most Christmas CD comps are hit or miss - each containing one or two songs that standout in your memory. Every once in a while, you'll find a Christmas compilation that just breaks new ground - every track a hidden treasure. You are looking at such a CD. While doing a simple search for another Christmas CD at my local library, I came across this CD from the good folks at Dust-to-Digital in Atlanta, GA. Lance Ledbetter took over a Georgia State university roots music radio show in the late 1990s and began absorbing all types of roots music. He began corresponding with other 78 collectors, music authorities, and playing all this on his radio show. By the time Ledbetter left Georgia State, he was a bonafide roots music authority. He proved it in October 2003 when Dust-to-Digital released the mother of all box sets: Goodbye, Babylon . A six CD box set full of 135 Southern country gospel music songs from the...

Rhino Records - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... Richard Foos started his own record shop in 1973 called Rhino Records. His enterprising store manager, Harold Bronson, convinced Foos to start their own music label and in 1978, Rhino began releasing music. Since most of the big record companies passed on distribution deals with Rhino, most of their first ten years in business was done out of their shop and by mail-order catalog. However, their eclectic mix of music and strange video (soon to become a specialty for Rhino) kept building a loyal fan base. In 1986, they finally got a six-year distribution deal with Capitol Records and Rhino was on the map for good. Two years later, I discovered Rhino Records after purchasing some Dr. Demento cassette tapes. I sent my $2.00 to Rhino for a catalog and they sent me their 10 year anniversary catalog - an artifact I treasured until the Toledo apartment fire of 1996 claimed its life. They had great compilations of surf music, a...

In a previous post , I mentioned that Christmas carillon music was beginning to become a subgenre in my Christmas collection. I also mentioned in the same post about the origins of this album: "Last December, I've began searching my local Goodwill, Salvation Army, antique stores, vinyl resale shops, and garage sales for unique Christmas music that I can digitally transfer over. "I found a RCA Victor "Living Stereo" album cover entitled 'A Christmas Sound Spectacular' by John Klein at a local Goodwill (no record enclosed unfortunately) that piqued my interest. Thankfully, I found a site that sells this very CD and ordered up a copy." The site mentioned above is Schulmerich Bells of Sellersville, PA. Not only was this album recorded at their factory back in 1959, they used the 1,453-bell Carillon Americana, the largest carillon in the world at the time, for the recording with two manual keyboards on the carillon and a pedal clavier controlling ...

If you think I was exaggerating, here's actual proof! All these CDs will be reviewed and posted here at the ol' yuleblog... look for the first review later today! And yes, if you look closely at the stack, there is a lot of alternating black & white slim jewel cases... all of those are from the Ernie (Not Bert) collection of Christmas LPs that Ernie offered late last year... I finally burned them off the hard drive and onto CD! I'll be busy for sure! Capt

Dear Christmas music lovers everywhere... About three months ago, I decided that it would be good for me to break the wintertime blues and audition for a play for a local theater group in Fort Wayne. The play is called "Lend Me A Tenor" and I got cast as the world famous Italian tenor Tito Merelli, known to his fans as "Il Stupendo". As March turned into April, I had to buckle down and learn a bunch of lines and master deliberate and delicate movements on the stage in order to get the role properly. I also was the only member of the cast who had free time to help build sets, paint floors & walls, etc., etc.. Needless to say, this took up much of my free time (thereby robbing me of the time I used to devote to this blog). When April turned into May (quite the operation she had), everything came together. Each cast member trusted their lines and movements, the light and sound cues were on the money. I added one final touch to my physical transformation ...

Here's a new subgenre of Christmas music that I've added to my collection - Christmas carillon music. Last December, I've began searching my local Goodwill, Salvation Army, antique stores, vinyl resale shops, and garage sales for unique Christmas music that I can digitally transfer over. I found a RCA Victor "Living Stereo" album cover entitled "A Christmas Sound Spectacular" by John Klein at a local Goodwill (no record enclosed unfortunately) that piqued my interest. Thankfully, I found a site that sells this very CD and ordered up a copy. I then found this album over at Vinyl Orphanage last December when they shared a bunch of wonderful Christmas albums. Down in Lake Wales, Florida is the Bok Tower Gardens (now Bok Sanctuary) - a sprawling area of bliss established by noted American author Edward Bok and designed by the famous landscape artist Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr.. After the last garden was planted and watered, Bok sensed something was...

Okay... technically, this is NOT a Christmas CD... but I did receive it for Christmas and wanted to share some of the treasures that lie inside. In the 1970s, the Second City Comedy troupe based in Chicago and Toronto was a breeding ground for the next wave of great comedians: John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray. While these four went off to immortality at "Saturday Night Live", the other members of Second City banded together and created their own TV show in Canada. "Second City TV" was seen throughout Canada (and in syndication in the USA) between 1976 and 1980. Joining this cast were John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas. In 1981, NBC needed a summer replacement for its music program "The Midnight Special". They brought SCTV in, gave them a 90 minutes to fill, and "SCTV Network 90" was born. This ran from 1981 to 1983 - winning two...

During the week of February 19th and February 24th , I reviewed six different Christmas compilations that I acquired from various friends and other Christmas music aficionados. I had no other homemade compilations to review... or so I thought. Mike Ung, a resident of Kansas City and yet another person who I met through FaLaLaLaLa.com happened to read my reviews. He e-mailed me to ask if I would be willing to trade copies of our annual comps. "I've always liked weird/obscure music" Mike admits. He also admitted to reworking the Beatles' White Album down to 6 tracks... That was enough for me! I agreed to send him one and off they went through the mail. His compilation arrived exactly one week ago. I didn't know what to expect - this was Mike's 5th Christmas comp. The artwork was pretty good - I did a quick scan of the playlist... when I discovered the title of a long lost Christmas song I've been searching for, I knew I was in for a treat. TRACK RE...

Since last December, there has been a stack of Christmas CDs directly next to my computer monitor. At one point, the stack numbered around 60+ albums and stood around two foot high. I have several things that I do whenever I get a new Christmas CD. I have an Excel spreadsheet that contains all the albums, songs, and artists in my collection. I also scan the front & back covers of each of my albums for two reasons - 1.) possible trades with fellow collectors 2.) insurance purposes. Lastly, if the album is available through Amazon.com, I generally post a scan over there - sort of a backup copy of things. Click on the link and you'll see about 85% of all the CDs I own. I can happily report that after much documentation (the steps above and the reviews here at the blog), the stack stands now at merely two CDs. This is the first review of those two discs. While shopping at my local Borders store, I was perusing their bargain sections and found this CD wedged in the ot...

My Christmas collection has many sub-genres - Hawaiian Christmas music, Christmas music on organs, banjo Christmas, new age Christmas, Broadway Christmas, kiddie Christmas, country Christmas, R&B Christmas, schlocky celebrity Christmas albums, even tone-deaf Christmas music (see last review). One area that was missing was honky-tonk piano Christmas. This album fills that hole in my collection. 'Big" Tiny Little Jr. was born in Worthington, Minnesota on August 31, 1930. His father, Tiny Sr., was a big band leader who was popular throughout the Midwest. At the age of 5, Little began piano lessons. By the age of 15, he went on the road to perform. A stint in the Armed Forces didn't slow Tiny down - while stationed in Japan, he played jazz with Japanese musicians on a nightly basis. After his release from the service, Little got the break of his life - Lawrence Welk invited him to play on his television show in 1955. He became yet another star that Welk featured e...

Wendy Rose is an artist, singer, and songwriter living in Toronto, Canada. She has recorded three full length albums (including this Christmas album) available at a store "in the heart of the gay village". During the past year, she has been doing a lot of home recording on her Mac and offers samples and pix of herself at her website . As for the Christmas album, it definitely sounds like it was recorded at her home. The Casio synthesizer pounds out the drum beat and you can hear the overdubs of Wendy strumming her guitar. All the vocals, arrangements, mixing, and mastering on the album are done by her as well. For all of this, I truly admire her - not many top stars in the music business can do that themselves. But after listening to this album several times, I have to classify Wendy's singing in the same vein as Johnny "Bowtie" Barstow - the world's premier tone-deaf singer. Both Barstow's Christmas album and this one are a perfect compleme...

Once upon a time in the early 1970s, a musical genre emerged called bubblegum pop. Wikipedia defines bubblegum pop thusly: " Some of the defining characteristics of bubblegum pop include catchy melodies, simple three-chord structures, and repetitive riffs or "hooks'. It is also characterized by its lightweight lyrics, often surrounding themes of romance and courtship ." The first big bubblegum pop song was "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies in 1969. The floodgates were open as other animated acts like Josie & The Pussycats, The Groovy Ghoulies, The Banana Splits, and Charlie Chan & The Chan Clan all began recording music. Live acts soon picked up the bubblegum torch and ran with it. The Partridge Family (featuring teen heartthrob David Cassidy), The Brady Bunch, The Osmonds, The Jackson Five, and LIttle Tony DeFranco & The DeFranco Family were cranking out music and even hitting the Billboard charts. Riding on the long bubblegum coattails w...

Here's another gem of an album rescued from the obscurity bins of the Salvation Army by the King of Jingaling at FaLaLaLaLa.com ! Not much is known about The Glad Singers... when the King posted this album on Christmas Eve last year, he stated: " It's hard to do research on an artist when the first results Google gives you are your own posts... " Fly over to the original post at FaLaLaLaLa to read the liner notes (and you can STILL DOWNLOAD this fantastic album)! As for the music, it's all top notch! It's a cross of Ray Conniff Singers meets Ferrante & Teicher meets Lawrence Welk wrapped around Christmas music. Several tracks on this album swing including "Gloria (Angels We Have Heard)", "Three Kings", and "Fum Fum Fum". However, the standout tracks are "Joy" and "Ox And Donkey". "Joy" begins as "Joy To The World" but along the way the Glad Singers just keep yell singing ...

Most every time I've sat down to review a new addition to my collection here at my blog, I've researched via Google and the Internet for background info on many aspects of the CD: the artist, the year it was produced, what it sounds like, and what has happened since they recorded the album in question. Here's one of the first albums I'm totally in the dark about. Rescued from obscurity by the King Of Jingaling, this was one of the featured albums at FaLaLaLaLa.com last Christmas season... and what an ALBUM! One part bossa nova, one part rock, one part Ray Conniff, one part Muzak... but it's the way it's blended that makes it so wonderful to listen to. The standout tracks are a bouncy "Silver Bells", a rockin' version of "The Little Drummer Boy", and a bouncy rockin' version of "Christmas Candy". Don't take my word for it... this album is still available to DOWNLOAD over at FaLaLaLaLa.com ! You better hitch a ...

Earlier this month ( February 3rd to be precise), I ordered four Christmas CDs from Amazon and I promised full reviews of each when they arrived. The final CD I ordered arrived last week in the midst of my week-long review of homemade Christmas compilations. It was definitely worth the wait. In the early 1990s, an all-girl punk band named Flamenco A Go Go formed in Japan - Petty was the singer in the band, Booka the guitarist. After moderate success, Flamenco disbanded. However, their manager committed them to record "Karma Chameleon" for a 1980s cover compilation. Petty and Booka banded together, recorded an acoustic version, and brought in The Toconuts, a Japanese Hawaiian band for the background. Seizing on a great opportunity, they recorded their first full album of Hawaiian music entitled "Toconut's Hawaii". While on tour, Petty and Booka performed live onstage in hula skirts, playing ukelele, and, in a nod to their punk days, wearing combat boots....

This is the last of six different Christmas comps that I'm reviewing this week. These comps were either sent to me by other Christmas collectors / enthusiasts or download available comps that were created by Christmas collectors / enthusiasts. In a previous review , I mentioned that I welcomed hearing other people's Christmas CD compilations - to hear the different styles of music, types of humor presented, and to make new friends in the process. No other disc that I received this year illustrates this more clearly than this CD I'm about to review. Jonathan Melton hails from the great state of Alabama. When he's not collecting Christmas music or taking care of his family (all of whom make appearances on the CD), he has been a Police Communications Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Safety for the past 26 years. Late last year, Jonathan left two messages at FaLaLaLaLa.com : 1.) he just finished producing his very own Christmas compilation for family and...

This is the fifth of six different Christmas comps that I'm reviewing this week. These comps were either sent to me by other Christmas collectors / enthusiasts or download available comps that were created by Christmas collectors / enthusiasts. In a previous review , I explained how FaLaLaLaLa.com brought together Christmas music lovers from all over the world to one spot on the Internet. Many of these people created their very own year-end Christmas compilations and shared them with their family and friends. It was a shock to realize I wasn't the only person creating annual Christmas CDs - but did that make me normal? Al Aitchison was a fellow collector from New York City who posted this message at FaLaLaLaLa.com on December 21, 2004: " Hey, does anyone out there make annual Christmas CD's? I'm always looking to trade with other collectors. I have extra copies of my latest collection. It's unlikely the CD will arrive by Christmas but who cares? It...

This is the fourth of six different Christmas comps that I'm reviewing this week. These comps were either sent to me by other Christmas collectors / enthusiasts or download available comps that were created by Christmas collectors / enthusiasts. As a Christmas collector, one of the greatest things to ever happen to me was when FaLaLaLaLa.com opened its doors for business back in the fall of 2004. Another one of the greatest things to ever happen to me was when someone brought to everyone's attention at FaLaLaLaLa.com the name of Andy Cirzan. By day, Andy Cirzan is a mild-mannered vice-president working for a great metropolitan concert promoter. By night, he becomes DJ Lo-Fi - a Christmas music collector extraordinaire; spinning incredible Christmas records he found using his Vinyl-Vision all over the world. For the past seventeen years, Cirzan has been issuing his own homemade compilations - 100% all-vinyl - no fillers! In an interview he conducted last year, Andy sta...