A Christmas Yuleblog

What you are looking at is indeed a truly historic document in my household. When I showed this one to the Mrs. the very first time, she stopped dead in her tracks, was completely speechless, and nearly teared up. When I told my family about it, they wanted proof so here it is. This is the first paycheck I've earned and received in 8 1/2 years. When my son Alex was born back in November, 1999, I gave up my less than lucrative career in retail management and officially became a "stay-at-home dad". My wife was in the last few years of a geriatric fellowship in Michigan and looking ahead to the summer of 2000 when we would leave the metro Detroit area and back home again to Indiana. Since moving here, my wife has worked relentlessly for a retirement home as its director of health administration. She had the inevitable task of taking a facility still stuck in the 1950s and transform it into a state-of-the-art, 21st century facility complete with separate areas for a...

We here at the yuleblog are always excited to find new Christmas blogs. We've had a great roster of blogs to choose from in our "Links" section located in the top right hand corner of our template. We're pleased to announce several new blogs have been added: Cheerful Earful - Inkydog, a veteran of FaLaLaLaLa.com , has decided to pitch a tent and open his own blog! Inky has posted several wonderful rare Christmas albums (Hugo & Luigi, Helen O'Connell, Jan Garber) and we heartily welcome him to the neighborhood! Sanity Clause's Shanty - Sanity Clause's blog really caught my eye this year. He has some remarkable stuff like Jimmy Jenson (The Country Singing Swede) and a too-cool-for-words full-length Christmas mix for 2007. This is a comp that makes you sit up and swoon with delight at the amazing sounds assembled. Well done Sanity! Santas Working Overtime - The good people at Senses Working Overtime decided to create a Christmas only blo...

This was a present from my good friend Jeff Fox of Jeffco Productions . Since 2001, Jeff and I have shared our love of Christmas music, both good and (as you can see) bad. Each year, we've tried to come up with something so utterly mindblowingly bad that it's good. Jeff loves RuPaul's Christmas album and continues to send me one song at a time through his comps. I countered several years ago with William Hung's Christmas album and then a mindblowing album from Wendy Rose . When this album was released back in 2004, it never reached the shores of America. The German people have embraced the Hoff the way French people embrace Jerry Lewis. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, who was on German TV singing and celebrating with an over the top jacket? This Christmas album was strictly a German import but that didn't stop Jeff. He found a copy via BitTorrent and sent me a copy (really, Jeff, you shouldn't have!). I fully concede now that musically I can...

Of all the CDs I received as Christmas presents last year, the one you see here is the most special for many different reasons. My friend Scott McMeen was travelling on business through Sweden shortly before Christmas last year. While shopping at a Swedish version of Target, he discovered this CD and thought it would fit in perfectly with my Christmas music collection. Scott's family and I have been close since my first encounter with First Presbyterian Theater nearly four years ago. His wife Deb was one of my first co-stars in 2004 and took me under her wing immediately. Deb and I played two at-odds married Cub fans in the play "Bleacher Bums": Then in 2006, I decided to act again in a play and discovered Deb and I were co-stars again. I played an Italian tenor (think Pavarotti) while she played a rich dowager (think Margaret Dumont) in the play "Lend Me A Tenor": Scott and Deb's daughters (Courtney and Kelly) have babysat my children, helpe...

Since the beginning of the year, I've been spotlighting new CDs that were given to me as genuine Christmas gifts. Although this one isn't "new" as in "newly released" last Christmas, this rare compilation definitely qualifies as a true present! It was found by my brother Rafael in a second hand store in the deep South (Cleveland, Tennessee). As is standard practice by members of my immediate family, he called me first to ask if I had this CD. I asked for the playlist (my standard practice) and heard many familiar names - Benny Goodman, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, and lots of Louis Armstrong. But on a "blues" Christmas album? Upon opening it on Christmas morning, I was astounded to discover his CD was pressed in Canada from Jass Records in 1988. It's getting more scarce finding CDs pressed before 1998 these days, even more so for Christmas albums. So to find a 20 year old Christmas Canadian import is simply mindboggling and exciting!...

This was a Christmas gift from my about to turn four year old daughter Josie (purchased with her mom's help). I don't think she's ever heard any reggae before in her life but she's a HUGE fan of The Backyardigans and they've sampled every musical genre under the sun so... By the way, this isn't THAT Joe Gibbs (Hall of Fame football coach, NASCAR car owner). This Joe Gibbs was working in a music store in Jamaica back in the late 1960s who decided to become a record producer. Working with groups in the back of his music store, he soon began signing artists to his successful label and became an authentic music mogul. Throughout the 1970s, his empire expanded. He set up a new studio, started three new record labels (Jogib, Shock, and Pressure Beat), and was everywhere on the reggae scene and helped record many of the top artists of the day. This album was originally recorded in 1979 under the title "The Joe Gibbs Family Wishes You A Merry Rockers ...

One night last month, my wife and son huddled around the computer, shopping for my Christmas gifts. When they came across this one , my son laughed out loud at the artwork and selected this one for me. Yep Roc Records was founded in Chapel Hill, North Carolina back in 1996 and has grown to be a quite reputable independent record label. Some of the artists who have released albums for them include Robyn Hitchcock, Los Straitjackets, The Minus 5, Paul Weller, Nick Lowe, The Fleshtones, Marah, and The Reverend Horton Heat. To quote from their website : "Every family has one, that Grinch who hates Christmas music, the humbugger that snarls at the mere mention of Rudolph or silent nights. During the holidays we here at Yep Roc have more than a few of these curmudgeons roaming the halls, so we decided to do something about it. "Oh Santa! New & Used Holiday Classics from Yep Roc features our favorite Christmas tracks from twelve of Yep Roc's best and brightest in...

Last January, I reviewed " Christmas With Peggy Lee " which was a gift from my oldest daughter Maggie who fell in love with the "snow princess" on the cover. So can you guess who gave me this CD as a Christmas gift? I had a copy of this CD in my collection - the 1995 Razor & Tie version from a fellow collector. It also had a lousy scan of the cover and pre-2000 CD-R that was falling apart. I always kept my eye out for a used copy whenever I went Christmas CD hunting but no one was willing to part with them (can't say that I blame anyone for that). Thankfully, some bright record executive at DRG Records decided a reissue was in order. After a twelve year hiatus, Lena Horne was officially back in the Christmas bins last year. When I discovered this had been reissued, it immediately shot to the top of my wish list. If you don't know who Lena Horne is, you owe it to yourself to take about 10 minutes out of your time and learn. Start with her Wi...

During the first days of this new year, I've been trying to get my reorganization skills reorganized in an effort to catch up with the 200+ Christmas albums I need to catalog and/or burn & catalog. This CD was on top of the stack labeled "Christmas Gifts" and was given to me by my charming wife on Christmas morning. It's been getting plenty of airplay on my computer since then. Why? It's Darlene Love, of course! Love was born in Los Angeles and sang in her church and school choirs. While in high school, she joined a budding girl group called The Blossoms. The group caught the eye of record producer Phil Spector who was reinventing the music scene with his "wall of sound". He immediately noticed Love's talents and began working with the group in 1963. During that fateful year, Spector brought together his stable of stars (The Crystals, The Ronettes, Bob E. Soxx & The Blue Jeans) and began recording a different Christmas album. ...

Pop quiz: What scenes in "The Godfather" contain Christmas elements (see answers below)? Technically, this is NOT a Christmas CD... but I did receive it for Christmas... and this isn't the first time I've reviewed something that wasn't a Christmas album. It has been part of an amazing change here with my "family"... Back in August, 2006, my wife went into our Toys R' Us for a last minute birthday present. When she arrived, an employee was taping a handwritten sign that simply read "We have Wiis ". She bit the bullet and purchased one for our kids for Christmas. The only problem was my wife's anticipation began playing games with her. She wanted to play the games, see how the system worked, and couldn't wait to sample the updates in technology. The last video game system we both owned was the venerable Atari 2600 from the early 1980s (we both received them as Christmas gifts separately in the same year of 1979). We ne...

For our first post of 2008, we need to clear up some old business: 1.) All of the album & MP3 shares were taken down today. Several album links were shut down at RapidShare early - this was totally out of my control and since I wasn't near a computer for over a week, I apologize to all who missed out. For more info, click here . 2.) We received several comments concerning one of our shares with a defective track. For more info, click here . 3.) New additional info on several posts is now available - click here and here . 4.) If you left a comment here between December 11, 2007 and January 2, 2008, I've tried to answer them all. See your respective comment for my response. 5.) Nothing further to report on my schedule status - I'll post when I can. Thanks for reading this far and I hope you have a great 2008! Capt

December 25th has finally arrived! Thanks for taking time out of your holiday to visit us at the yuleblog - especially to all of our first time visitors who are looking in today! Earlier this morning, I woke up, got dressed quickly, and ran quietly downstairs past the bedrooms of my kids. I wasn't heading to see if Santa came and left presents under the tree. I ran past the tree, past the fireplace where the stockings were hung and bulging with flair, and past the fridge (a major accomplishment for me in the AM). I headed outdoors like a kid running to see what was under the Christmas tree. I braved the Christmas cold to retrieve my copy of the Journal-Gazette , the morning newspaper of my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Emma Downs has been writing for the newspaper for several years. Last week, she called me about my annual Christmas CDs and my Christmas music obsession after receiving a copy of my annual Christmas CD. A phone interview was arranged, I supplied seve...

Over the past week and a half, I have been helping my 2nd grade son Alex prepare for his stage debut. He won a choice role in a school production that featured him as one of the Three Kings who refuses to get on a "lumpy old camel". When I first sat down with him last week, I was surprised to discover that most of his dialogue was burned into his memory. We worked on a few lines, worked a couple of gestures, and voila! A star was born. My first grade daughter Maggie was also in the play - as a member of the chorus. She sang songs to the both of us and it was a genuine kick to hear both of them sing Christmas songs around the house. It all came down to last night when they took the stage for the first time: The play began at 6:30 PM but my family and I arrived at 5:45 to secure good seats. When we arrived, we had found squatters already taking up much of the first several rows of the gym. By 6:15, it looked like the deck of the Titanic with people scrambling aro...

On Christmas Day last year, I posted my very first yuleblog sampler - a "best of" compilation from all of my shares of the previous year. Nothing new was added, a fancy cover & booklet was thrown in, and that was that. Thanks to my overextended schedule of the last several months, I wasn't able to complete what I wanted to do for this season. Many albums I've obtained over the past year are sitting inside a box waiting to be touched. Several of these albums have been already shared out across the sharity network: Arthur Godfrey - Christmas With Gary Mann - Christmas With Seeburg - The Sound & Color Of Christmas Ethel Smith - Christmas Music Santa's Helpers - All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth Swing Along With Santa's Snowmen Susie & Allie - Christmas With I've decided to sample the albums that you and I didn't get to hear. These are selections from full albums that I hope to share at some point down the road ...