A Christmas Yuleblog

In March of 2007, I travelled to Chicago sans wife & kids to search through the bowels of Chicago thrift stores, flea markets, and rare record stores to search for Christmas LPs for my collection. This past weekend, I travelled again to Chicago sans wife & kids to do the exact same thing. Upon learning the news, the Chicago River turned green with envy (keep reading). My weekend trip began last Friday and I stopped at various flea markets and antique stores along the Lincoln Highway from Fort Wayne to Chicago. I walked away with two Christmas albums (both have been shared out by our friend Ernie (Not Bert) - keep reading). After getting to Illinois, I went to a thrift store location that two years ago had just opened, had one entire corner of their store reserved for LPs, and yielded a good portion of the titles I shared out last year. Upon my return this year, their selection was reduced to an eight ft. folding table with about 10 milk crates full of LPs. Sadly, I ...

Last week, I reviewed a Christmas comp that was the last present I received last December. This CD was the very first present I received. Back in November, my good friend Martin Johns sent me his annual Christmas comps (which I'll be reviewing some time down the road). Inside the box was a wrapped Christmas package that read "DO NOT OPEN 'TIL DEC. 25". I dutifully tucked it under the tree and there it remained until Christmas morning. What went through my mind on Christmas morning as my kids tore through their gifts with this CD staring at me in the face? I remembered reviewing Martin's 2005 comp " No Rain, No Rainbow: A Contemporary Hawaiian Christmas " and mentioning this very CD when reviewing a version of "Jingle Bells" in Hawaiian: WOW! "Jingle Bells" in Hawaiian! Featured on the 2001 comp "Old Hawaiian Christmas" which is OOP? I'm about to cry here... I also remembered that a year earlier, I sampled a ...

In addition to collecting Christmas music, I have collected nearly 1000 vintage Christmas ads over the years. Many of these include celebrities, radio, television, cigarettes, liquor, modern appliances, and the like. Almost every Friday from here until I run out, I will feature an ad from my collection. I invite you to add a fun comment, witticism, clever remark, or observation in the comments section provided. Any comments deemed worthy of repeating will be included into this entry where all the world will see it. Last week, I posted an ad that showed a vintage transistor radio from 1955 that was the size of a church hymnal. After spending some time leafing through my ads this morning, I wondered how I would follow it up. I kept going back through my archives year by year to find something that just struck me as odd. And I think I found it with this ad from Westinghouse: (Click on image to enlarge) We get a kid mentioning Santa Claus, some other mentions of Christmas t...

This is the very last Christmas CD I received as a present last December. It came from my best friend Joel who took a brief moment from his Indianapolis holiday getaway with his charming wife Samantha to check out a used CD store to see if there was something inside that I didn't have. Joel actually called me from the store itself to read off titles to see what I had and didn't have (with Sam standing alongside, bored to tears). After reading off the limited Christmas LP titles, Joel scanned through the holiday CDs and found this particular compilation that I had never heard of. Back in the early part of this decade, two guys named Mark Latta & Kevin Phillips decided to help out Habitat For Humanity in Indianapolis with a benefit CD. And that's how Standard Recording Company began. Since then, Mark & Kevin have improvised running an indie label as they've gone along, getting distribution deals, signing up talented Indy bands, and issuing releases when...

I can explain. I'm reviewing Christmas albums that were given to as presents last year. So if you're thinking that I went to my local music store of choice and plunked down good money for this CD, guess again. This was presented to me by one of my wife's aunts at a family gathering last Christmas Eve. As I unwrapped it knowing full well it was a Christmas CD, I began to wonder what new release it could have been. Harry Connick Jr.? Sheryl Crow? Brian Setzer's umpteenth Christmas album? Aretha Franklin? The Fleshtones? Melissa Etheridge? "Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits"? When I laid eyes on the green and purple cover and the familiar " American Gramaphone " logo at the bottom of the cover, in an instant I knew. I had to fight back the piercing shriek of terror that was building inside me. "Ohhhhhhh... wow!" I exclaimed. My wife's aunt was pleased at my reaction. "Their new Christmas CD!" I politely thanked h...

In addition to collecting Christmas music, I have collected nearly 1000 vintage Christmas ads over the years. Many of these include celebrities, radio, television, cigarettes, liquor, modern appliances, and the like. Almost every Friday from here until I run out, I will feature an ad from my collection. I invite you to add a fun comment, witticism, clever remark, or observation in the comments section provided. Any comments deemed worthy of repeating will be included into this entry where all the world will see it. While ruffling through old boxes of cassettes and junk I've carried with me since the Great Toledo Fire , I came across my old Montgomery Ward "Walkman" - a cassette/radio job complete with a three slider equalizer that gave anything I listened to that extra ounce of volume. The fire effectively destroyed the machine but I can't bear to throw this artifact out. This was the machine I listened to as I travelled back and forth through my college yea...

Since the beginning of 2009, I've been attempting to review Christmas CDs (and one other DVD) that I received as gifts on December 25th. The CD you see before you was a present from my son Alex who especially liked the "neat" cover artwork when ordering it from Amazon.com (with help from his mom). Shortly before Christmas, this CD wasn't on my wish list. I didn't know a thing about the Garza brothers or their music - my musical tastes have pretty much excluded anything non-Christmas since 2004. That changed during one of my Christmas shopping runs when I turned on a local radio station who was broadcasting Christmas music 24/7 throughout December. I tuned in during the middle of an intriguing version of "Feliz Navidad" that I hadn't heard and my interest was piqued. I dialed 411 on my cell phone, got ahold of the radio station DJ who played the song, and asked for the artist. "Oh man, that's Los Lonely Boys , ain't it cool?...

New York City has St. Patrick's Cathedral, a beautiful church on Fifth Avenue where the Pope comes to visit when he's in town. Not to be outdone, Chicago has Holy Name Cathedral on the corner of State and Superior, a place where the Pope comes to visit when he's in town. Holy Name is very special to many Chicagoans. Not many cathedrals have bullet markings in the bricks thanks to a gangland killing from the Al Capone days (top that, NYC!). As the video shows, a fire broke out in the attic of the cathedral this morning, severely damaging the church with fire, smoke, and water damage. My older brother John (number three out of five) has been a Chicago firefighter for nearly 15 years and has been on many fire runs throughout Chicago. As fate would have it, his firehouse was called and John was on the scene as we all slept. He was part of the second group that went in, stretching 100 foot lengths of hose up narrow stairways and over 100 yr. old timbers to extinguis...

In addition to collecting Christmas music, I have collected nearly 1000 vintage Christmas ads over the years. Many of these include celebrities, radio, television, cigarettes, liquor, modern appliances, and the like. Every Friday from here until I run out, I will feature an ad from my collection. I invite you to add a fun comment, witticism, clever remark, or observation in the comments section provided. Any comments deemed worthy of repeating will be included into this entry where all the world will see it. When I posted the last edition of this feature two weeks ago, we were in the midst of searching for a new car. I'm happy to report we got an excellent deal on a 2008 Chrysler Sebring (demonstrator model with all the bells & whistles) to replace our dear departed 1997 Saturn. Since then, we've had a few more days of bad weather, several school closings, Boy Scout meetings and a pinewood derby (Alex placed 6th!), basketball games, cheerleading, practices to shut...

This was a Christmas present given to me by my son Alex. In the past, Alex chose several Christmas albums ( Oh Santa (Yep Roc) , Gene Autry ) to give to my on December 25th but instead chose a DVD on my Santa list. My Santa list contained several DVD titles and several that I asked for were under the Christmas tree. I'm attempting to lose weight as a New Year's resolution (40 lbs. by my 40th birthday in June) and these will be used while exercising on the stationary bike or treadmill. Back in September, I discovered this DVD would be hitting shelves in October. At first, I was pretty psyched. A full DVD full of vintage Christmas clips from the Mighty Carson Art Players and Johnny himself, I thought. Last December, I posted a YouTube video that had a clip from his 15th Anniversary show that contained a pretty hilarious Christmas clip. My friend Stubbyfears informed in the comments that he had seen the DVD and wished there were more clips like the one I had posted. ...

In addition to collecting Christmas music, I have collected nearly 1000 vintage Christmas ads over the years. Many of these include celebrities, radio, television, cigarettes, liquor, modern appliances, and the like. Every Friday from here until I run out, I will feature an ad from my collection. I invite you to add a fun comment, witticism, clever remark, or observation in the comments section provided. Any comments deemed worthy of repeating will be included into this entry where all the world will see it. Several weeks ago when it was still 2008, we experienced an ice storm here in Indiana the likes they haven't seen in many decades. They're still clearing the downed branches and trees and expect to do so for several more weeks. Since then, we've had more icy than snowy days here. Earlier this week, conditions were right for black ice to form more than once. The streets have been pretty clear but in my subdivision, a car takes on the characteristics of a hockey...

This was another Christmas CD that was labelled "To Daddy". This one was chosen by my daughter Maggie whose track record in picking Christmas CDs is pretty impressive. In 2008, she gave me a reissue of Lena Horne's phenomenal 1966 album that followed her 2007 gift of the most recent Christmas collection of from Miss Peggy Lee . There was a little bit of drama over the decision for this CD - her younger sister Josie had the number one pick of CDs this year and chose the Christmas CD that Maggie had her heart on. Unlike the various professional sports drafts, Maggie couldn't trade up. After some pouting and a mild fit (wonder if that ever happens in sports?), she selected the album you're looking at now. Back in 1990, I was still living in Illinois and desperately trying to find Christmas music for my annual tapes. In years past, I was content with Crosby singing "Do You Hear What I Hear?" but now I was looking for novelty and Christmas tunes ...

I received quite a few 2008 releases for Christmas from assorted family and friends. This was a Christmas present from my daughter Josie (with some help from Amazon.com ). Up until a month ago, I never knew this CD existed. Usually I would head over to Randy's Rodeo (now Hip Christmas) and download their list of new releases before the 2008 shopping season began. Due to my hectic schedule, I wasn't able to do that this year and learned about this CD from my friend Stubbyfears at FaLaLaLaLa.com . Many places online credit this album to Julian Koster , the indie pop leader of the group The Music Tapes. Koster has been a major player with the Elephant 6 Recording Co., which spawned many indie bands in the 1990s. In addition to the singing saw, Julian plays banjo, mandolin, Wandering Genie, the Moog synthesizer, and the accordian. To quote Koster from the liner notes: "Singing Saws sing all by themselves. The idea that a Human Being could play one, as one might...

January 1, 2009 - 1:45 AM 1/2 bottle of Canadian Club in me and feeling no pain The kids went back to school today which means I can finally get to the computer - WAHOOO!!! I want to thank everyone for the gracious comments you've left me over the past 1 1/2 weeks about my contributions to the 2008 downloading season. To read comments about rediscovering lost Christmas music and the precious memories it brings back makes it all the worth while. If you left a comment here during this time, some time today or tomorrow I'll try to answer all of them. Things you should know: All the following posts after today and throughout nearly all of 2009 will be reviews only . New reviews of Christmas CDs received as gifts under the tree will begin later this week. Others to follow will included three DVD reviews (two Christmas, one regular), a look at several dozen Christmas comps made my fellow Christmas music enthusiasts, and then back to Christmas albums from 2006 I...

Here's is a complete list of what I have shared in the past three years - click on a link to explore: 1983 Air Force Public Service Spots - Disc V The Alcoa Singers - An Olde-Fashioned Christmas Marian Anderson - Christmas Carols Anonymous - Two Christmas Songs Around The Christmas Tree - A Special Christmas Day Program Jan August - Christmas Favorites The Banjo Barons - Selections from "Play Music For Happy Times" Ben Best - Happy Christmas Party Bielefelder Kinderchor - Christmas In Germany Pat Boone - White Christmas Bowen & Csehy - Christmas Steepletime Owen Bradley & His Quintet - Joyous Bells Of Christmas The Bravo Singers & Instrumentalists - Christmas Sing-Along Anita Bryant - The Miracle Of Christmas Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani - The Sound Of Christmas The Canterbury Choir - Christmas Hymns And Carols Sung By Capitol Production Music Christmas 1953 Veteran's Administration Hospital Program Christmas 1954 Vet...