Winterlude in a Snowed-in Mood (Christmas music mix, 2016!)

If it’s holiday week, it must (finally) be time for a Christmas and winter-themed music mix, right? Sorry for being a bit late again, but I can explain! See, I save any Christmas or wintry-themed songs I run across onto a folder I keep on a storage drive, and back around November I knocked an empty coffee cup off my desk and onto said drive, pretty much rendering it an ex-storage drive. Oops. Been recovering music I had on that for a bit. Lesson learned!

I couldn’t help but note that this year’s mix had a sort of bleak feel to it the first couple of runs I made at it…maybe understandably. Still, who has time for that? It’s the holidays. It’s a time for family, friends, and celebration, even if it feels a little bit like we’re all collectively Slim Pickens riding that missile into the ground in Dr. Strangelove. No matter. We’ll whoop and holler a bit all the way down if that’s the hand that’s been dealt.

This year’s mix is almost all new stuff, not as in “New this year,” but rather “New stuff for this mix.” I really wanted to get a Sharon Jones song in for obvious reasons early on. I’ve known since about March that Trapper Schoepp’s tale of being stranded in a blizzard in western Nebraska was going to be on this mix. Love those songs to death.

Two wonderful recent finds were discovering a secret, hidden Leisure Society version of the late Greg Lake’s “I Believe In Father Christmas”. I’ve credited it to The Leisure Society, although Nick Heming says it’s just him and bandmate Helen Whitaker, but it sure sounds like the whole band.

The other cool song I’m really loving is the one from Sloan. They recorded a couple of holiday themed songs this year, and while both are good, “December 25” is just transcendent. Jay Ferguson has always been Sloan’s secret weapon, a guy who maybe only gets a couple of songs per record, but they’re always ace. With “December 25” he’s outdone himself here.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, the best part of the Gilmore Girls revival on Netflix was seeing Grant Lee Phillips reprise his role as town troubadour, and we’ve got the song he plays in the “Winter” episode, the gorgeous “Winterglow” here. I’ve also brought in a few old favorites. Seemed like this mix really wanted some Vince Guaraldi, for instance, so it got that. It also wanted Vashti Bunyan and Broadcast too. Finally, Jason Ringenberg’s aching “Merry Christmas My Darling” seemed far too appropriate not to bring back…and we needed the twang.

As ever, this mix is one long mp3, with volume normalized and sequenced and whatnot. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I’ve enjoyed making it, and…I’ll let “Father Christmas” sum up the rest:

"I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear"

Winterlude in a Snowed-in Mood
(Christmas Music Mix, 2016)

Track list, spoiler-tagged!

1. Christmas Letter
2. “Just Another Christmas Song” Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
3. “Ogallala” Trapper Schoepp
4. “Snow Globe” Charlie’s Hand Movements
5. “Willing and Able” Helene Smith
6. “I Believe In Father Christmas” The Leisure Society
7. “Child’s Christmas in Wales” John Cale
8. “Christmas Eve” Night Flowers
9. “Work Christmas Party” Faye & The Scrooges
10.“December 25” Sloan
11.“Funky Funky Christmas” Electric Jungle
12.“Hey Santa!” Brian Setzer Orchestra
13.“Mistletoe and Holly” Frank Sinatra
14.“Coldest Night of the Year” Vashti Bunyan
15.“Soul Santa” Funk Machine
16.“Christmas and Everyday” Best Coast
17.“Skating” Vince Guaraldi Trio
18.“Winterglow” Grant Lee Phillips
19.“Merry Christmas My Darling” Jason Ringenberg
20.“Sleigh Ride” Squirrel Nut Zippers
21.“Winter Now” Broadcast
22.“You Bring The Snow” The Crookes
23.“Driving Under Stars” Marika Hackman
24.“Fairytale of New York” The Pogues

This is outstandingly good. You’ve outdone yourself yet again, Mr. Kringle.

Awe yiss, thanks @triggercut.

Woot!

I knew I shouldn’t have checked this just before heading out on pre-Christmas errands, though. Well, 2011’s will have to do while I’m in the car.

ETA: Ooh, I like this. Leisure Society’s “I Believe in Father Christmas” is a good find. So is Marika Hackman.

Amelia: “I like these mixes because he doesn’t pick traditional songs.”
Me: “Yeah, me too.”
Amelia: “Like, where does he even find these songs?”

Ain’t no Christmas mix like a TC mix cuz a TC mix don’t stop. Much annual thanks again, Trigger!

I love that Vashti Bunyan song so much!

On Facebook I am posting countdown of 7 Days and 7 Songs for Christmas, all a-capella. You can pretend it’s XMas already.

7: Mary, Did You Know - Voctave

6: O Come O Come Emmanuel - GLAD

5: Angels We Have Heard On High - Home Free

4: In the Bleak Midwinter - Groove for Thought

3: Carol of the Bells - Pentatonix

2: We Three Kings - Eclipse6

1: The World For Christmas - The Real Group

Yeah, Coldest Night of the Year is a great song. It’s like the non-rapey version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.

It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who wrote a couple of other songs that maybe have gotten some airplay: “On Broadway” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”, among them.

There was one previous version of the song that got buried, and Atco, the Atlantic subsidiary that owned the song gave it to an English folk duo called Twice As Much to do something with. They wanted to record it, but didn’t have anyone who could do it justice on vocals, so they got their friend, Vashti Bunyan, to sing it. It used to be credited to Vashti Bunyan and Twice As Much, but now mostly gets credited to her. Because she’s the amazing one.

NO YOU ARE

P.S. lol@non-rapey

Thanks trig! My wife says this is your best mix yet (I agree) and to keep including the funk! It’s a part of our holiday traditions now.

Have this on repeat again this year. Thank you so much for putting these together trig!

Is @triggercut doing any kind of gender-neutral, pansexual, low-calorie, high-protein, non-denominational Holiday Mix this year?

This year’s will be more like pan-metro-sexual. And should be out on Tuesday.

Yay!5

We listened to three awesome triggercut xmixes today.

C’mon, Tuesday!

Excited. I have all your mixes from 2005 to present!

Do you have an archive (or titles of the annual Mix’es)? I have all the names except 2006.

I love them all in their own way (2005-2018, RIP Trig’s mixes), but this one is still your best, imo.

Such a great opening series of songs up through Sloan’s December 25. And then it somehow gets better! This mix officially kicks off the start of the season at our house. I just love it so.

Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight just be a 2020 mix on the near horizon. :)

Nothing like getting a list of songs down to about 17 or so and thinking “OK, we’re getting there”…and then you find a folder in the cloud with 30 songs, track lists, notes, and everything else from 2019 to make a Christmas music mix this year SUPER EASY. :D

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