Bob Dylan Reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas'
First snow 's falling - "Well it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And for the next couple of hours, it’s going to sound like Christmas too. This is the special yuletide extravaganza edition of TTRH, chock full of Christmas themes, holiday dreams, and jingle bell schemes..."
"It’s night time in the Big City A department store Santa sneaks a sip of gin Mistletoe makes an old man sad Eight reindeer land on the roof of the Abernathy building"
It’s Time for "Christmas & New Year's" Theme Time Radio Hour (episode 34) hosted by Bob Dylan, first aired 20 November 2006.
Theme Time Radio Hour was originally broadcast every Wednesday at 10:00 am ET on the Deep Tracks channel of XM Satellite Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service. (In the UK the seriess was broadcast on BBC's Radio2)
This special edition is two hours long - but the musical selection is eclectic as you might expect from Mr Zimmerman!
A calendar of posts by JD, starting with the theme of war (and temporary peace) at Christmas:
By late December 1914, there was no end in sight to the Great War. Morale plummeted, as the soldiers realised that they would spend winter in the miserable trenches.
Winston Churchill wrote to his wife in mid-December: “What would happen I wonder, if the armies suddenly and simultaneously went on strike and said some other method must be found for settling their dispute?” He would soon find out.
SABATON - Christmas Truce (Official Music Video)
“For a single day, the opposing forces mingled in friendly conversation and even in games. It was an amazing spectacle, and must arouse bitter thoughts concerning those high-ranking conspirators against the peace of the world, who in their mad ambition had hounded such men on to take each other by the throat rather than by the hand.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, 1916.
Karunesh (Hindi: करुणेश, "Compassion"; born Bruno Reuter in 1956- is a German-born New Age and ambient musician. His music has strong Indian influences prevalent throughout, with liberal use of Indian instruments, such as the sitar.
Karunesh was born in Cologne, Germany .Although he had been drawn to music as a child and played in bands as a teenager, he chose to study graphic design as a career. However, after obtaining his degree, Karunesh was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. His brush with death prompted him to choose music as a career instead of graphic design. He rethought his life and embarked on a spiritual journey of sorts, traveling in 1979 to India, where he met Osho in his ashram in Pune. He became initiated and took on a new spiritual name, Karunesh, a Sanskrit name meaning "Compassion."
Back in Germany, Karunesh lived in the Rajneesh commune of Hamburg for five years. Here he could develop his musical creativity in a spiritual surrounding. He came in contact with many musicians from all over the world and developed an ability to weave different styles and feelings from different cultures together in a living symbiosis, creating a music that is both spiritual and danceable.
In 1984, Karunesh released his first album, entitled Sounds of the Heart, Sounds of the Heart was followed by Colors Of Light in 1987 and Sky's Beyond in 1989. As of 2012 Karunesh has released 23 albums.
Karunesh has lived on Maui, in the U.S. state of Hawaii, since 1992
I had heard the name but had no idea what their 'genre' was; punk rock or folk singers or something in between. Then I saw they had done a cover version of the 'new' Beatles record and I thought that was quick, no more than a week or so after the release of the original. Why the rush? I then found out they are dedicated Beatles fans and have recorded many of their records in the past and have even played at The Cavern Club. And their harmonies and guitar playing make them the best Beatles Tribute Band you will ever see and hear!
"The MonaLisa Twins, with real-life twins Mona and Lisa Wagner fronting the band, are one of the very few modern groups who continue the tradition of song-writing that took off in 1963. They bring back what has been started 60 years ago and write modern songs in the 60s Beat music tradition, reviving the genre with a fresh twist without sounding pop-ish or trivial. Their signature features are their tight twin harmonies, unaltered natural voices, relatable lyrics, twangy guitar sounds and inventive arrangements."
You may recall that in 1968 John Lennon described governments of the world as being insane, doing insane things for insane reasons. At some point in the Seventies George Harrison said the world is run by mad people.
Now I get the feeling that madness or insanity is official policy everywhere. And Spain has not escaped the insanity, disguised as political opportunism.
Spain's PM, Pedro Sanchez, has introduced an amnesty law for Catalan nationalists in exchange for their support in propping up his minority government. Needless to say there have been widespread protests, thousands have taken to the streets waving Spanish flags. I saw one video in which the crowds were chanting "Periodistas, terroristas!" as their press is as bad as ours if not worse.
Here is a video of Tucker Carlson in Spain on Monday. He said the news is not being reported in the US (or here in the UK) and he wanted to highlight it on his TwitterX platform.
If you wish to read the background to the story, there is this -
Leonid and Friends is a Chicago tribute band based in Moscow. They began as a YouTube band, and now occasionally go on tours as well. Leonid Vorobyev (b. 1957 in Moscow, Russia), is the founder and leader of the band. Vorobyev is a multi-instrumentalist, a recording studio sound engineer and choir conductor by training, at the East Siberian Institute of Culture.
Recommendations sometimes come from unexpected sources. This came from Martin Armstrong believe it or not. On his blog he posted a video of Leonid and friends.They are a Russian 'covers' band playing the music of Earth Wind and Fire and Chicago. They are very very good and sometimes better than the originals but this will be a two part post because the singer deserves a post to herself and the full band will be next week.
The singer is called Ksenia Buzina, no I can't pronounce it! She was born in Siberia and speaks and sings in seven languages as well as having degrees in law and economics. She sounds too good to be true but she really is a great singer as well as being very good looking.So here is part one
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Leonid and friends, part 1 featuring singer Ksenia Buzina
Born in the Transbaikal region of Siberia, in the city of Chita, Ksenia Buzina is credited as being the first Russian singer understood by over a billion people on earth. That’s because Ksenia sings and speaks Chinese fluently and has her own Chinese album and music videos.
Ksenia didn’t stop there. Besides Russian and Chinese she can also speak English and can sing in English, Chinese, Italian, Armenian, Kazakh, Bulgarian and French. She joined Leonid & Friends in September 2016 with the debut of the song Wishing You Were Here and has become an integral part of the band’s vocal landscape both in the studio and live performances.
Henry Pitts Brown (17 March 1916 – 27 February 1985), known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arab chieftain (but also often, with no attempt to change his normal accent, in counter-intuitive roles such as a female secretary or a Scotsman).
Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
As a young man, Rebennack was interested in New Orleans voodoo, and in Los Angeles he developed the idea of the Dr. John persona based on the life of Dr. John, a Senegalese prince, conjure man, herb doctor, and spiritual healer who came to New Orleans from Haiti. This free man of color lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have 15 wives and oven 50 children. He kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls, and sold gris-gris, voodoo amulets which supposedly protect the wearer from harm. Gris-Gris became the name of Dr. John's debut album, released in January 1968, representing his own form of "voodoo medicine".
Not sure how seriously he took voodoo but it became part of his stage persona along with some spectacularly colourful clothes and show.
The Rugby World Cup is currently in progress in France and is being televised. And in the TV's introductory montage I caught the familiar strains of Edith Piaf singing 'Je Ne Regrette Rien' which reminded me.......
One of my friends at school had a copy of Piaf singing 'Milord.' Don't know where he found it or why. I think it was on the 'B' side of her most famous song, the one being used for the TV coverage. A great barrel house honky tonk style with added gallic flair! We would sing along with it rather raucously. Well, here is the great lady herself and she is/was much better than we were!
Norman L. Blake (born March 10, 1938) is a traditional American stringed instrument artist and songwriter. He is half of the eponymous Norman & Nancy Blake band with his wife, Nancy Blake.
Most of the music that Norman Blake plays could be described as neo-traditionalist Americana folk and roots music (folk, bluegrass, country, blues), and many of the songs he plays are traditional, but he plays this acoustic type of music with a style, speed, and quality that has evolved and progressed in the modern age. Though probably best known for his fluid renditions of classic fiddle tunes transcribed for the guitar ("Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast"), Blake has also written songs that have become bluegrass and folk standards, such as "Ginseng Sullivan", "Slow Train through Georgia", "Billy Gray", and "Church Street Blues".
Blake is revered within American folk music circles because of his many accomplishments. He’s put out more than 40 studio albums, backed up Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan on the seminal Nashville Skyline, and worked with the legendary John Hartford during Hartford’s most creative period. Blake also recorded with singer Joan Baez and appeared on her hit song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, played dobro on the 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Later, he performed on the album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which won five Grammy Awards, and worked with T Bone Burnett on the soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year.
Legendary guitarist, singer, and songwriter Norman Blake
discusses and performs clips from his album "Wood, Wire and Words."
This video was shot at Cook Sound Studio atop Lookout Mountain
in Fort Payne, Alabama, in July 2014.
"I'm Going to Georgia" - Norman and Nancy Blake with James and Rachel Bryan
Norman Blake flatpicks Randall Collins and Done Gone
Tony Rice & Norman Blake - New River Train
Norman and Nancy Blake "My Dear Old Southern Home" and "New Money":
Norman and Nancy Blake discuss some of their beliefs about music and sing the tune "My Dear Old Southern Home." Norman also discusses their guitars as well and plays "new Money" with Nancy.
Blake is another welatively unknown 'superstar' - if the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Robert Plant, Alison Krause and many more want you to play in their recording sessions then you are very very good!
Albertina Walker (1929 - 2010) was an American gospel singer who was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante, whom Jackson took on the road when Albertina was just a teenager. Perhaps not so well known here in the UK but highly regarded in the USA where she was known as the Queen of Gospel music. And the Queen of Soul music Aretha Franklin, who started her own career singing gospel in her father's Baptist church, sang at Walker's funeral.
It is now autumn with the equinox being saturday 23rd (this year) and now we shiver our way into winter. Did we have a summer this year? It feels as though we slipped silently from vernal to autumnal without turning off the central heating.
"Autumnal equinox, two moments in the year when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length; also, either of the two points in the sky where the ecliptic (the Sun’s annual pathway) and the celestial equator intersect. In the Northern Hemisphere the autumnal equinox falls about September 22 or 23, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator going south. In the Southern Hemisphere the equinox occurs on March 20 or 21, when the Sun moves north across the celestial equator.
"According to the astronomical definition of the seasons, the autumnal equinox also marks the beginning of autumn, which lasts until the winter solstice (December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 or 21 in the Southern Hemisphere)."
"Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound.
"Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry."
La Tomatina is a Fiesta held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol near to Valencia in Spain. Thousands upon thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to participate in this, the ‘World’s Biggest Food Fight’ where more than one hundred tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
The following is an edited and slightly amended version of a description of this year's Fiesta taken from the newspaper El Mundo:
The red of 150,000 kilos of tomatoes has coloured the central streets of the Valencian town of Buñol as every last Wednesday in August for 78 years. La Tomatina has once again been festive, international and massive.
The party, whose images go around the world on television and social networks, began at noon, with the slow parade of six trucks loaded with 150 tons of tomatoes -30 more than the figure provided yesterday by the cooperative that supplies them- ripe and juicy, not suitable for consumption but ideal as ammunition in this pitched "battle", in which everyone fights everyone with a clean tomato.
The President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, followed this celebration from the balcony of the City Hall with some 20,000 participants and in which a helicopter and more than 200 Civil Guard agents, in addition to other security forces, have been deployed to monitor and attend to any incident arising from the crowding. Mazón has assured that next year he will go in a swimsuit and will live it from the street.
This year many citizens of India have been seen mobilized by a Bollywood movie, although there were also those from the United States, Australia or Japan, among other nationalities.
For an hour, the tomatoes have "flown" in this "war" that started almost by chance in 1945; in fact nobody really knows how it started, you can take your pick from the many tales as recounted in the Official Website pages below.
They have already started selling tickets for next year's Tomatina which will be on the 28th of August 2024 and you can even book your place for the following year when it will be held on the 27th of August 2025. Details are on the official website here -
The Everly Brothers were an American country-influenced rock and roll duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (born February 1, 1937) and Phillip "Phil" Jason Everly (January 19, 1939 ), the duo were raised in a musical family, first appearing on radio singing along with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940s. When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to groom them for national attention.
They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit number 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems". In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.
VOCES8 is a British vocal ensemble originally founded in 2003, and regrouped in 2005, by brothers Paul and Barnaby Smith, both former choristers of Westminster Abbey. For most of its history, the ensemble has contained two sopranos, two countertenors, two tenors, a baritone and a bass. By 2018, one of the countertenors had been replaced by a female alto.
The ensemble has a diverse repertoire including early English and European Renaissance music, traditional folk song, classic jazz, pop and their own arrangements. They have appeared internationally, touring especially in Europe, Asia and North America.
Voces8 are (currently) -
Andrea Haines – First soprano (2008–present)
Molly Noon – Second soprano (2021–present)
Katie Jeffries-Harris – First alto (2018–present)
Barnaby Smith – Second alto/countertenor & Artistic Director (2005–present)
The Lennon Sisters are one of the most admired and longest-performing female vocal groups in American music history marking 67 years since their television debut in 1955 as children on The Lawrence Welk Show. Growing up in the public eye with their weekly television performances, the sisters rose to fame as acclaimed recording artists and vibrant live performers throughout the nation.
They've recorded more than 20 albums and over 100 singles. They have a star on the world-famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, are inductees in the National Vocal Group Hall of Fame and memorabilia chronicling their career is on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
Following the retirement of sisters Peggy in 1999 and Dianne in 2001, the current performing sisters are original group members Kathy and Janet Lennon and their younger sister Mimi.
These videos are from TV shows broadcast in the 1950s and give an idea of how the country saw itself during the post-war boom with increased affluence plus the move to 'Levittowns' in the suburbs. In the 1950s, televisions became something the average family could afford, and by 1950 4.4 million U.S. families had one in their home. The Golden Age of Television was marked by family-friendly shows like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone and Leave It To Beaver as well as the Lawrence Welk show which featured the Lennon Sisters every week.
The booming prosperity of the 1950s helped to create a widespread sense of stability, contentment and consensus in the United States. However, that consensus was a fragile one, and it splintered for good during the tumultuous 1960s.
"The Boswell Sisters, American jazz vocal trio noted for intricate harmonies and rhythmic experimentation; they were also a major influence on vocal artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and the Andrews Sisters.
"The three sisters were Martha (b. June 9, 1905, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.—d. July 2, 1958, Peekskill, New York), Connee (original name Connie; b. December 3, 1907, Kansas City, Missouri—d. October 11, 1976, New York, New York), and Helvetia (also called Vet; b. May 20, 1909, Birmingham, Alabama—d. November 12, 1988, Peekskill, New York).
"For all their importance, innovation, and popularity, the Boswell Sisters were largely forgotten for many years. Their classic recordings began to be rereleased in the early 1980s (some reissues supervised by Vet Boswell), prompting a revival of interest in their work and an ever-growing cult following. Their influence on jazz singing was incalculable; Ella Fitzgerald often cited Connee Boswell as her only influence (and, on many of her early recordings with the Chick Webb band, Fitzgerald sounds uncannily like Boswell). Many critics today regard the Boswell Sisters (along with Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross) as one of the two greatest jazz vocal groups of all time."
You will like this happy band..........................
Eleven Irishmen with eleven guitars and all singing together in a pub called The White Horse: welcome to the White Horse Guitar Club!
"Formed in early 2012, the band evolved from an open club environment into a fully fledged musical touring group of 11 friends in that relatively short space of time. The music we choose to play is deeply rooted in the fine tradition of songwriting that flourishes in the southern states of America, particularly in Kentucky & Tennessee where the Scots/Irish influence was strong. We proudly sing the songs of John Prine, Darrell Scott, Tim O'Brien, Buddy Miller, Townes Van Zandt, Tim O'Brien, Willie Nelson and more.
The WHGC has performed all over Ireland & beyond in the last 3 years, in concert settings and cosy pub corners, as street musicians and as festival favorites.
All good stories are shaped by the twists and turns of the road and the adventure of The White Horse Guitar Club is very much still being written. Keep your ears tuned and your heart open."
