Christmas Only Starts the Conversation at "Twelve Songs of Christmas"

“Presents for Everyone” on vinyl by 12 Songs guest Charlie and the Tropicales

Season seven of our Christmas music podcast has covered a lot of ground so far; here’s an easy way to catch up.

Season seven of The Twelve Songs of Christmas started on July 25, which wasn’t a problem for me because I’ve always thought the podcast used Christmas music as the way into bigger conversations about creativity, the artist’s life, and how Christmas fits into the culture. I genuinely like good Christmas music, but in much the same way that like good love songs. I like them because they’re good songs, not because of their subject matter. I have never thought of the show as part of the soundtrack to the season.

Since I’m not a very nostalgic person, nostalgia is not much of a motivator for me. I like the classics that have become staples of the Christmas canon, but by now I’ve heard them plenty of times, and I’m not moved by the proposition that I should try to see my life and my Christmases in songs that are 60 or 70 years old if not older. I’m always looking for good, contemporary Christmas music that deals with the holiday in musical and lyrical expressions that resonate with me.

This season has really shown a lot of range because a lot of people are making good Christmas music, regardless of their musical home. Here’s a guide to the season so far. The Twelve Songs of Christmas is on all the major podcast platforms, so if you like what you hear, subscribe, follow, or do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed.

I’ve got some exciting episodes coming up, so if you’re just jumping in, you’ve got some good stuff ahead of you.

Whamageddon!

Season seven started with a conversation with Thomas Mertz, one of the founders of the social media game Whamageddon. To win, you go from December 1 to Christmas without hearing Wham!’s version of “Last Christmas,” though covers are allowed.

Since he’s in Denmark, we talk about some differences in Christmas music cultures, but we also talk extensively about social media and online communities.

I play a number of “Last Christmas” covers that I like a lot including one by New Orleans’ Sweet Crude, and I warn you before I finish with the original. You’ll also hear a very entertaining Danish pop rap Christmas track that Mertz turned me on to.

Surf Christmas

I didn’t have much surf Christmas music in my collection before I interviewed WTUL DJ Hunter King, host of the “Storm Surge of Reverb” show. He introduced me to some great new and old Christmas surf music, and I’ve probably added more music to my collection as a result of this show than any other in the last few years—not just songs we talked about, but records on labels that put out some of this music.

Not surprisingly, we talked about The Ventures’ Christmas Album, which is one I think must be heard on vinyl. The arrangements are great, but I hear the vinyl version as more tactile. You can hear the fingers and the picks move on the strings. I like vinyl because I like side breaks, but this is one of the cases where I think something sonically valuable is lost in the transfer to mp3.

“La Notti Triunfanti” with Michela Musolino

Everything about this episode was news to me because Musolino specializes in Sicilian folk music, and in 2022, she recorded La Notti Triunfanti, an album of Sicilian Christmas songs.

We talk about growing up Italian in New Jersey, preserving folklore, and finding a place in the music community when she moved to Memphis. We discovered that we have friends in common there, and although she’s dedicated to preserving folklore including these songs, she can point to ways that the city influenced arrangements on these songs.

The Pocket Gods

This is an episode I had been trying to get together for a few years. Everything about Mark Christopher Lee and the British indie rock band The Pocket Gods fascinates me. Unless you’re deep into that scene, the odds are you don’t know The Pocket Gods, but we talk about their journey from British DJ John Peel’s show to Lee turning the band into a conceptual art project dedicated to raising awareness about how poorly bands are paid by Spotify.

The beautiful impracticality of his concepts are right up my alley, and I love the way he takes Christmas music—something he likes—and makes it speak to the things that fascinate him.

Cheap Trick, encore presentation

In this encore episode from 2021, I talked to Cheap Trick bass player Tom Petersson about their 2017 Christmas album, Christmas Christmas. We talked about how the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers known for touring constantly dealt with time off during COVID, and how thinking about bands they liked helped them figure out how to do a Christmas album, a project they weren’t sure suited them. I liked the album as music and Christmas music before this interview, but it gave me insights that made me appreciate it more.

Calypso Christmas with Charlie and the Tropicales

This episode is a direct result of the surf Christmas episode. While downloading music by one of the artists, I discovered Presents for Everyone on the same Bandcamp page. I’ve been on the hunt for more calypso Christmas music, and I love New Orleans’ trombone player Charlie Halloran, who leads the band.

This episode gave us time to talk about the working life of a musician in New Orleans, Mighty Sparrow, record collecting, and tiki bars.

Boney James

I conducted this interview when smooth jazz saxophone player Boney James had a New Orleans tour stop, so we talked about his early days and him finding his sound in the ‘90s, and how it derived from the pop R&B at the time. This stuff genuinely interested me because it’s a conversation on how a side man moves to the front of the bandstand.

Naturally, we also talked about his two Christmas albums, Boney’s Funky Christmas and Christmas Present, as well as a digital playlist/album that combines the two.

The Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood

When The Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera Revisited tour this year put a badly needed voice back in the cultural conversation. The album used the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the centerpiece of an examination of race, class, rock ’n’ roll, and the concept of “The South” as experienced by guys growing up there in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Patterson Hood talks about going back to the album more than 20 years later, and he talks about his own curmudgeonly relationship to Christmas music. The roots of his ambivalence go back to growing up as the son of a member of the Muscle Shoals studio band, and he tells those stories and reflects on some little known Drive-By Truckers’ Christmas songs.

Annie Zaleski

Journalist Annie Zaleski has been working in the Christmas music field for as long as I have, and we talked in 2022 about “Last Christmas” by Wham! In 2023, she wrote This is Christmas Song by Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits and returned to the show to talk about it. We talked about a few classics but used to occasion to shine some light on lesser known songs related to her top 100, whether it’s the excellent and highly nutty b-side to Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” or Kate Bush’s “December Will Be Magic Again.” This is probably the most Christmas music-focused episode of the year so far.

Mindy Smith

This year, Americana artist Mindy Smith released her first album in 12 years, Quiet Town, and we talked about that delay, what she’s been doing with herself, and meeting her birth mother after growing up as an adopted child. The baggage that came with that and growing up a “PK”—a preacher’s kid—are part of the story, and of course we talk about her Christmas music. She made her mark in YEAR with the slightly goth-Americana “Come to Jesus,” and I love her excellent 2007 Christmas album My Holiday. She returned to Christmas music again in 2013 for the Snowed In EP and in 2016 for the song “The Snow and Three Thousand Miles.”

Steve Riley

Another genre heard from this week when I talk to Cajun accordion player Steve Riley of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. In 2016, he released the album Party at the Holiday and adapted a number of Christmas songs including George Harrison’s “Ding Dong” and Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” to make the Cajun. We talk a little about the body of Cajun Christmas music and spend some time on the changing face of Cajun music, including his kids and the late Chris Stafford of Feufollet.

Jontavious Willis

This episode is less Christmas-y than many. One of my fascinations is how musicians honor traditions while making contemporary music that reflects the world they live in, whether it’s Christmas music or music they make the rest of the year. Blues guitarist Jontavious Willis and I talked about how he deals with that question in a field as tradition-driven as the blues. We always eventually work our way to Christmas music, and he shares some of his favorite blues Christmas songs.

Jim Brickman and Trans-Siberian Orchestra encore presentation

I was out of the country this week, so I revisited a 2020 episode with melodic piano player Jim Brickman and Jeff Plate, drummer for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We talked about their Christmas music, and how both dealt with the pandemic’s shutdown since Christmas tours were an important part of both acts’ identities.

The Drive-By Truckers’ Jay Gonzalez

A return to the Drive-By Truckers, this time with their third guitarist/keyboard player Jay Gonzalez. Jay has been with the band since 2008, but we talk about his evolving feelings of belonging and ownership in the band since he wasn’t there for some of the defining albums including 2001’s Southern Rock Opera. We talked about the solo career he has maintained while a part of the band and debut a Christmas song that is not on sale yet that he wrote with lyricist Pete Smith for their Gonzalez Smith project. It’s an ambiguous Christmas song that omits obvious mentions of Christmas, and we talk about his preference for songs that might or might not be Christmas songs, including Nilsson’s “Remember (Christmas)” which similarly never mentions the holiday.

The Carpenters with Carpenters Legacy, and April Brucker

12 Songs goes to Las Vegas this week. First, I talk to Sally Olson and Ned Mills of the tribute act Carpenters Legacy to appreciate The Carpenters and their Christmas music. One interest piece to come out of it is how much of their approach to their holiday music came from The Carpenters’ Christmas specials in 1977 and 1978. This year, Olson and Mills even recorded a new song written and performed in the style of The Carpenters, “Christmas Time with You.”

After that, I talk to comedian and ventriloquist April Brucker, who has followed a time-honored tradition and used a Christmas song to draw attention to her act. This year, she released “Merry Christmas (I’m So Glad I Didn’t Marry You),” and the song tells her foundational story of a boyfriend who forced her to choose between him and ventriloquism. She also used it to help introduce her puppet May Wilson to a larger audience.