This has been quite a remarkable year for Mavis Staples.
In April, she released “We’ll Never Turn Back,” an album full of freedom songs old and new, produced by Ry Cooder. It’s one of the best albums of the year (and will make a swell gift for someone on your list).
In September, some of her earliest [...]
In addition to all the albums and CDs I dig out at Christmas time, I also dig out one cassette tape.
I can play it in only one place in the house — who has more than one tape deck, if any, anymore? — but I always play it.
I taped it off the radio one night [...]
Tonight, a little misdirection with our three tunes. It’s not all that complicated. You’ll get the hang of it quickly enough.
The first one sounds like “Oye Como Va” but really is …
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” Gary Chapman, from “Christmas on the Border,” 1994.
This album by a bunch of Nashville session musicians is described as [...]
From time to time over the next month or so, we’ll take our three Christmas tunes from the same album, giving you a little taste of something you really should go out and get the rest of.
Tonight’s selections come from an album I seemingly have had forever. If memory serves, I bought it in 1980 [...]
Tonight, we pay a visit to the tropics for some Christmas instrumentals with a little different flavor. Three under the palm tree, if you will.
“Winter Wonderland,” Arthur Lyman, from “With a Christmas Vibe,” 1959.
Call it exotica, or call it Hawaiian jazz, but Lyman is bringing the good vibes — literally and figuratively — on this [...]
