Yuletide misery.
For any of you still relying on the XML feed, you're markedly patient. You may have to remain that way for a while sadly.
rfg #95 - Dust and tears in my eggnog [83.0 Mb]
Long stewing in my mind, the country Christmas theme finally took hold after dealing with a tumultuous December. Thanks to illness, workload, exhaustion and lotsa rain, I wasn't feeling festive at all. Thus, I avoided the usual holiday carols and came up with a mixture of sad and silly seasonal numbers with a western twang. The hosts filling in for the show before mine rolled their eyes and Gavin came into the booth chuckling after listening to the show on the way in.
Oddly enough, I didn't really have the soundtrack element lined up for the show until towards the end. I did rack my mind to recall an appropriate Christmas film with a country feel, but it wasn't until I was reminded of Jim Henson's adaptation of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. It's a very rootsy tale with heavy melancholy and original songs.
I overstuffed the show, hence some songs towards the end got short-changed. Still, in comparison to the show before me, there's not really a wasted moment and my show takes on a life of its own once it's all planned out. The best part, of course, were the moments when my Colorado drawl kicked in unintentionally, which reflects how I forced myself to talk when I lived in Denver for a year. I need to use that more often in real life.
And if you haven't seen this already, the blooper reel for the drum scene is comedy at its most basic.
Merle Haggard: If We Make It Through December (A Christmas Present, 1973) Capitol
The Everly Brothers: Christmas Eve Can Kill You (Stories We Could Tell, 1972) RCA Victor
Loretta Lynn: It Won't Seem Like Christmas (The Best Of Loretta Lynn: The Christmas Collection, 2005) MCA
Dolly Parton: Hard Candy Christmas (The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas OST, 1982) RCA/Decca
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Daddy's Drinking Up Our Christmas (Hillbilly Holiday, 1989) Rhino/WEA
John Denver: Please, Daddy [Don't Get Drunk This Christmas] (Rocky Mountain Christmas, 1975) RCA
Dalhart Imperials: Old Man Spivey's Egg Nog (You Can't Stop the Christmas Bop - Volume 2, 1997) Be Be's
The Handsome Family: So Much Wine (In the Air, 2000) Carrot Top
The Felice Brothers: Murder by Mistletoe (The Felice Brothers, 2008) Team Love
Corky & the Juice Pigs: Christmas Dreams (Pants, 1994) Denon
Country Mike: Country Christmas (Country Mike's Greatest Hits, 2000) Grand Royal
Holly Golightly: Christmas Tree's on Fire (Christmas Tree's on Fire, 2006) Damaged Goods
Ben Hinds: All I Want for Christmas [is a Go Go Girl] (All I Want for Christmas is a Go Go Girl, ?) Tracy
Rick Malsick: The Christmas Tumbleweed (Athena, 2009) Malsick Musick
Ry Cooder: Christmas in Southgate (My Name is Buddy, 2007) Nonesuch
Marty Robbins: One of You [in Every Size] (Christmas With Marty Robbins, 1967) Columbia
Tennessee Ernie Ford: A Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus (Christmas on the Range, 1951) Capitol Nashville 2009
Gene Autry: He'll be Coming Down the Chimney [Like He Always Did Before] (The Complete Columbia Christmas Recordings, 1951) Varese Sarabande 2004
Ernest Tubb: Blue Snowflakes (Blue Christmas, 1964) Decca
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys: Christmas Time's A-Coming (Hillbilly Holiday, 1989) Rhino/WEA
Bob Dylan: O Come All Ye Faithful [Adeste Fideles] (Christmas in the Heart, 2009) Sony
Belle & Sebastian: I Took Some Time for Christmas (BBC Radio 1 Peel Session Christmas Special, 2002) BBC
Paul Williams: Barbeque (Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, 1977) Muppet Home Video
Paul Williams: Hole in the Washtub (Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, 1977) Muppet Home Video
Bruce Cockburn: Joy to the World (Christmas, 1993) True North
Said the Whale: This Winter I Expire [excerpt] (West Coast Christmas, 2008) Pop Machine
Val from the show Folk Oasis will be filling on the final Monday for 2009, featuring a rootsier version of the soundtrack to your life. Otherwise, Merry Christmas and see you in the happy new year of 2010!
Episodes 90 and 91 solicited your generous donations for the radio station, deploying a Star Trek theme for one show.
Episodes 88 and 89 strayed from tropical beats, Greek funk and Krautrock.
October's Episodes went all over the place: Piero Piccioni, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Barry and Where the Wild Things Are.
Episode 83 focuses on funk with Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly.
Episodes 81, 82 and a Rainbow Groove fill-in, featuring remixed movie queues, some happy house and the cancer-stricken tribute for Patrick Swayze, along with the Rheostatics' work for Whale Music.
Episodes 79 and 80 had the Holy Mountain and Inglourious Basterds.
Episode 78, toasting Michael Jackson and The Wiz in a peculiar fashion.
Episodes 76 and 77, includes Iceland and John Hughes.
Episodes 74, 75 and the Stereoscopic Redoubt swap show, featuring Coraline and an Apollo 11 tribute with the soundtracks to Moon and For All Mankind.
Episodes 72 and 73, toasting Manitoba and Peter Gabriel.
Three regular episodes, with Willie Hutch, The Limits of Control and David Holmes winning, placing and showing.
Two Rainbow Groove fill-ins, so shake your moneymakers.
Episodes 67 and 68, Crank: High Voltage and Franco Godi's Italian commerical work, amongst other mayhem.
Episode 66 and a fill-in for I Like the Scribbles, half Japanese.
Episodes 64 and 65 tackled a lot of things, from space and techno to funk and Italian soundtracks.
Fill-ins for the month of April.
Episodes 60-63 for the month of April.
Episode 59 had the soundtrack to Ghost in the Shell.
Episode 58: hip hop along with the soundtrack to the film Car Wash.
Episode 57: French disco with Daft Punk and the Irréversible soundtrack.
Episode 56: International Women's Day with Delia Derbyshire and Wendy Carlos.
Episode 55 dealt with The Dark Knight and other post-Oscar mayhem.
Episode 54 covered Defiance.
Episode 53 had The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Episodes 51 and 52 live here.
We have the rest of January 2009's shows along with the archives of 2008's episodes with better written rundown of episodes.
