Today is my father’s birthday! We will be celebrating in Freeport, Bahamas with a tour of Gold Rock Beach and Lucayan National Park. Enjoy your freezing temperatures, Knoxville ( Read more... )

And for those of you who aren’t into church music, here are a couple tracks of the Oxford St. Peter’s Choir doing less religious holiday classics. I had no idea I needed a choir singing "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" in my life until I heard it for the first time.

Oxford St. Peter’s Choir -- Deck the Halls
Oxford St. Peter’s Choir -- Jolly Old St. ( Read more... )

Since Amazon knows me so well, this year it recommended to me an album of ‘Essential Christmas Songs’. I’m not entirely convinced that the entire Nutcracker Suite is essential listening, personally, but there are some really fantastic choir performances of the carols we sang in church when I was growing up. These songs say ‘Christmas’ to me in a ( Read more... )

Today’s featured song is Silent Night. I have three versions for you, one a traditional choir arrangement, one a contemporary recording, and one a Motown classic. Something for everyone!

Oxford St. Peter’s Choir -- Silent Night
Kelly Clarkson -- Silent Night
The Four Tops f/Aretha Franklin -- Silent Night

Today’s artist is another female singer/songwriter, Colbie Caillat. A couple calendars ago I posted her original track “Mistletoe”, which remains of of my favorite Christmas pop songs. This year she’s released a full album of Christmas songs. Here are a couple of my personal favorites.

Colbie Caillat f/Justin Young -- The Christmas Song
Colbie ( Read more... )

Today we depart from the traditional a bit with Kelly Clarkson, who just released a new Christmas album. Below are three of her nontraditional tracks, two originals and one a cover. The whole album is pretty good, though, and there are plenty of traditional carols if you want to check out more.

Kelly Clarkson -- Wrapped In Red
Kelly Clarkson -- ( Read more... )

Y'all know how much I love acapella. I'm so excited that NBC is bringing back The Sing-Off this year! Just in time for me to be out of town and away from all civilization. Of course! But the great acapella band Under the Influence has released a new Christmas album this year with a few fun guest artists, so today I offer you a few tracks.

( Read more... )

If you've been hanging around long enough to see more than one of these advent calendars, you have probably noticed that one of my very favorite Christmas songs is Please Come Home For Christmas. I'm particularly fond of Jon Bon Jovi's version, but I will take anything, pretty much. I'm not proud ( Read more... )

Today's featured artist is Mark O'Connor, a bluegrass musician hailing from the great state of Washington. This year he released an album called "An Appalachian Christmas", featuring some bluegrass interpretations of old favorites, as well as several guest artists. Including Allison Kraus, of course, because it's illegal to put out any kind of ( Read more... )

Today's selections are courtesy of actress/chanteuse Lea DeLaria, who you may know as Big Boo from Orange Is the New Black, currently available on Netflix and if you're not watching it, man, you are missing out ( Read more... )