Song Spotlight: Gary U.S. Bonds - "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

[Note: as of October 5, 2009, this song is unavailable.]

This one will be short but sweet. I have a very fun song for you tonight from Gary U.S. Bonds called "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". This is not the standard song by that name that you have likely heard hundreds of times by now, but rather a very upbeat, lively, old fashioned rock and roll song, similar in feel to Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run". The song is extremely catchy - I have found myself humming, whistling, and singing it very frequently since I first heard it last week - and it would make a great soundtrack for any Christmas party.

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas" can be downloaded for free from Gary's website. Go check it out, and happy listening!

URLs:
http://garyusbonds.com/index1.shtml

Free Album: Holiday Hits 2008

I've seen quite a few blog posts about this already today (with even more coming in as I write this), so it's quite possible that you may already have heard about this.  If not, I guess one more post about it can't hurt!  For "the next 48 hours", Oprah Winfrey is giving away a free compilation called Holiday Hits 2008.  Here is the track listing:

Faith Hill - "Joy to the World"
Tony Bennett - "I'll be Home for Christmas"
Il Divo - "O Holy Night"
Josh Groban - "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
Brian McKnight - "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
Amy Grant - "O Come All Ye Faithful"
Harry Connick Jr. - "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
Aretha Franklin - "Silent Night"

There are some really big names on that list, and what looks like a great mix of both traditional Christmas carols and more modern standards.  Normally I like to write at least a brief review of the material I post about, but because of the time-limited nature of this offer, I think you'll excuse me for just wanting to post about it as soon as possible.

I can't find any mention of when this offer was actually posted, so if you are at all interested in it, I would suggest heading right over to Oprah's site and downloading the songs; they will likely be gone sometime on Friday.  The site also features printable cover art, instructions for burning the songs to a CD, and more information about each song and artist.  Enjoy, and Happy Listening!

URL:

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081118_tows_holiday/2

Album Spotlight: Beautiful and Unique Snowflakes

[Note: this album is no longer available.]

Patrol magazine has made its first annual Christmas sampler, Beautiful and Unique Snowflakes, available for free download. It consists of live recordings and B-sides (all of which were either previously released as free downloads or are unreleased live recordings) by a number of contemporary artists. Here is the complete track listing:

1. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” Coldplay
2. “O Holy Night,” Andy Zipf
3. “White Christmas,” Keane
4. “Blue Christmas,” Bright Eyes
5. “O Holy Night” (Live), The Corrs
6. “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, Plain White Ts
7. “Carol of the Bells,” Thrice
8. “If There Is A God”, (Live) Smashing Pumpkins & Radiohead
9. “Majesty Snowbird” (Live), Sufjan Stevens
10. “She Came Home for Christmas” (Live), Mew
11. “White Christmas” (Live), Coldplay

If even one of those artists and/or songs looks interesting to you, I would highly recommend heading over to Patrol's site and downloading the album. Who knows, you might discover a few future favourite artists in the process.

I hope this Christmas is shaping up to be a great one for you and those you care about. Merry Christmas, everyone!

URLs: http://www.patrolmag.com/index.php?id=172

608 South - Treeline Christmas (one more time)

[Update: These files are no longer available.]

After being informed that the files on my website had exceeded their bandwidth, I decided to find another way to share 608 South's Treeline Christmas album with anyone who wants to hear it. This time, I decided to use zSHARE, a site which offers free file hosting. Hopefully it will have more bandwidth than Google Page Creator sites. Here are the links that you can use to download the files:

1. Caroling
2. Come Immanuel
3. Away in a Manger
4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
5. Long Expected Jesus
6. We Three Kings
7. All Rejoice
8. What Child is This
9. O Holy Night
10. I Heard the Bells

Since this is my first time using zSHARE, I would love to know how it works out for people. Please leave a comment for any feedback you might have, whether positive or negative. And also, please let me know what you think of the music.

Merry Christmas!

608 South - Treeline Christmas (redux)

[Update: The 608 South website has never come back online, so I have decided to remove the files from my own site as well.]

Last week's featured album, 608 South's Treeline Christmas, is currently unavailable as the 608 South website is still down. In order to enable peple to hear this wonderful album, I have decided to take an unusual step and host the files on the Free Christmas Music website. If you are interested in listening to the album, please visit its new home on the Free Christmas Music website. If 608 South's website ever comes back, I will remove the files from my own site and redirect readers there. But for now, as far as I know this is the only place on the web where this album is available.

As always, I would love to know what anyone thinks of the album. If 608 South happens across this entry, thank you for the wonderful music, and I hope to see your website back up and running soon. Merry Christmas!

Free Album: Seriously Westcoast Vol. 2 - Happy Holidays (limited time only)

NOTE: as of December 16, 2007 at 11:59 p.m., this album is no longer available for free. I know some of you happened across this post a little late to get the download; in order to avoid missing any future time-limited offers, please subscribe to the blog's feed (also available via email) and always be amongst the first to read each post.

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Hi again. I know it's only been a few hours since the last post, but this free download is only for a very limited time, so it definitely needs to be mentioned now.

Seriously Westcoast Vol. 2 - Happy Holidays is being given away for free by the Vancouver Sun this weekend. The offer started at 12:01 EST and continues for 48 hours from that time. This is a compilation of Christmas music from artists on the Nettwerk Music Group label. Here is the entire track listing:

Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Weepies - All That I Want
Sarah McLachlan - Silent Night
Matt Wertz - What Child Is This
Lily Frost - Skating On The River
Oh Susanna - Go Tell It On The Mountain
Medieval Baebes - The Holly & The Ivy
The Be Good Tanyas - Rudy
Barenaked Ladies - Elf's Lament
Melissa McClelland - O-Holy Night
Jars of Clay - Hibernation Day
Jenny Owen Youngs - Things We Don't Need Anymore
Martha Wainwright - Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year
Kyle Andrews - Under The Misteltoe
Leigh Nash - The First Noel
Sarah McLachlan - The First Noel (DJ Shah Remix)

Sound good? You bet! Head on over to the download site, enter your name and email address, and download away. As always, I'd love to read what you think about this in the comments.

Merry Christmas!

Album Spotlight: 608 South - Treeline Christmas

[Update: as you can see from the comments, this website went offline pretty much right after I made this post.]

Today's featured album comes to us from Buena Vista, Colorado-based 608 South, "a worship band for God's pleasure". Treeline Christmas is actually one of the more varied Christmas albums I have featured here. Vocally, it is a mixture of male, female, and children's vocals. There is occasionally some spoken narration, including a child narrating part of "Away in a Manger"; the contrast between the adult and child voices on that song is very nice. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "We Three Kings" are both instrumentals featuring some surprisingly good guitar playing; both these songs are among the highlights of the album. All the variation makes the album feel a bit like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra album, only mellower and without an overarching story. Overall, the album is fairly upbeat and is a very pleasant listen.

Go download Treeline Christmas and let me know what you think of it. Until next time, happy listening!

Artist Spotlight: Dolores Dagenais

[Update: The music linked to in this post is no longer available.]

For me, one of the biggest benefits of this whole Free Christmas Music project has been the opportunity to discover artists that I probably never would have discovered otherwise. Many of those artists come from genres that I don't normally listen to; thanks to the ability of Christmas music to transcend all notions of genre, it is easy to find myself in previously unexplored musical territory. One such genre is folk music, and I am happy to say that I have found a couple of really great folk artists who have been generous enough to make their Christmas albums freely available for people to enjoy. I'll be doing this post in two parts, featuring one artist today and the other whenever I get the second part written, hopefully tomorrow.

Today I want to feature Dolores Dagenais, a singer/songwriter from Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. Dolores has made her Words of Warmth album available for free download from her website. The album features eight songs, seven of which are traditional Christmas carols; the final song, "Empty Pocket", is an original song that was written in 2000 after she "witnessed the body of a homeless man being picked up off the sidewalk one cold January day." This song is absolutely beautiful and features some very moving lyrics. Another highlight of the album is "Away in a Manger", which is done completely a capella and features some stunning vocal harmonies. In fact, many of the songs on Words of Warmth feature very distinctive vocal harmonies which are an absolute joy to listen to.

Words of Warmth will only be available on the website until January 2008, at which time it will be taken down to make room for more new music, so you should head on over there now if you want to check it out.

Dolores has also added another original Christmas song to her website. "Fragile Light" takes a look at the true meaning of Christmas, and, like "Empty Pocket", is a very moving song. "Fragile Light" has been given its own page on the website, complete with artwork and lyrics.

Part two of my exploration of folk Christmas music will be up soon. In the meantime, though, please head on over to Dolores Dagenais's website so you can hear her beautiful music for yourself.