As I’ve long since confessed my love for Christmas songs, I’ll give a plug for my favorite new Christmas album of the year: “Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family,” by the great Nick Lowe. I’m digging his take on some old faves, lesser-known gems as well as some great new originals. I’m guessing his new song “Christmas at the Airport” is destined to be a seasonal classic – a fabulous bossa nova ballad that transfers the aching Christmas longing from “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” to a lonely commuter socked in at airport terminal:
It looks like Christmas, Christmas at the airport/I should be at the table/with all my kith and kin/It looks like Christmas, Christmas at the airport this year/Don’t save me any turkey/I found a burger in a bin.
Great stuff! And while I’m at it, I’ll offer up another chestnut from Bob Dylan’s inscrutably wonderful 2009 album “Christmas in the Heart” (described by Pitchfork Magazine as a collection of “mostly traditional renderings” delivered with a “craggy, get-off-my-lawn snarl.”) Click below for his wacked out video of “Must Be Santa Claus” (which seems to be set at a Christmas party in an egg-nog soaked halfway house.)
Cheers!
Yedid Nefesh 
Yayyyyyy!
Sent from my iPad
Thank you, Rabbi. Happy Holidays to you, and may God bless you and yours always. Keep singing those Christmas songs…. 🙂 Germana Nijim
On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Yedid Nefesh
Brant, I love it! This Friday the 13th I bring my 3rd Annual Santa Lucia (the Feast Day is on Friday the 13th) – Chanuka – Christmas Concert to Deta’s Cafe. My piano students will be in recital along with trumpet, drums. piano sing – a – long. Wish we could all bi-locate.. Thanks again for the great suggestions. Ann
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“Christmas at an eggnog soaked half way house”…ah Brant. No one conveys that warm fuzzy holiday spirit quite the way you do.
I’m torn. I kinda want to be at that party . . . and I kinda don’t. Oh wait, I’m going to that party Monday night…
Agreed, Rabbi, since it’s impossible not to know all of the seasonal music, I’ve come to enjoy much of it. Thanks for reprising your confession and sharing some recent holiday gems. Wishing you and yours a season of peace, joy, light, and gratitude, along with a spectacular secular new year. Gratefully, Doug