In 2018 when I launched Twelve Songs, I published "The 12 Songs Manifesto," a statement of my core beliefs about Christmas music.
Now that we're in our sixth season and have a lot of listeners who weren't around back then, I thought it was worth revisiting and documenting in podcast form. I flesh out my thoughts, add a few and revise a few that no longer seem as crucial to me. And, I have music by Luther Vandross, Rockin' Sidney, Paul McCartney, Alexander O'Neal, The Bird and the Bee, SUNBEARS! and more to put some musical meat on those bones.
There was one late edit that some of you will notice. There is no Number Eight in my manifesto, not because I didn't have one but because I discovered while looking for an image to accompany this episode that the musician I featured had been found guilty of some extremely un-Christmas-y behavior. It was too late in the process to redo the whole passage, so I simply cut it.
Letters to Cleo
Kishi Bashi and The Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling"
Debbie Davis
Josh Rouse
An Encore Presentation of The Minus 5
Isaac Hanson of Hanson
Christmas Compilations with Joe Adragna of The Junior League
The 12 Songs of Christmas with Nelson
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" with The Ornaments and Joel Dinerstein
Erin McKeown
An Encore Presentation with Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini
JD McPherson
The All-Christmas Radio Format
Los Lobos' Steve Berlin
Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime"
An Encore Presentation with Jimbo Mathus of the Squrrel Nut Zippers
Can Christmas Songs Be Cool?
Jon Langford
Chuck Mead
Tav Falco of Panther Burns
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