Last week, Kristin Chenoweth was part of the episode focused on A Sentimental Christmas, an album of remakes of songs by Nat "King" Cole. Today, we continue that conversation to cover her new Christmas album, Happiness Is ... Christmas and 2008's A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas.
This episode also includes my interview with country legend Ronnie Milsap, whose Christmas with Ronnie Milsap was reissued this year, and guitar hero Paul Gilbert, who got in the Christmas music game this year with his new album, TWAS. Unfortunately, we had a wifi disconnect and, as you'll hear, had to pick up more or less where we left off. That gives us a choppy moment part way in, but that's life on the Internet.
This episode also includes new music from New Orleans-based jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman, who released A Very Meryl Christmas this year, and a cover of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" by Aidan & the Wild, Lewin, and the Revanche Family. It's on Another Christmas Vol. 2, and I'll talk to someone from Revanche Records in Amsterdam next year about the label sampler as a marketing strategy.
This episode also includes new music from Americana band Loose Cattle, who recently cut a version of Neil Young's "Star of Bethlehem" with the holidays in mind. Michael and Kimberly of Loose Cattle were early guests on Twelve Songs, and if you're in New Orleans, they'll play a holiday show Saturday at The Broadside with many of their musical friends.
Finally, the episode closes with a version of "The Christmas Song" by The Polyphonic Spree. I interviewed Tim DeLaughter of the Spree last summer about their then-new album Afflatus and their Holidaydream Christmas album. At the time, he said that they planned to bring back their Holiday Extraganza this year in Dallas. It's on for December 18, and last time I checked, there were a few tickets still on sale. I'll be there this year, and if your tastes run toward the maximalist and psychedelic, it might be for you too.
If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.
"Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse" from Lafayette with Chas Justus
Peggy Lee with Holly Foster-Wells
Amy Grant's "A Christmas Album" and Patrick Droney
"Do They Know It's Christmas" with Michaelangelo Matos and Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd
George Winston, The Bird and The Bee, The Myrrhderers, and Mento Buru
Calexico, Grant-Lee Phillips, and Peggy Lee
Big Freedia and Kelly Finnigan
Judith Owen and Harry Shearer, and Office Romance
Jim Brickman and the Return of Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips
"Just Like Christmas" with Low
The Goo Goo Dolls and Tori Kelly
"Mele Kalikimaka" with Ana Cristina Cash
Janie Fricke
The Beatles' Christmas Recordings with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of "Ranking the Beatles"
Rhonda Vincent, and Carrie Underwood's "The Gift"
Mega Ran
Christmas Music on the Billboard Charts with Chris Molanphy
"A Jazzy Little Christmas" with Ernie Haase and Signature Sound
"Hard Candy Christmas," with Alexandra Scott
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