George Winston, The Bird and The Bee, The Myrrhderers, and Mento Buru

I'm ending 2020 with a bang on a number of fronts. First, I have four interviews for the nights before Christmas--"folk pianist" George Winston; singer Inara George of The Bird and The Bee; Jamie Hilsden, who performed this holiday season as The Myrrhderers; and Matt Munoz of the East Bakersfield ska band Mento Buru. 

The second big news is that there will more in the upcoming months from all of these artists and others I have interviewed this season including Steven Drozd, Grant-Lee Phillips, Joey Burns of Calexico, and Holly Foster-Wells, Peggy Lee's granddaughter. Twelve Songs will take December 30 off but will return January 6, 2021 and will continue year-around at that point. I've always thought that the show was more about musicians and their musical, commercial and personal lives, and that Christmas music was simply a unique lens to help us get that view. I've never thought the show was simply part of the soundtrack to the season.

This episode's interviews need little explanation. Inara George's roofers decided the day and hour of our interview was the time that they needed to work over her room, but the hammering is only briefly noticeable.