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PODCAST

Twelve Songs of Christmas

”The Twelve Songs of Christmas” tries to sort out the place of Christmas music in our culture by talking to the people who make it.

arts performing arts

All Episodes

46:39

Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 2

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2022/02/17

Last week, I started a look back at some of the highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs of Christmas. This week, Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5 talks about his relationship to his Christmas songs when a stroke prevented him from playing them at their CD release show. Americana rocker JD McPherson talks about the inspiration for the songs on his modern Christmas classic, Socks, and Magic 101.9 program director Steve Suter takes us behind the scenes on the all-Christmas radio format

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58:02

Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 1

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2022/02/10

The previous episode with singer Meryl Zimmerman was number 100, and now that I've made it that far, I think it's time to stop and help some of you catch up. I've had a lot of episodes I'm really happy with that have moments I'm glad I helped to get into the world. Some realizations probably came together for the first time when we talked. The conversations shed light on creativity, musicality, business, and spirituality--aspects the pop music enterprise that are too often overlooked or treated with

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50:50

Meryl Zimmerman

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2022/01/27

This is the 100th episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas, and I’m spending it with New Orleans' jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman. In late November 2022, she released her second album, A Very Meryl Christmas, so we talked about it as a business proposition and chewed on the uncommon song choices she made for it. Some standards are there, but so are some less common choices. As you’ll see, the more familiar ideas are dressed up in uncommon arrangements that take them into interesting places. Her bossa

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40:36

Nochebuena with Patricia Vonne

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2022/01/20

One sidebar in the last few years of 12 Songs has been the role of COVID in the creation of Christmas music. Some artists recorded Christmas albums to remind themselves that they were musicians during the pandemic shutdown of 2020. Some were able to get musicians who would otherwise be unavailable because COVID forced them off the road, and others had specific circumstances related to COVID that led to their Christmas albums. San Antonio-based roots rocker Patricia Vonne falls into the latter

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41:43

A Latin Music Christmas with Arthur Hanlon

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2022/01/13

How does a white guy from Detroit end up playing Latin music? Pianist Arthur Hanlon, one of the stars of the HBOMax concert film Piano Y Mujer, talks about that and his relationship to Motown in this week's conversation. We talk about the EP he released before Christmas, A Holiday Christmas Piano, and the roles Facebook and COVID played in making it happen. Along the way, we also talk about earlier Christmas releases and how Christmas music fits into Hanlon's big picture. This week, we also look at

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02:16:22

Mitchell Kezin of ”Jingle Bell Rocks,” Jim McCormick,...

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/12/24

This is the last episode of the Christmas season, but The Twelve Songs of Christmas is a year-around affair, so the conversations will continue in January after I take a much-needed week off. This week's episode includes an interview with filmmaker Mitchell Kezin, whose documentary Jingle Bell Rocks! takes a deep dive into the world of Christmas music, talking to people who collect it and create it. It's streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime, and we'll talk more about the movie next year, but this week

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01:04:54

Amanda Shires, Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon, and...

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/12/21

This week, we have a few guests again as Christmas nears. Americana artist Amanda Shires is on hand to talk about For Christmas, and the way it reflects some of the less common impulses behind Christmas music. The husband and wife team of Rod and Rose—country singer Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon—talk about why they recorded “Winter Wonderland,” and how their conflicting writing styles got them to a new song for this holiday season. Finally, indie multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster drops by to talk

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55:52

Bonus Episode: Twelve Songs x Ranking the Beatles

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/12/14

Last year, Twelve Songs did its first crossover episode with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of the Ranking the Beatles podcast. During the COVID shutdown in 2020, Jonathan took the time on his hands as an excuse to rank all of The Beatles’ songs, from his least favorite to his favorite. That list morphed from a Facebook conversation into a podcast with his wife Julia as the voice of reason. Since The Beatles didn’t release any true Christmas songs during their time together, last year we ranked the

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01:18:43

Kristin Chenoweth, Ronnie Milsap, and Paul Gilbert

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/12/09

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

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01:18:45

Jay Landers, Kristin Chenoweth, and Calum Scott on ”A...

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/12/02

For this Christmas season, producer Jay Landers put together "A Sentimental Christmas with Nat "King" Cole," an album that refreshes some of Cole's holiday classics with new arrangements and a handful of new duets with new singing partners Johnny Mathis, John Legend, Gloria Estefan and more. Today on the show, Landers talks about the hows of whys of putting together this kind of project, and why Cole continues to sing these duets well after his death. Kristin Chenoweth and Calum Scott are two of

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01:05:21

José James, Bruce Cockburn, and The Twangtown Paramours

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/11/25

This episode drops on Thanksgiving, and if you're listening on Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving. Friday is Black Friday, the official, incontrovertible start to the Christmas season, and just in time for it, Twelve Songs has created an alternative to the all-Christmas radio station, Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio on Spotify. It's a 20-plus hour playlist of songs that are or should be Christmas favorites, and all you have to do is click Shuffle to get the radio effect, minus the commercials and station

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01:54:45

Bonus Episode: Who Dat Jedi Crossover

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/11/23

Twelve Songs of Christmas is based in New Orleans, so in the spirit of the season and podcaster camaraderie, I recently recorded a crossover episode with friends who figured out how to shoehorn their two great passions into one podcast. Who Dat Jedis usually talks about the New Orleans Saints and Star Wars, and this week they asked me to join them to add a conversation on Christmas music to that mix. I enjoyed this conversation because Aaron, Fredo and Dave's questions are the ones casual listeners

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01:22:23

The Fleshtones, Susan Cowsill, and Numero Records‘...

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/11/18

Last year, some time after Thanksgiving I had to change format and use excerpts from a few interviews to get to everybody I've talked to about Christmas music before the holiday comes. This year, I have to start now since I already have enough interviews to get to February if I ran one per show. This week, I'm talking to some of my favorite people. The Fleshtones are the long-time garage rock gold standard, and singer Peter Zaremba is always a great person to talk to about that corner of the rock

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01:21:46

Mannheim Steamroller

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/11/11

It's mid-November, and with COVID numbers trending in the right direction, Mannheim Steamroller will return to the road soon. One of the Monsters of Christmas Rock, the group will start on Tuesday, November 16 in Loveland, Colorado, and it will have two companies on the road until December 30, when they'll finish up in Dallas and San Diego. The tour schedule is online, and tickets are on sale now. The tour will take place as it has since 2008 without founder/composer/arranger Chip Davis, who talks

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01:11:24

Quad City DJs

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/11/04

This episode is bittersweet for me. The things I love on Quad City DJs' All-Star Christmas make me very happy, and this week one half of the Quad City DJs, CC Lemonhead, tells the story of the Jacksonville, Florida DJs' journey from "Whoot! There it Is" to "Tootsie Roll" to "C'mon and Ride It (The Train)" to "What You Want for Christmas." It's the kind of story I love, with people working up homemade solutions to musical challenges, and what happens along the way. Unfortunately, one of the things

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38:52

”Christmas Jollies” with Bill Adler

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/10/21

The impulse to share my findings while collecting Christmas music led me to this podcast, and it led Bill Adler to Christmas Jollies, an annual Christmas mix that he has made and distributed to family, friends, and folks in the music industry since the mid-1980s. Adler started his career in the music industry as the director of publicity at Def Jam Records and Rush Management from 1984-1990, so while his tastes are much broader than simply hip-hop, hip-hop Christmas music by Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC

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01:39:28

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/10/14

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has worked to be more than just the jazz band your parents knew. Creative Director and tuba player Ben Jaffe has worked to ensure that the New Orleans musical institution has a place in the contemporary music conversation. That has led to some choices that purists have questioned, but it also means the band still has a presence in the culture, unlike many of its peers. This week, I talk to Jaffe about the hall’s holiday traditions and its own Christmas recordings,

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01:20:29

A Family-Friendly Christmas with Dan and Claudia Zanes

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/10/07

We met Dan Zanes as the singer of The Del Fuegos in the first generation of America's indie underground in the mid-1980s. As he explains in our conversation, he discovered after the band broke up that people were more interested in a cassette he made of family-oriented folk he made with his daughter, her friends and their parents in mind than they were in his solo album. That set his course, and he has been working in the family-friendly field for more than 20 years now. We talk about

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01:11:57

Santa Baby

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/09/23

"Santa Baby" has gone through some changes. When Eartha Kitt recorded it in 1953, it was controversial because women--and particularly black women--didn't talk about desire so bluntly. It was a cool artifact from one of Christmas' back rooms until Madonna covered it in 1987, and that seemingly put the song on the radar of a generation or two of women performers including Arianna Grande and Kylie Minogue. This week, I'm joined by three strong women to discuss what makes Kitt's track special, and what

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01:00:47

A Blues Christmas with Alligator Records

Twelve Songs of Christmas ·

2021/08/26

Bruce Iglauer didn’t plan to celebrate Alligator Records’ 50th anniversary the way he has. Iglauer started the blues label in Chicago in 1972 and intended to load up a bus with musicians from the label’s past, present and future and play around the country. Unfortunately, the Delta variant made that unsafe, so instead he has had to celebrate with an anniversary compilation, 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music, and talking about the label and the stars who defined it on shows like this

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