Today I have three examples of artists who don’t take the Christmas holiday too seriously.
First, from my home state of Texas comes a song that has become a regular part of my holiday listening experience.
“Merry Christmas from the Family” is a holiday so
ng written by alternative country artist Robert Earl Keen. It has become extremely popular among the fans within his cult following. The song was first recorded for Keen’s 1994 album, Gringo Honeymoon. A live version also appears on his 1996, No. 2 Live Dinner. The popularity of the song led Keen to write a sequel song, “Happy Holidays Y’all”, for his 1998 album Walking Distance, and to publish a book, Merry Christmas from the Family, in 2001. The original song, the book, and the sequel all center around the same cast of characters in Keen’s humorous vision of a Texas style Christmas. Merry Christmas from the Family – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! is a Grammy Award-winning Christmas special that debuted on Comedy Central on November 23, 2008.
The plot is that Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, while heading to the film studio to shoot his Christmas special with Elvis Costello, becomes trapped in a cabin in “bear country” (upstate New York or Vermont) when he hears a bear prowling outside. A number of his friends stop by the cabin to sing Christmas songs with him as Stephen tries to find ways to escape the cabin and make his Christmas as special as possible, ending by revealing that the titular “greatest gift of all” is the DVD release of the special.
via A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Messiah (HWV 56)[1] is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Messiah (Handel) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Here is how a group of high school students imagined it would look if silent monks performed the Messiah.
Next time: Christmas music by Jewish artists
Love!