Not long ago, a friend of mine offered his philosophy about holiday music. “My idea of a perfect Christmas song,” he said, “is one that makes you want to convert to any other religion.”
Obviously, that’s not a universally shared standard (if it was, caroling parties would be considerably different), but the fact is that whatever your mood or beliefs, there’s a song –indeed, probably many songs — out there just for you.
“Every range of human emotion can be found in Christmas music,” says WXRT-FM program director Norm Winer. “There’s great stuff out there, and it suits any mood.”
So what criteria do musicians use when it comes to adding a holiday song to their set lists? There are lots of factors. At times, the song a musician chooses is a matter of practicality. As singer-songwriter Kelly Kessler explains, “There are some beautiful old traditional Christmas songs that are too hard to play, and there are other Christmas songs that we’ve all heard way too many times.”
We asked a handful of Chicago-area performers about the holiday songs they like to include in their repertoires:
Kurt Elling, singer
Holiday credentials: Recorded the Louis Armstrong hit “Cool Yule” for the Blue Note compilation of the same name.
The popular jazz singer also likes to perform Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” in part because “it’s a surprise. Nobody thinks about New Year’s yet. It’s also not religiously affiliated, so that has a certain hipness to it. And the whole Christmas thing is so commercialized at this point that I feel like I’m not going to take part in this thing on a regular basis and add to the cacophony.”
Robbie Fulks, singer/songwriter
Holiday credentials: Recorded his own “Windy City Christmas Holiday” for the new WXRT/Borders compilation “Songs of the Season.”
A proud descendant of the Hank Williams-Buck Owens school of songwriting, Fulks has been known to perform “Daddy’s Drinking Up Our Christmas,” a weeper from California band Commander Cody. He found the song on a collection called “Hillbilly Holiday,” on which “every song is better than the last. I’ve probably covered half the songs on that collection. At Christmastime, you need an easy three-chord song, so I always turn to that album. You can pull one out and the rest of the band can follow.”
Ellen Rosner, singer/songwriter
Holiday credentials: Organizes the annual “Hooray For Hanukkah” variety show, which features a grab bag of musicians and spoken-word performers.
” `Hooray for Hanukkah’ is my answer to all the Christmas shows. I ask the poignant question, `What about us Jews? What are we, chopped liver?’ “
Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to seasonal music, Rosner is fond of playing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” from the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” “It’s funny. Mostly people go for humor and kitsch over the holidays. The quintessential Christmas song, `White Christmas,’ was written by a Jew. That’s funny.”
Tracey Dear, guitarist for the Peterbilts and the Waco Brothers
Holiday credentials: Hosted “The Peterbilts Christmas Show” Friday at Harrigan’s.
As an Englishman with a passion for country music, Dear keeps a foot in each camp by playing “Merry Christmas Everybody” (from British band Slade) and the Buck Owens’ classic “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy.”
“I’ve always wanted to do the Slade song, because it was a good, rowdy song that was always played at Christmastime at all the parties in England. It’s reminiscent of earlier, rowdier days. As for [`Daddy’], I picked that simply because it’s a classic typical Buck Owens song.”
Fareed Haque, guitarist
Holiday credentials: Recorded “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” for the “Cool Yule” anthology.
“`The Grinch’ is a great tune. I do a classical guitar intro. [for the “Fa Who Fores, Da Who Dores” section of the song]. I also have a hip-hop version of `God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,’ but it’s pretty funky.”
Kelly Hogan, singer/songwriter
Holiday credentials: Appeared Friday at the Hideout with Tijuana Hercules and a video of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Hogan and her band are fond of “There’s Always Tomorrow,” one of the lesser-known songs from the television special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
“It’s the song the fawn sings. I guess we’re just big junkies for that particular cartoon and that was a song that hadn’t been done.”
Ross Bon, singer for the Mighty Blue Kings
Holiday credentials: He recently released a holiday album, “Mighty Blue Christmas,”on Hepcat Records.
“I’d actually heard Otis Redding’s version of `White Christmas’ and was really caught by it. Then we started messing with it. I don’t know how you describe it, but it had like a slow-dance appeal to it. People with their arms around each other’s waists. And it reminds me of Christmas as a kid, when I would hang out with my dad at the corner spot.”
Spider Saloff, singer
Holiday credentials: Saloff recently released the album “Cool Yule,”on Kopaesthetics Records (not to be confused with the Blue Note anthology of the same name).
“I’ve always loved performing `Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’ First of all, Judy Garland’s performance in the film is a killer. I’ve loved that since I was a little kid. `Winter Wonderland’ is another one I kind of knew as a kid. It’s a nice, simple melody you can play with it a lot.”
Scott Ligon, guitarist/vocalist for the Heatersons
Holiday credentials: Ligon recorded the original “Once Again It’s Christmas” for “Songs of the Season.”
“We’ve played a good handful of Christmas music, not only during the holiday season. We do a really nice instrumental version of `Sleigh Ride.’ For some reason, I’ve never heard a bad version of that song. There’s something about the way the melody flows that’s so incredibly catchy.”
Diamond Jim Greene, guitarist
Holiday credentials: Greene recorded “Home for Christmas” as part of the Kate Bush tribute album “I Wanna Be Kate” (Brown Star).
The acoustic blues player likes to perform a jazzy version of “White Christmas.” “I play blues chords generally, but this is an instrumental jazz piece. It’s a short tune and I might play it to start a set. There’s something about the combination of these chords together. It’s like a voice.”
Barrelhouse Chuck, pianist for Barrelhouse Chuck and the Blue Lights
Holiday credentials: Has written but never recorded a holiday song.
Chuck is fond of pulling out “Christmas in Jail, Ain’t It a Pain” by the late blues pianist Leroy Carr. “Some holiday songs, of course, are fitted to the 12-bar blues style that we play. I pick songs by great piano players that I love. Leroy Carr’s one of my favorites. I enjoy doing songs by him that I can only do once a year. His lyrics were really well thought out, he was like Hoagy Carmichael or Irving Berlin. His songs are sad but there’s some humor in them too.”
Anna Fermin, singer/guitarist, Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel
Holiday credentials: Recorded a song for WXRT’s Local Anesthetic holiday show.
“We did `Winter Wonderland’ and swapped [the name of country guitar legend] Junior Brown for `Parson Brown,’ I think probably that Junior Brown swap was the key factor in our choosing it.”
Justin Roberts, singer-songwriter
Holiday credentials: He has written two holiday songs for the Hear Diagonally disc “Justin Roberts: Bright Becomes Blue.”
“I have two songs which are Christmas-related, `Twelve True Days of Christmas’ and `Bethlehem,’ and I play them all year-round. Christmas is all year-round, as far as I’m concerned. Playing all year long and having one time when you’re playing the right seasonal song is important.”
Mark Burnelle, cabaret pianist/vocalist
Holiday credentials: He’s recorded and released “Heaven Down Here,” a song written by Jim “Mr. Grinch” Carrey (no, it wasn’t written for the movie), for “Little Things We Do Together” on Spectrum Records.
“I like to play `Santa Baby.’ I play for a lot of vocalists and that’s a song a lot of female singers can sink their teeth into. It’s very playful and comical, and bluesy. I also like to play `Sleigh Ride’ like a bebop song, like Charlie Parker. You can play it very fast in a jazz style.”
Dag Juhlin, guitarist for the Slugs
Holiday credentials: Recently posted an MP3 recording of “Winter Wonderland” at www.slugs.com
“We usually have a holiday pageant, where we do a bunch of Christmas songs, notably, `Do You Hear What I Hear?’ That was done so we could all have a verse and have a big theatrical kind of thing.”
Kelly Kessler, singer/songwriter and one-half of the Texas Rubies
Holiday credentials: A frequent participant in Ellen Rosner’s “Hooray for Hanukkah.”
“Having grown up in the church with my Dad — who was a minister — I would only play a Hanukkah song. I play `The Ballad of Judah Macabee,’ which is set to `The Ballad of Jed Clampett.’ I don’t know whether I’m desecrating it or not; I don’t mean to.”
HOLIDAY SONGS THAT PUT YOU IN A JEERFUL MOOD
There are some holiday songs that work their way under your skin, and then there are some that drill large, painful holes in your brain. Here are some holiday songs that Chicago musicians would prefer not to play:
Kelly Hogan: “I was in this Christmas play in Georgia for a couple of years ago. I had to sing `O Holy Night’ and if three grandmas didn’t cry by the end, I would be fired. That was the unwritten contract. I just had to sing it too many times and it was too fraught with peril. I also had to clog in that play, so that’s another weird association.”
Ellen Rosner: “I have to consider the type of show. If it’s a fun show, it doesn’t matter what kind of song. Even the ones that rankle me, you gotta find camp value in them. The holidays are incredibly campy.”
Richard Knight, vocalist and co-founder, Sambabamba: “`Jingle Bell’ is my least favorite. I guess because it’s just so major key.”
Ross Bon: “I probably wouldn’t do `Deck The Halls’ because I don’t think it’s a song I could really pull off. It’s a great song when the choirs do it, but I haven’t heard any way of doing it that would work with the way I do it.”
Tracey Dear: “`Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ I just can’t do Boy George or Bono.”
Jon Langford, Dear’s colleague in the Waco Brothers: “That one of Paul McCartney’s [`Wonderful Christmastime’]. That was pretty bad.”
Barrelhouse Chuck: “`Feliz Navidad.’ That one kind of goes on forever, doesn’t it? I think [singer Jose Feliciano] says it like 16 times.”
Kimberly Gordon, singer for the Kimberly Gordon Quartet, the Swing Shift Orchestra: “I think `White Christmas’ is one of my least favorites. Maybe because it’s so overdone.”
Robbie Fulks: “`Jingle Bell Rock.’ It’s just way too done.”
Kurt Elling: “`The Christmas Song’ is one of the nicer ones you could do, but it’s definitely overdone — both in terms of how many times it’s played and the tragic things people have done with it.”
Anna Fermin: “I’m a huge fan of Christmas music, so … I can’t say there’s anything we’d flat-out refuse to do. I might have a qualm with `Rudolph [the Red-Nosed Reindeer]’ but if my nieces were in the audience I would definitely do it.”
Scott Ligon: “I’m not a big fan of `The Little Drummer Boy.’ I think Joan Jett ruined that song for me.”
Spider Saloff: “One of my least favorites is `Must Be Santa.’ That call-and-answer thing — especially with the children — didn’t strike a chord with me.”
Diamond Jim Greene: “`Jingle Bells.’ It’s just too common. It’s like playing `Sweet Home Chicago.”‘
Steve Dawson, guitarist/vocalist, Dolly Varden: “I would probably never do “Rockin’ Around the Xmas Tree.” Not that I haven’t enjoyed hearing it sometimes.”
Mark Burnelle: “`Holly Jolly Christmas’ drives me crazy.”
Justin Roberts: “I guess it would have to be `Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ because of the fearful image of `punishing Santa.’ Although I would like to hear Tom Waits cover it at some point.”
Kelly Kessler: “I don’t know. What’s the Christmas equivalent of an Eagles song?”
— Steve Darnall
