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There is a greater than usual need for Christmas music in 2020. As a Christmasist, therefore, I felt very keenly the call to issue a third instalment of my public domain Christmas music compilation series. Here it is! (And the albums from 2018 and 2019 are here.)

Like a coastal wind, history bends us and presses us low to the ground. There are tracks on this compilation that reflect how historical forces have recently been operating on the human spirit. Perhaps in the past I wouldn't have included the bitterer songs, the songs of spite and break-up. Perhaps in the past I wouldn't have had a suspicion that the seemingly innocuous refrain of 'you need a little white berry / if you want to have a merry Christmas' in one song is a drugs metaphor. Yes, there is darkness.

But there is also yodelling, calypso, spirituals, sunshine pop. And cowboy shit. I am convinced that the one great thing America ever did was to make music that combined two of its deepest obsessions: a sanitised version of how the West was won and seasonally commercialised Christianity.

In the spirit of solace I offer A Very Erik Kennedy Christmas, 2020 as a free download on erikkennedy.com. Be safe and have a happy Christmas, everyone. xx

As a ZIP.

Or track by track (length 34.39):

01. Dick Stratton and His Nite Owls - I Wouldn't Have You on a Christmas Tree
02. Tricia Marks - Christmas Calypso
03. Nelo Sosa y Su Conjunto Colonial - Las Pascuas (Christmas)
04. Luis Russell and His Orchestra - Christmas in Your Heart
05. Andy Williams and the Williams Brothers - The Holiday Season
06. Four Aces - There's a Christmas Tree in Heaven
07. Kenny Roberts - Grandfather Kringle
08. Roy Castle - Little White Berry
09. The De Paur Chorus - De Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy
10. Red Sovine - Here It Is Christmas
11. Thelma Gracen - The Christmas Symphony
12. Leon McAuliffe and His Western Swing Band - A Cowboy's Christmas Song

Album cover [*]

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