erikkennedy.com

a v e r y e r i k k e n n e d y c h r i s t m a s , 2 0 2 4

There was a 29th of February this year, so you've had to wait an extra day for the holiday season to begin. You have my sympathies. Welcome to the seventh annual instalment of A Very Erik Kennedy Christmas.

If you'd like to travel with the Ghost of Christmas Past through the six previous volumes, here they are:

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

In past years, I have often bought into the logic of the attention economy. I have chosen bold, bumptious, almost clickbaity songs that I hoped would immediately flip a switch in the listener's head and suck them in. This has never worked. This year I have prioritised—wait for it—listenability. Maybe it's the entirety of the listening experience that's important. (It's like Christmas itself: what's vital is having a happy season overall, not chasing a sequence of delirious holiday highs.) Is this my AOR era? Chance would be a fine thing.

To this end, I have once again combed archive.org in search of truly unique public domain Christmas music. I have selected twelve tracks, and they are now here: a gravy-boat-ful of cheer that will be forever hot and ready to serve on erikkennedy.com.

I am closely following developments in the dreadful record label lawsuit against the Internet Archive, a suit that specifically takes aim at its music preservation work. I certainly hope this is not the last time I can use this resource to make my mixtape. Should worse come to worst, I expect I will figure something out. Life, uh, finds a way.

And do I have anything to say about the actual songs on this year's album? I think they feel proper Christmassy this time. Like settling in over a basin of steaming glühwein, putting a towel over your head, and inhaling those piquant, barky vapours. I hope you have a happy Christmas. Simple as that. XOXO

As a ZIP.

Or track by track (length 34.52):

01. Doye O'Dell - Ole Tex Kringle
02. Keith Mansfield - 5 Times Merrier / No Rest for Merry Gentlemen
03. Harry Noble - Here It Is Christmas
04. Virginie Morgan - Noël sans Vous
05. Vicki Sunday, Alan Hayes, and the Cappa Barra Boys - I'm Gonna Do My Christmas Shopping Early
06. Charlie Dobson - How Many Days Till Christmas
07. Harry Belafonte - A Star in the East
08. Anita Ellis and the Balladeers - Christmas Is a Feeling in Your Heart
09. The DeCastro Sisters - Snowbound for Christmas
10. Mark Warnow and Dick Todd - All Around the Xmas Tree
11. Glenn Davis - Christmas Island
12. The Rhythm Kings - Merry Christmas, One and All

Album cover [*]

Information, including archive.org links [*]