This week!!
Swansea Sound – ( I Wanna Wear) A Mirrored Hat Like Slade
Allison Russell – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Girlhouse – Ugly Xmas Sweater Party
Tim Baker – Light the Light
Arkells – The Last Christmas (We Ever Spend Apart)
Suresh Singaratnam – A Canadian Christmas
Litany – Die Hard is a Christmas Film
Nora Jones – Christmas Calling
PIQSIQ – Ave Maria
James Clark Institute – Orange Christmas
Ready to go!!
Our Notes!!
Thus week, for Christmas, we have a number of hosts. Some notes are included here on some of this week’s musical selections.
Suresh Singaratnam – A Canadian Christmas
I have never heard of this project, but I really like the song and the idea behind it. As you read, I think it will be easy to understand why this song is needed now!
Suresh Singaratnam: The trumpeter whose Christmas tune comforted an anxious nation
Suresh Singaratnam saw a nation of people desperate for a bit of spiritual uplift, and brought his musical vision to life
March 18, 2021
The song feels like the musical embodiment of a lacy frost embroidering itself across a windowpane: delicate, intricate and ephemeral. Strings, woodwinds, a twinkling chime join in first, then dozens of voices layer in bit by bit—together but not, like everything over the last year—as A Canadian Christmas swells toward its choruses.
Shortly before Christmas 2020, the video for the song appeared online, performed by an array of professional musicians and singers and ordinary Canadians assembled into a virtual choral performance. Suresh Singaratnam, a trumpet player who lives in Toronto, originally wrote the song in 2017, partly in response to the ugly intolerance burbling up in the wake of Donald Trump’s election; he intended the song to celebrate a quintessentially Canadian Christmas through the prism of the country’s diversity. But although it was written a few years before the pandemic wiped out normalcy, some of the lyrics seem strangely prescient: I contemplate the bittersweetness of these few short weeks of cheer, in a time so often wrought with fear / Despair returns when once again our world’s distress consumes my thoughts…
Song: “Ave Maria”
Artist: PIQSIQ
Lovely song and the motivation behind this is really interesting – to decolonize Christmas music. Take a look at the notes below taken from the YouTube video. Never knew the origins of Ave Maria.
Sister duo PIQSIQ (Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik) make spine-tingling experimental music rooted in Inuit-style throat-singing and electronic looping, and they return with what has become an annual tradition: a hauntingly beautiful reinterpretation of a classic Christmas carol that doubles as a powerful statement of decolonization.
Ave Maria
Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik of PIQSIQ are back with another installation of their holiday tradition; re-imagining Christmas carols through an Inuit and decolonial lens. PIQSIQ continues their tradition of examining the Christmas holiday through musical investigation. The original poem, The Lady of the Lake, which inspired the song by Franz Schubert was never intended for religious purposes, but rather was included in a pagan play rooted in Arthurian lore and later co-opted by the Catholic Church as a plea to the Virgin Mary. “We wanted to call into question the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church through this song. We are soothed with messages of exalting an impossible version of womanhood through the Virgin Mary but the real life experience of women in the church is steeped in misogyny. Women cannot hold positions of meaningful leadership in the Church, can’t be ordained, and don’t have autonomy over their own bodies. Why are women the only ones shamed for abortions or the use of birth control? There should be no celebration for the lack of autonomy imposed on women and their bodies.” – Inuksuk Mackay
Swansea Sound – “( I Wanna Wear) A Mirrored Hat Like Slade”
Swansea Sound are sort of a Indie UK super group. The group has Amelia Fletcher and Hue Williams, who previously sang together in 1990s band The Pooh Sticks. Here, Swansea pays homage to UK 70’s legends Slade. By 1973, Slade were one of the most popular bands in Britain, having achieved two number-one singles—”Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Skweeze Me Pleeze Me”in three months. They had 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. Among those “Merry Xmas Everybody” is the most beloved. Here they are performing it on Top of the Pops.
Swansea Sound’s Christmas involves dancing to Manfred Mann, while wearing ‘a mirrored hat like Slade
Girlhouse – “Ugly Xmas Sweater Party”
One 21st century trend this old fella could do without tis the ugly xmas sweater. However, here’s a cool look at the history of the ugly xmas sweater.
Girlhouse is Lauren Luiz, a singer actress based in Nashville who released this seasonal track in 2020..
Arkells – “ The Last Christmas (We Ever Spend Apart)”
Beloved Canadian band The Arkells released this gem a couple of years ago. Mike Ladano reviews:
…Litany – “Die Hard (Is A Christmas Film)”
Litany is the alias of 25 year-old UK singer/songwriter Beth Cornell. Described by The FADER as making “Icy pop that will make you dance and cry” Litany has created a unique brand of effortlessly cool alternative pop. The song is about two people who are stupidly in synch and literally on the same page about absolutely everything except for the age-old yuletide debate; is Die Hard a Christmas film?”
Unbelievably, Die Hard has inspired countless songs for this special time of year! You can check them out here:
James Clark Institute- “Orange Xmas”
What better way to end our Holiday Show than with some pure power pop bliss from The James Clark Institute. Any Christmas Carol that references The Kinks and The Bobby Fuller Four is okay in my books. There’s a subtle nod to Band on the Run in the video as well.
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Tim Baker Light the Light
This is part of an article sent to us by Liam that gives a biot of background on his musical choice.
Whole-Hearted 
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