Episode 5: Our New Year’s gift to you – a Christmas podcast!
Not wanting it to get lost in the shuffle of the Christmas season, we now bring you our Christmas episode to kick-off the new year! Chris, Clayton and special guest Courtney (another of Clayton’s talented sisters) try to get to the root of what makes Christmas music Christmas music. So grab yourself a glass of eggnog (check the expiration date first) and some leftover Christmas cookies (oh, who are we kidding), and settle in for what could be our funnest episode yet!
Be sure to check out Courtney’s website at www.courtneyatack.com to learn more about her and her music.
2 responses so far
I enjoyed the subject and the analysis, but I have to disagree with Clayton’s theory, at least partially. I think the sleigh bells don’t constrain things to the Christmas genre. I think they sounded great with the non-Christmas songs chosen. I think they work as a percussive element similar to the tambourine as Courtney suggested. If you brought the level of the sleigh bells down to make them not so prominent, I think they would be a valid element of the song. Even the Metallica song benefited form the extra element.
Well, I’m truly sorry I didn’t get to participate in this particular ‘cast. I would have had all sorts of colorful opinions to offer (though I may have drowned you all out laughing while Clay was playing sleighbells to Metallica and “Blue” and such. hilarious). I actually do think there’s something particular about the music of Christmas music. In recent years we’ve added some regular ol’ pop songs to the Christmas annals like “Grandma Got Run Over” and “Last Christmas,” but I don’t think those are really “Christmas Songs” so much as they are songs about Christmas. If you look at classic Christmas music, it really is different I think. That’s why it’s my favorite genre to sing. The music is FUNNER to make. I don’t know if it’s just more plucky, happy, hopeful sounding (except songs like “Lullay” which go the other way), or if they have a chord structure that makes a difference – like the 9ths and particular suspended chords. I was intrigued by Clay’s theory of chords moving every time. That was one of the hard things about playing “Angels We Have Heard on High” on the guitar. I had to switch the chord practically every note. If I were a total music theory geek, I’d see if I could find a common pattern. But alas, I’m more of a folk music geek.