featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 20, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of sprinkles
CHRiSTMAS,
CHRiSTMAS
2024
Why is it so hard to write a good Christmas song? Ask songwriters to generate a quality number about driving, or about hooking up and chances are good you'll find a couple ringers. But year after year the holiday season gifts us with dozens of awful-to-adequate Christmas singles. We can count on one hand the genuinely memorable seasonable songs from the past decade. Yet every December we hold out hope.
We don't apologize for our yearly Christmas ROUTES-cast, where we assemble precisely thirty (30) brand new seasonal recordings to soundtrack your holidays. We never promise they'll be fantastic. But these are pretty good. On the long-playing side, Milk Carton Kids released a quiet collection of tasteful traditionals, sweet acoustic playing and angelic harmonies. Dean & Britta from Luna shared an unexpectedly listenable A Peace Of Us, a collection that might be enjoyed a bit beyond the holiday season.
2024's crop of singles includes a handful of strong new originals, including a likeably quirky number from Frog. A possibly drunk JD Clayton pressed record and managed a pretty good one. Ana Egge wraps her original up real nice, and Blackberry Smoke fall somewhere between "Christmas In Prison" and "Merry Christmas From the Fam-oh-lee" for their slice of holiday life. Damnwells and Hackensaw Boys lean into the sentiment for a pair of the strongest new tunes. And Orville Peck wishes us a happy new year (my guy) with a very sweet ballad. Rival Sons' Jay Buchanan pairs with the Blind Boys Of Alabama for our favorite take on a standard, "I Heard the Bells". So yeah: Some good stuff this year.
Perhaps the perennial challenge in writing a good holiday tune is the requisite balance of reverence and joy, the jingle bells and the silent night. It's also the reason Christmas can seem so oppressive to some, for whom the pressure to feel specific emotions during a specific time simply seems unfair. We get it. For you, we offer 52 other weekly ROUTES-casts to enjoy, and we demand nothing but an open ear (even that's optional). No tinsel (unless we've left some on the floor), and no jolly (unless we've left some on the floor). Simply the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music.
For all who have made it this far, for anyone who tries to check out as many of our posts as possible, for fellow bloggers who include R&B on their blogroll, and for you who press play on ROUTES-cast after ROUTES-cast, recognizing that we do the best we can with thirty (30) songs week-in and -out, we wish you a Merry Christmas. And yes, a simultaneous Happy Hanukkah too!
- Milk Carton Kids, "What Child Is This" Christmas In a Minor Key (Far Cry, 24)
- Fantastic Cat, "Holiday Road" single (Missing Piece, 24)
- Caitlyn Smith & Dave Barnes, "What Christmas Can Do" single (Smith, 24)
- Ana Egge, "Silver Bells Ring" single (StorySound, 24)
- William Prince, "Sound Of Christmas" single (Six Shooter, 24)
- Jaimee Harris & Jared Tyler, "Light Of the Stable" single (Folk N' Roll, 24)
- Adam Chaffins, "Layaway Momma" single (Spirit Nashville, 24)
- David Nail, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" A Campfire Christmas EP (One Five Sound, 24)
- Hackensaw Boys, "The Child I Once Was" single (Suns Work, 24)
- JD Clayton, "Your Favorite Christmas Song" single (Rounder, 24)
- Sierra Hull, "First Snowfall" single (Hull, 24)
- Blackberry Smoke, "Come Go With Us" single (3 Legged, 24)
- Cracker, "Merry Christmas Emily" Alternative History: Cracker Retrospective (Cooking Vinyl, 24)
- Dawes, "Christmas Tree In the Window" single (Dead Ringers, 24)
- Devotchka, "Blue Christmas" single (Cicero, 24)
- Josiah and the Bonnevilles, "Wintering - Country Version" single (Josiah, 24)
- Louisa Stancioff, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" single (Yep Roc, 24)
- Dean & Britta, "Snow Is Falling In Manhattan" A Peace Of Us (Carpark, 24)
- Lucy Rose, "Those Red Lights" single (Communion, 24)
- Bartees Strange, "Xmas" single (4AD, 24)
- Pinkerton Raid, "Christmastime Is Here" Jagged Vacance: Winter Songs By Other People EP (Pinkerton, 24)
- Frog, "Did Santa Come" single (tapewormies, 24)
- Damnwells, "Xmas Eve" single (Poor Man, 24)
- Molly Burch, "It's Christmas Time (Again)" single (Burch, 24)
- Madi Diaz, "Kid On Christmas" single (Anti, 24)
- King Hannah, "Blue Christmas" single (City Slang, 24)
- Valerie June, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" Gifts Presents and Treats EP (June Tunes, 24)
- Nicole Atkins, "Sweetest Season (ft Teddy Morgan)" single (HA Krue, 24)
- Blind Boys Of Alabama w/Jay Buchanan, "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day" single (Sacred Tongue, 24)
- Orville Peck, "Happy Trails" single (Warner, 24)
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To enjoy any Spotify ROUTES-cast, just open Spotify and search for "routesandbranches" to access this most recent playlist, as well as many others from past months. Or click here for a preview:
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