ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
December 11, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of gift receipts
Longtime R&B lurkers are aware of our fondness for holiday music. They either look forward to or deeply resent our yearly Christmas ROUTES-cast, and are aware that we commit to precisely thirty (30) new holiday songs every year. So no repeats. But in honor of our new Wednesday tradition, this year we present A Very Lookback Holiday, showcasing our very favorite seasonal songs from our kind of music. Keeping in line with The Festivity, we're breaking all of our rules here, featuring stuff from long ago alongside stuff from just last year, including all sorts of covers. We're also adding Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas From the Family", one of the most overplayed tunes from the great canon of americana music. Gringo Honeymoon remains one of our seminal records, however, and we have to admit it's a classic song from a classic LP. As advertised, we'll still share our yearly all-holiday Spotify ROUTES-cast on Friday, December 20, fresh with thirty (30) brand new seasonal offerings. For this Episode, we'll allow a glance over our shoulder for:
A VERY LOOKBACK HOLiDAY: thirty favorites
- Emmylou Harris, "Light Of the Stable" Light Of the Stable (Warner, Nov 79)
- Steve Earle & Allison Moorer, "Nothing But a Child" To: Kate - A Benefit For Kate's Sake (Western Beat, Oct 05)
- Hurray For the Riff Raff, "River" My Dearest Darkest Neighbor (This Is American Music, Jul 13)
- Robert Earl Keen, "Merry Christmas From the Family" Gringo Honeymoon (Sugar Hill, Aug 94)
- Merle Haggard, "If We Make It Through December" If We Make It Through December (Capital, Oct 73)
- John Prine, "Christmas In Prison" Sweet Revenge (Atlantic, Oct 73)
- Mavericks, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" Hey! Merry Christmas! (Mono Mundo, Nov 18)
- Bonnie Prince Billy, "Christmas Eve Can Kill You (ft Dawn McCarthy)" single (Drag City, Aug 18)
- Gretchen Peters, "Song For a Winter's Night" Northern Lights (Scarlet Letter, Oct 08)
- Bruce Cockburn, "Mary Had a Baby" Christmas (Sony, Oct 93)
- Whitehorse, "2,000 Miles" A Whitehorse Christmas Classic (Six Shooter, Nov 18)
- Over the Rhine, "White Horse" Snow Angels (OtR, Nov 08)
- Molly Burch, "Coldest Night Of the Year (ft Jesse Woods)" Molly Burch Christmas Album (Captured Tracks, Dec 22)
- Ron Sexsmith, "Maybe This Christmas" single (Nettwerk, Nov 21)
- Ronnie Fauss, "Everybody Deserves a Merry Christmas" An Americana Christmas (New West, Oct 14)
- Matt Pond PA, "Holiday Road" Winter Songs EP (Only One On the Mountain, Jan 05)
- Be Good Tanyas, "Rudy" Winter's Night (Nettwerk, Nov 06)
- Mojo Nixon, "It's Christmas Time" Horny Holidays! (Triple X, Sep 92)
- El Vez, "Santa Claus Is Sometimes Brown" Merry MeX-mas (Sympathy For the Record Industry, Dec 94)
- Titus Andronicus, "Drummer Boy" single (Merge, Nov 22)
- Diamond Rugs, "Christmas In a Chinese Restaurant" single (Partisan, Dec 12)
- Pogues, "Fairytale Of New York" If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Warner, Nov 87)
- JD McPherson, "Twinkle (Little Christmas Lights)" single (Rounder, Dec 12)
- Mitch Ryder, "Santa Claus" Christmas (Take a Ride) (Goldenlane, Oct 18)
- Chuck Leavell, "Please Come Home For Christmas" What's In That Bag (Evergreen, Nov 98)
- William Bell, "Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday" Do Right Man (Charly, 84)
- Stevie Wonder, "Someday At Christmas" Someday At Christmas (Motown, Nov 67)
- Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, "White Christmas" It's a Holiday Soul Party (Daptone, Oct 15)
- Ray Charles, "That Spirit Of Christmas" Spirit Of Christmas (Columbia, 84)
- Aretha Franklin, "Silent Night (solo piano)" This Christmas (Universal, Oct 08)
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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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