Welcome to episode 40 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this episode, I talk about the Shadracks’ 1970 album, “Merry X’mas With The Shadracks.” It’s a fun album full of Christmas standards by the Japanese Folk band.

I’m sometimes surprised by the records I come across while searching for Japanese Christmas albums. One unexpected gem was an EP I stumbled across about a year ago called “Christmas on Campus.” It was listed as a folk album, but I couldn’t get much more from the description. When it finally arrived about a month later, I found it to be a delightful but all-too-brief four-song collection of Japanese Folk singers from 1969. That sent me on a quest to find more of the same.

I’d seen the cover for the Shadracks’ album on a few different sites, but had never given it much attention, so I was surprised to see it turn up in my first searches for Japanese Christmas Folk music. Naturally, when I went back to the shops that had it, those copies had sold. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for another copy to show up, and I was glad once I finally added it to my collection.

I hope the Shadracks have whetted your appetite for Japanese Christmas Folk. While I haven’t found too many full albums, I have found some great singles and stray tracks on other records. I’ll share some of those with you next time. It’s an interesting collection of songs from a diverse group of artists and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Any proceeds or donations received will be put towards purchasing new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!

Welcome to episode 39 of Holly Jolly X’masu! In this year-end bonus episode, I talk about Singaporean Christmas music.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed over the years is finding just how much “undiscovered” Christmas music is really out there. Forgotten old nuggets from the US are becoming increasingly rare due to how many people have been searching them out and sharing them over the past few decades, but there’s tons of new Christmas music being created each year, and some of it is quite good.

Outside of the US, there’s a wealth of music to be found. I primarily focus on Japanese music, but during my searches, I find records from all over the world that I’ve seen listed anywhere else. I’ve seen records from all over Europe, Korea, Trinidad, Indonesia, Africa and elsewhere. If I had unlimited funds, I’d pick up a few of them.

Other than a few domestic releases each year, I seldom buy Christmas music anymore outside of my Japanese purchases. These Singaporean albums really struck a chord with me, though, and I wanted to get copies I could listen to without skips, scratches, pops and hiss. There are a few other Singaporean and Indonesian records I’ve heard with some great music on them, but the ones I discussed in this episode really are the cream of the crop, as far as I’m concerned.

I’d have liked to have found a decent amount of biographical information about each of the bands. The lack of information about the Silverstones and the Spiders was disappointing, but I was glad I was able to find as much as I did about the others, and I was happy to see that Ernie Djohan is still going strong.

I hope you enjoyed this foray into Singapore, and that it helped enliven your New Year’s celebration. Join me back here next month as I kick off 2022 with a pair of fantastic folk albums. First up is “Merry X’mas with the Shandracks” from 1970. Then, on the 25th, I’ll be covering one of my absolute favorite albums, “Christmas Best Hits,” from Chewing Gum. It’s an absolutely wonderful album and you don’t want to miss it.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed Ohashi Trio as much as I did. Be sure to listen in next week to my special Halloween episode where I discuss the 1978 sci-fi thriller, “Blue Christmas – Blood Type: Blue,” and its soundtrack.

As always, any feedback on this episode would be appreciated. If have any suggestions, or if you’d like to recommend a song or album for a future episode, drop me a line and let me know.

Remember, I’ve added a button to my Ko-fi page. If you’d like to support me one cup of coffee at a time, a donation is only $3. I’ve also opened a Redbubble store. I only have a couple designs up, but keep an eye on it as I’ll be trying to add more. Any proceeds or donations received will be put towards purchasing new Japanese Christmas music to review for future episodes. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you get a chance, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks!