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Season seven of 12 Songs comes to a conclusion with three very different conversations and artists. Ha-Sizzle is one of the finest examples of the New Orleans-specific brand of hip-hop known as bounce. I talked to him about his Christmas in New Orleans in front of a live audience.

The members of the British punk band Goddammit Jeremiah talk about their irreverent approach to Christmas and Christmas music and share a few of their holiday favorites that haven’t made much of an impact here in the States.

At the end of an interview with MacMcCaughan of Superchunk for another story, I got a few minutes to talk about their cover of John Cale’s “Child’s Christmas in Wales,” as well as his other attempts to make music for the season.

In that conversation, The Kinks’ “Father Christmas” was referred to for the second or third time this season, and it took a lot of discipline not to play it again.

We also hear new music from É Arenas and Saturday Looks Good to Me, the latter from the new compilation Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 4. I interviewed its compiler/producer Kevin McGrath in 2022.

In the episode, I mention a piece I wrote for The New Orleans Advocate. I also mention this year’s downloadable Christmas mix, which you can get by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com.

12 Songs will return on July 24, 2025. Mark that date on your calendar or subscribe to 12 Songs wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Ha-Sizzle, G*ddammit Jeremiah, Superchunk
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

We’re approaching Christmas, so this week I have excerpts from longer interviews that I’ll run at full length next season. Steven Wilson is the driving force behind the British art rock band Porcupine Tree, and last year on a challenge he used artificial intelligence to write a Christmas song, something he felt that he couldn’t do on his own.

The whole conversation goes deep on the relationship between artists and AI, and the odd experience of encountering an AI version of himself online. Here I tried to capture part of that conversation and keep it relatively focused on Christmas.

I have a challenge for next season though, because he talked about his favorite album being a Christmas album by The Hiltonaires. I’ve seen it under two different titles, and he thinks there might be more. Unfortunately, none of them are for sale in any of the digital stores, so I couldn’t find any music from it that I could play in this episode. If any of you have digitized a Christmas track from the Hiltonaires, please let me know.

The second interview is with É Arenas, the long-time bass player with Chicano Batman. We talk about his relationship with the band as it enters an “indefinite hiatus,” and how he started a yearly project of making songs that he considered Cumbia Navideña–a genre he invited with cumbias for the holiday.

We only get part way though his catalogue of seasonal music, but in addition to talking about his own music, he turned me on to the Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón classic Asalto Navideño and music by Rigo Tovar.

Then I talk to Kelcy Wilburn of New Orleans’ Americana band Ever More Nest. In 2015, I wrote a story for The New Orleans Advocate on her first Christmas song, “Christmas with You (Merry Me),” which at the time doubled as a Christmas song and a celebration of the Supreme Court affirming the rights of same-sex couples to marry. As she explains, it also served as a quasi-proposal to her partner.

We talk about that, the Christmas music of her youth, and the way life as a working musician led to her new Christmas EP, Merry Little Thing.

This episode also features new Christmas music from Sara Noelle, Kristian Noel Pederson, and Popular Muzak.

If you’d like this year’s exclusive listeners-only Christmas mix, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com.

Finally, follow, subscribe or do what you have to do to get 12 Songs in your podcast feed. We only have one more episode after this in 2024, then we’ll return in time for Christmas in July 2025. If we’re in your feed, new episodes will show up without you having to hunt for them.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Porcupine Tree, É Arenas, and Ever More Nest
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

We’re officially in December, the Christmas season, and I have more interviews than I can get through in the weeks leading up to Christmas. From here on in, I’ll run excerpts from the interviews I’ve done, and I’ll run them in their entirety next season.

This episode starts with some clean-up business after last week’s conversation with Midge Ure on “Do They Know it’s Christmas.” I referenced Ed Sheeran’s complaint that he would have preferred to be left off the 40th anniversary mega-mix, and the charges against the song by Fuse ODG. In the episode, I reference Bob Geldof responding to criticisms of the song.

I also mentioned one of my favorite new releases of the season, Dadi Freyr’s How Dadi Stole Christmas.

This episode, I talk to Joey Williams, musical director for The Blind Boys of Alabama. In the episode, I mention that they surprised me with a new release, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” with Jay Buchanan. We talk about their album, Go Tell it on the Mountain, and when we revisit this conversation next season, we’ll also talk about their collaboration with Taj Mahal, Talkin’ Christmas.

Another new track comes from Nick Bhalla, who recorded the album Saint Nick with his jazz piano trio. As this version of “Christmas Time is Here” shows, it borders on lo-fi in its emphasis on mood and melody. Hopefully I’ll be able to get him for the show next season.

I also interview Bruce Sudano, who has a new album, Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin’ Pretty Lies. When I revisit this interview in its entirety next season, we’ll get into that and his start with Alive and Kicking, the band that recorded the one-hit wonder “Tighter, Tighter” in 1970.

We talk about his relationship with Donna Summer, who he wrote songs for, married, and managed. We start talking about Bad Girls, the first album he worked on, then move to Summer’s 1994 Christmas album, The Christmas Spirit, which was reissued on vinyl this holiday season.

After that, I talk to singer, songwriter, and friend of 12 Songs Alexandra Scott about Sia’s Everyday is Christmas. It’s a loose conversation as we work through some thoughts about a Christmas album we both really like, but with a few reservations.

Finally, on Black Friday I appeared on WBUR’s “Here and Now” to talk about songs you might want to add to your holiday playlists. The segment is online now, and even if you’ve already heard it, you might want to visit the page since it has a playlist with some additional songs that I would have featured if we had another hour.

Finally, DJ David Kunian invited me to join him on his radio show to spin and talk about Christmas music on WWOZ in New Orleans on Tuesday night. The show is online for the next two weeks if you’d like to check it out.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Blind Boys of Alabama, Donna Summer, and Sia
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Midge Ure from The Rich Kids, Ultravox and Visage co-wrote and produced “Do They Know it’s Christmas” 40 years ago this week on November 25, 1984. He recently released a new live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall 04.10.23, so we talked about that, touring, the Blitz club and his memories of the sessions for “Do They Know it’s Christmas.”

In this episode, I talk a little more than usual to contextualize the song and the interview. We talk about the new 40th anniversary mega-mix, which is due out Friday but the video is already out. I’ll talk more about it next week.

I also mention the documentary Band Aid the Song that Rocked the World, where Midge Ure tells the story of the song in 2004.

I also found it interesting to think about this next to USA for Africa’s “We Are the World.” Band Aid led the way, and the American version feels very American because, as the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop showed, it threw cool out the window and simply marshaled the biggest names in music that they could get, whereas Geldof and Ure bet on the cutting edge of British pop to not only raise money but make charitable donations cool.

Next week I’ll talk a little about the 40th anniversary mega-mix and some developments that have sprung up around it.

In the episode, I mentioned this year’s playlist. I envision it as an alternative to the all-Christmas radio stations and recommend you listen to it on shuffle so you don’t know what’s coming next. It will also grow as I hear more songs that I want to share or listen to and decide what’s missing.

Once again, I’m also making a special, listeners-only downloadable Christmas mix. If you want one, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I’ll send it over.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title:

“Do They Know it’s Christmas” at 40 with Midge Ure

The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Husband and wife duo Dean & Britta have a sound that suits contemporary Christmas music beautifully. They’ve done a few movie soundtracks including 13 Most Beautiful, an album of songs commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum to perform songs beneath Warhol’s silent films shot between 1964 – 1966.

Their sound is evocative but spare, with deeply reverbed guitars and melodic touches that bring ’60s scenes to mind without being stuck there. On A Peace of Us, they and frequent collaborator Sonic Boom from Spaceman 3 work a similar magic. It’s easy to envision it as part of the soundtrack to an evening during the Christmas season, entertaining enough to get your attention and hold it, but it doesn’t demand your time and focus.

As Britta Phillips and Sonic Boom – Pete Kember – explain, that’s in part because the album is an expression of their relationship, and something they have been working on in bits and pieces since 2007 when Dean & Britta recorded a 45 with “Old Toy Trains” and “He’s Coming Home.” Kember talks about how he suggests covers, and how that too is part of their relationship.

In the episode, I reference my 12 Songs conversation with the Drive-By Truckers’ Jay Gonzalez.

The episode also premieres a new Christmas song by the folk-rock band Dawes. I’m very entertained by the seasonal story-song “Christmas Tree in the Window,” and you can stream it or download it at Dawes’ Bandcamp page.

I’m also happy to feature a new song by Gina Birch, who you know from the British post-punk band The Raincoats or from her art career, if you know her at all. (I recognize those are very specific bona fides, but they’re meaningful to me) This holiday season, Birch covered Yoko Ono’s Christmas song, “Listen, the Snow is Falling,” which appeared as the b-side of “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” You can download it at her Bandcamp page.

Finally, at the end of the episode I talk about the version of “Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown” by Jackie DeShannon. It’s available in the main digital marketplaces, so you can check it out first and see if it’s for you.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title:

Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom

The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Twelve Songs goes to Las Vegas this week, first to talk with Sally Olson and Ned Mills of the tribute act Carpenters Legacy about The Carpenters and their Christmas music. This year, they took their affection for both subjects to the natural conclusion and recorded “Christmas Time with You,” a Christmas song made in the mold of the Carpenters.

After that, I talk to comedian and ventriloquist April Brucker, who released a song sung by her and her puppet May Wilson, “Merry Christmas I’m So Glad I Didn’t Marry You.” We talk about ventriloquism, novelty songs, and the age-old tradition of using Christmas music to draw attention to your thing, whatever that thing is.

In the episode, I mentioned ChristmasUnderground.com and my interview with its creator, Jim Goodwin. I also talked about the Holly Jolly X’masu podcast focused on Japanese Christmas music, and mentioned my interview with its host, Scott Leopold. Also in the hype department, I talked about appearing on Gerry Davila’s Totally Rad Christmas podcast to talk about “Do They Know it’s Christmas ” by Band Aid Mk I and Band Aid Mk II.

The episode closes with a great version of “Christmas Time is Here” by Kelli Jones and Daniel Coolik from the EP A Very Melancholy Christmas.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Carpenters Legacy and Christmas Novelty Songs with April Brucker
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Earlier this season, I interviewed The Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood about his ambivalent relationship with Christmas music. This week I talk to the Truckers’ long-time guitarist Jay Gonzalez, who takes a different path to a similar place. We talk about his relationship to the band as a full-time member since 2008 who isn’t Hood, Mike Cooley, or long-time drummer Brad Morgan, and his love of Christmas songs that might or might not be Christmas songs.

Along the way, I play music from his Roll Up a Song by Gonzalez Smith and Jay Gonzalez Inflatable Orchestra Vol. 1.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Jay Gonzalez and Christmas/Not Christmas Songs
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

I’ve been out of the country, so this week is an encore presentation with two very different artists–pop instrumental piano player Jim Brickman and Jeff Plate, the long-time drummer for the arena rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When I conducted these interviews in 2020, I was really interested in how COVID-19 would affect two acts that have made holiday season tours a meaningful part of their business. I could imagine Brickman’s music translating to a live-streamed show, but TSO delivers sensory overload with four forms of fire (if I remember correctly) and a lighting rig that itself moved like a Transformer regardless of what the lights attached to it did.

I also interviewed long-time TSO musical director Al Pitrelli in 2018 during the first season of 12 Songs.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Jim Brickman and Trans-Siberian Orchestra (an encore presentation)
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

This week I’m talking with blues artist Jontavious Willis, who recently released his album West Georgia Blues.

I wanted to talk to Jontavious not because of his Christmas music–he doesn’t have any yet–but because he’s doing something that I’ve been trying to pay attention to as people make contemporary music in traditional forms. We go a little longer with Jontavious talking about the blues in general to help get at that thought a bit.

But we also got to a number of his favorite blues Christmas songs, and I like that he’s not doctrinaire in his choices, folding in Rev. J.M. Gates, The Emotions and James Brown among others. Early on he mentions Minnie Ripperton, and it takes a bit before I get to her, but I played “Christmas Love” by the Rotary Connection, which featured Minnie Ripperton on lead vocals.

In the episode, I also mentioned that I did a guest spot recently on the Totally Rad Christmas podcast, which focuses on Christmas in the ’80s. We talked about “Do They Know it’s Christmas” by Band Aid and Band Aid II from 1989 with a version of the song produced by the British pop hit making team of Stock Aiken Waterman. It’s a fun conversation and worth the time.

Finally, Jontavious mentioned Lowell Folsom’s “Lonesome Christmas,” then rolled on to other songs so I never got to include a song by him. If you haven’t heard it, here it is.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: The Christmas Blues with Jontavious Willis
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

This season has featured surf Christmas music, calypso Christmas music, Sicilian Christmas music and smooth jazz Christmas music, so it can’t be too much of a surprise that we finally get to Cajun Christmas music. I think Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are an important band as they picked up the work of maintaining endangered musical traditions that was started by a generation before him, and he influenced the generation that followed by finding contemporary ways to express those traditions.

In today’s interview, we talk about Feufollet’s Chris Stafford, who I wrote about shortly after he died at My Spilt Milk.

When I played “Silent Night” by Harry Fontenot, I didn’t identify it. It’s from the album Merry Cajun Christmas.

I also mentioned that you can find Riley’s Party at the Holiday, All Night Long and other contemporary Cajun music at ValcourRecords.com.

If you’re interested in taking Cajun accordion lessons from Steve, you can reach him through his Facebook page or the Contact info at MamouPlayboys.com.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: A Cajun Christmas at the Holiday with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Americana artist Mindy Smith has been referred to on 12 Songs before. At some point in the COVID years I talked about my love of “Santa Will Find You” from her 2007 album My Holiday, and last year when I talked to The Indigo Girls, we talked about the song “It Really Is (a Wonderful Life,)” which they recorded. It turns out it was written by Chely Wright, but the only version I knew was Smith’s from My Holiday.

For me, this was an interview I had long looked forward to, and it was made possible by the release of Quiet Town, her first album in 12 years. The album will be out tomorrow, though the song we play, “Something to Write in Stone,” is out now along with two other songs. On October 4, it will all be for sale.

In the episode, I mention the heartbreaking (to me) Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club on Bandcamp, which I just heard will have two new singles available this year.

Mindy Smith will be on tour much of the rest of 2024, and you can find out where she’ll be at MindySmithMusic.com.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Mindy Smith
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Music journalist Annie Zaleski returns to 12 Songs this week. She last appeared in 2022 to talk about Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” In 2023, she wrote This is Christmas Song by Song: The Stories Behind 100 Holiday Hits, so she’s back to talk about a few of the songs she wrote about.

In the episode, we talk about the Kate Bush Christmas special and the Kacey Musgraves Christmas special, both of which are awesome in their ways.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Behind the Christmas Songs with Annie Zaleski
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

I’ve long believed that if you can’t get a good interview out of the Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, you should hang up your keyboard and mic. The Truckers are a richly layered project with the loud guitars and pounding drums used to drive a lot of meatheaded lyrics instead supporting subtle storytelling that deals class and race as well as rock ‘n’ roll. For much of their career, they’ve used their albums to come to grips with the American South as it exists today, but the songs sound like songs, not a sociology textbook.

I caught up with Hood between legs of the “Southern Rock Opera Revised 2024” Tour. Southern Rock Opera put the band on the map in 2001 when it used the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the pry bar to get into some of the issues mattered to them. It charted the course for the band since then, so it has a lot of legacy.

I expected the Christmas end of this conversation to be Hood talking about the Christmas songs he likes and his relationship to Christmas music, but while prepping for the interview, I discovered there are two Drive-By Truckers Christmas songs in the world. Those, obviously, get the 12 Songs breakdown as well.

To see if the Southern Rock Opera tour is coming your way, visit DriveByTruckers.com. I wrote about the New Orleans stop on the tour on my Substack page, The Cream.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: A Drive-By Truckers Christmas with Patterson Hood
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Saxophone player Boney James has two Christmas albums, Boney’s Funky Christmas and Christmas Present. Both make sense as the place where jazz and R&B meet, and that was transparently the case when he recorded his first album, Trust, in 1992.

We talk about those early years in addition to his Christmas music, and we discussed having an album of new music in the can that he wasn’t at liberty to talk about or play. Since we recorded the interview, the album’s title–Slow Burn–and its release date were released, along with two songs. It’s due out October 18, and we feature one new song from it, “Butterfly,” with guest spots by Cory Henry and Marcus Miller.

I wrote a piece on James based in part on this interview for My Spilt Milk.

The episode ends with a Christmas song from British punk band/cult fave Helen Love. If anybody knows where I can get an mp3 of this half of a split single, please let me know. The song is too awesome not to be in my collection.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Boney James
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Our surf Christmas episode inadvertently laid the groundwork for this week’s, which focuses largely on Calypso Christmas music. New Orleans’ Charlie and the Tropicales released Presents for Everyone, an album of Calypso Christmas songs, in 2023.

This week I’m talking to trombone player and bandleader Charlie Halloran about the album, Calypso Christmas music, Mighty Sparrow, tiki bars, and being a working working musician in New Orleans. We talk briefly about an indispensable Calypso Christmas album, A Calypso Christmas, which includes classic tracks by Lord Kitchener, Lord Nelson, The Mighty Spoiler and more. You can find it in the digital marketplaces.

You can get Presents for Everyone on vinyl on Charlie and the Tropicales’ Bandcamp page, and you can also find a digital version of their new album, Jump Up, which we hear in today’s episode. We also talk about Mighty Sparrow Christmas music, which is available through the digital download stores.

I finish this episode with another New Orleans project, Haunted House Party and music from last year’s The Spirits of Christmas. The DJ-oriented beat tape for the holidays is also available in all formats including vinyl on the Haunted House Party Bandcamp page.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Calypso Christmas with Charlie and the Tropicales
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

In 2021, I interviewed Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, a band I’ve only grown to appreciate more over the years. They released their first three albums–Cheap TrickIn Color and Heaven Tonight–in 18 months, and Dream Police followed a whole year later. They toured constantly at the time, which makes that productivity all the more impressive.

In 2017, they released a Christmas album, Christmas Christmas, an album that’s easy to like and easier to admire after Petersson talks about the inspirations for the songs.

I talked to Petersson because the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers had a new album out, In Another World, and the conversation was a lot about what a band that tours as much as they do does when COVID forces it off the road.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick (an encore presentation)
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

I don’t usually get to end a conversation on Christmas music with memories of radio legend Art Bell and his late night deep dive into the paranormal, After Dark with Art Bell. But that’s what happened when I talked to Mark Christopher Lee of the British lo-fi indie rock band The Pocket Gods. It took a lot of discipline not to end the show with After Dark’s theme, “Chase” by Giorgio Moroder. Instead, the episode ends with “Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers,” a new-to-me track by the Edinburgh indie band ballboy.

My conversation with Lee on The Pocket Gods covers a lot of ground as we talk about influential British DJ John Peel, Phil Spector, John Cage, and the way Lee morphed the band into a conceptual art project that explored how musicians do and don’t get paid in a streaming ecosystem dominated by Spotify.

Late in the conversation, we talk about Lee’s forays into documentary films. You can find Weird: The Life and Times of a Pocket God, Inspired: The 30-Second Song Movie, God Versus Aliens, and The King of UFOs: Royal UFO Secrets Revealed at Tubitv.com or the Tubi Roku app.

All of the music on today’s show is available at the iTunes Store, but 2021’s A Quantum Christmas Song, which is more than 115 hours long, can only be purchased as a full album and requires more than 8 GB of disc space to download. I think Mark will understand if you choose to stream rather than buy that one.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: A UFO-Friendly, Spotify-Protesting Christmas with The Pocket Gods
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

Michela Mussolino introduced me to a new body of Christmas music this week. The New Jersey-born Memphis resident specializes in Sicilian folk music, and she recorded an album of predominantly Sicilian Christmas songs in 2022 on La Notti Triunfanti.

We talk about how someone arrives at that specialty, the deep history behind some of these songs, and how moving to Memphis affected some of the songs on the album.

In the episode, Michela talks about “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” being one of the best loved Italian Christmas songs, so I chose Andrea Bocelli’s version to give you a taste of it.

For more on Michela, visit MichelaMusolino.com.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: “La Notti Triunfanti” with Michela Musolino
The Twelve Songs of Christmas