My music sets are back to shorter this year – mostly from 7 to 10 minutes long. They will include my usual diversity of styles of music celebrating various aspects of the midwinter holiday season; Christmas, Solstice, New Year’s Day, Hanukkah, and sometimes just wintertime in general. As always, there will be something for everyone to love, and probably to dislike, but nothing that will bore you or seem overly familiar.

[Update: Oops! I forgot to tell you that this year I’ll be returning to sending these out early in the afternoon instead of in the middle of the night.]

I select for songs that reward active listening so I encourage everyone to just listen to this music when you first receive it. Don’t look at the playlist or read the music notes the first time. Just listen and let yourself be surprised! Then, only afterwards, read about who recorded the music and learn the origins of the songs and tunes. You might sometimes be surprised again.

You probably know other people who would enjoy this kind of music and/or information, or who might just might appreciate having a brief daily musical pick-me-up. If so, please forward this message to them and suggest they subscribe to this FREE seasonal newsletter. You are in better position than I am to assure them that I never use my mailing list for any other purpose or provide it to others. And, hey, if you are wrong about them enjoying this music, unsubscribing is even easier than subscribing.

I hope you enjoy these musical offerings, and that you experience more joys and harmony than stresses during this busy holiday season!

Playlist

* Not Grieve the Dying light Harvey Reid & Joyce Andersen 1:35

* Christmas is a-Comin’ Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter 1:05

* Santa Claus is Comin’ The Weavers 1:22

* Nu är det jul igen The Trapp Family Singers 1:15

Music notes

Not Grieve the Dying light The core of observing the Winter Solstice is not found in enduring the deprivations of the Winter season, but in having confidence in the promise of Spring to come. During this harshest season we celebrate our most heartfelt holidays.

Harvey Reid wrote this song that reflects the fundamentally optimistic way that we celebrate the midwinter in its many guises, whether in the context of a deep spiritual connection to the turning of nature’s daily and annual cycles, or the nonchalant continuation of seasonal traditions that reflect new beginnings.

The song is from husband and wife duo Harvey Reid and Joyce Andersen’s 2005 self-published album Christmas Morning. That’s Joyce playing the fiddle, and Harvey on the autoharp. According to their liner notes they often use this as the opening song for their Christmas concerts.

Christmas is a-Comin’ Convicted murderer Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter was serving a 30 year sentence in a Louisiana prison when he and his music were discovered in 1933 by John and Allan Lomax, who were there collecting folk music and folklore for the Library of Congress. With their help he received a pardon in 1935 and began a singing career as one of America’s great blues singers, with recordings on both the Capital and RCA record labels, but he also recorded children’s songs for Moshe Asch’s Folkways label. This is one of those children’s songs, recorded about 1944 as far as I can tell. I got it from the compilation album Where Will You Be Christmas Day, published by the Dust-to-Digital record company which specializes in re-releasing old out-of-print recordings and archival compilations.

Santa Claus is Comin’ When the Greenwich Village folk quartet The Weavers recorded this song on their 1951 Christmas album We Wish You a Merry Christmas they gave sole writing credit for both the words and music to Huddie Ledbetter. It was recorded shortly after The Weavers had their biggest hit – 13 weeks at #1 on the Billboard pop charts – which was also written by Leadbelly. That song was Goodnight Irene. The Weavers were Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman, Lee Hays, and Pete Seeger.

This recording is not from 1951, but from a live performance of it during the group’s first post-blacklist reunion tour in 1955. (I warned you that these write-ups would be brief. There is a lot of story about The Weavers in those intervening years.) One of their performances on that tour was at New York’s famous Carnegie Hall.

Nu är det jul igen (Now it’s Christmas again) This is a rather silly but very popular Scandinavian folksong that is traditionally sung by families while dancing around the Christmas tree. The lyrics translate as:

Now it’s Christmas again, and now it’s Christmas againAnd Christmas lasts well ‘til Easter (X2)But that was not true, and that was not trueBecause in the middle there is Lent. (X2)

It is sung here by the Trapp Family Singers, recorded circa 1952 when they lived in Stowe, Vermont. That is where they moved to live after leaving Austria due to events about which you have undoubtedly seen in an only partially fictionalized movie.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit midwintermusic.substack.com