Twelve Songs of Christmas

Twelve Songs of Christmas episodes:

• 12.22.2023

  New Orleans Hip-Hop for Christmas with Raj Smoove and 504icygrl

  Season six of 12 Songs comes to a close with some of the highlights from the 2023 holiday season and a conversation with DJ/producer/business guy Raj Smoove and rapper/producer 504icygrl about the new Christmas in New Orleans EP. Raj and Icy talk...

  
• 12.14.2023

  Mother Mother ”Cry Christmas”

  Today's show is a lot about the backstage of the music business  as the Vancouver-based alternative rock band Mother Mother talks about finding a darker angle on Christmas music with "Cry Christmas" and their version of "Have Yourself a Merry...

  
• 12.07.2023

  Christmas Down Under with Imogen Clark

  This holiday season, Imogen Clark released "Not Christmas Here," talking about how all the wintery signs that Christmas is coming don't mean as much to her because she's from Australia. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's hot in December and white...

  
• 11.30.2023

  ”Holly Happy Days” with The Indigo Girls

  This episode has been a few years in the making, but I was finally able to find a quiet moment in the busy lives of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls.  In 2010, they released Holly Happy Days, a...

  
• 11.22.2023

  ”A Dave Brubeck Christmas” with Matt Lemmler

  Unfortunately, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is no longer around to talk about his 1996 solo piano album A Dave Brubeck Christmas. Craft Recordings reissued the album this Christmas season, but Brubeck died in 2012 so I asked New Orleans piano player...

  
• 11.16.2023

  Merry Christmas from Japan with ”Holly Jolly Xmasu”

  I listened to one episode of Scott Leopold's "Holly Jolly Xmasu" podcast and I was sold. As a Stereolab and High Llamas fan, I felt like there had to be a High Llamas Christmas song, and Scott found one on Christmas...

  
• 11.10.2023

  Christmas with the Blue Man Group

  Blue Man Group started in 1987 as a performance art concept by guys who also harbored rock 'n' roll dreams. It has grown into an institution that has ongoing shows in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Berlin. As...

  
• 10.26.2023

  A Soul Christmas with Eli ”Paperboy” Reed

  I love when episodes overlap. Today, soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed talks about--among other things--his love of Huey "Piano" Smith's Christmas album, which we recently featured.  Reed has a new album, Hits and Misses: The Singles on YepRoc Records, and today we're...

  
• 10.19.2023

  A D.C.Go-Go Christmas with Chuck Brown

  Chuck Brown has been dubbed "The Godfather of Go-Go," the distinctive Washington D.C.-based funk sound that has its own aesthetics and culture. This week, New Orleans' musicologist and go-go aficionado Melissa Weber shines some light on go-go and Brown because...

  
• 09.29.2023

  A New Orleans R&B Christmas with Huey ”Piano” Smith

  New Orleans venerates its R&B royalty from the early days of rock 'n' roll, and many of them stayed active until they died, including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Eddie Bo, Snooks Eaglin and Earl King. Huey "Piano" Smith was not...

  
• 09.21.2023

  ”Christmas Cocktails” with Brad Ross-MacLeod

  Capitol Records tried to cash in on the '90s lounge revival with its "Ultra-Lounge" series--albums that pulled tracks from the label's vaults that fell under some of the umbrellas that came to associated with lounge including crooners, mambos, space-age sounds,...

  
• 08.31.2023

  Sara Noelle

  The name "Sara Noelle" sounds like something made up for Christmas music, but she had been a recording artist since 2010, 10 years before she released her first Christmas track, "Christmas at Sea." Since 2020, the ambient folk artist has made...

  
• 08.17.2023

  The Christmas Music Manfesto

  In 2018 when I launched Twelve Songs, I published "The 12 Songs Manifesto," a statement of my core beliefs about Christmas music.  Now that we're in our sixth season and have a lot of listeners who weren't around back then, I...

  
• 08.03.2023

  ”Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

  Chris Marchand's blog post "On the Importance of Sad Christmas Songs" makes the argument its title promises, using "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as Exhibit A. Podcaster and writer Chris Marchand last appeared on Twelve Songs to break down...

  
• 07.27.2023

  ”Santa Claus is Coming to Town” Pt. 2

  Last week, I started the story of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," taking the song from being written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots, to the first version by banjo player/bandleader Harry Reser, to the version that popularized...

  
• 07.20.2023

  ”Santa Claus is Coming to Town” Pt. 1

  "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is an orphan, a Christmas song without a singer attached. "White Christmas" has Bing Crosby, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" has Andy Williams, and "Happy Holidays" has Peggy Lee. But who...

  
• 07.13.2023

  OutKast’s ”Player’s Ball”

  "Player's Ball" is a contemporary Christmas classic, but it's not very Christmas-y by design. Today, Big Boi of OutKast talks about why the song is the way it is, and how it ended up being the first solo release from...

  
• 07.07.2023

  The ”Santa Baby” Story

  In 2021, I talked with music journalist Alison Fensterstock and singers Dayna Kurtz and Alexandra Scott about versions of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby." That was a good conversation, but I still had questions and found some of my answers in...

  
• 12.21.2022

  Terre Roche of The Roches

  The Roches' 1990 We Three Kings is the Christmas album you'd expect from the folk trio as sing a set of holiday classics gorgeously, often a cappella, and occasionally with their tongues ever so delicately in their cheeks.  Terre Roche remembers their...

  
• 12.16.2022

  Indie Christmas Music with Amerigo Gazaway, Charlie Darling, and ”Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas”

  This week's episode features indie Christmas music--indie hip-hop with DJ and producer Amerigo Gazaway, British indie rock with Les Bicyclettes de Belsize's Charlie Darling, and British music journalist Kevin McGrath, who compiled 108 indie Christmas tracks for Have Yourself a Merry...

  
• 12.09.2022

  The Smithereens and ChristmasUnderground.com

  With Christmas approaching, it's time when I have more good conversations than I have weeks until December 25. Today, I have two conversations that I really enjoyed, one with Dennis Diken of rock band The Smithereens, and one with Jim...

  
• 12.01.2022

  Joss Stone

  British pop/soul singer Joss Stone released Merry Christmas, Love earlier this year, and it's a bit of a departure for her as she set out to make a "posh" album, something on the surface very different from the music she's known...

  
• 11.22.2022

  Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips - An Encore Presentation

  In 2020, I had a good conversation with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips about the surprising amount of Christmas music they have, starting with Atlas Eets Christmas, which they recorded and credited to "Imagene Peise." We talked about that album's...

  
• 11.17.2022

  Children’s Music at Christmas with Laurie Berkner

  Laurie Berkner had one of those days when we got together to talk. A plumber came to work on her bathroom while we did our interview, and his work is the occasional backdrop for our conversation.  Still, the children's music artist...

  
• 11.08.2022

  Low and ”Just Like Christmas”- an Encore Presentation

  In 2020, I interviewed Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of the indie rock band Low, whose 1999 album Christmas is one of the great indie Christmas albums, and a bold one because rock bands didn't record Christmas music at the time--at...

  
• 10.20.2022

  ”A Charlie Brown Christmas” with Derrick Bang

  Vince Guaraldi scholar Derrick Bang wrote the liner notes for the 2022 Super Deluxe edition of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas, and this week he talks about the 1965 cartoon, Guaraldi, and the soundtrack album sessions included in the...

  
• 10.06.2022

  Bruce Cockburn

  Last year, Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn belated launched a tour celebrating 50 years in music. When we ran an excerpt from this interview last Christmas season, we started off talking about the tour. Since he's not on tour now,...

  
• 09.23.2022

  Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones

  In 2008, the garage rock legends The Fleshtones released a Christmas album, Stocking Stuffer, and in true Fleshtones fashion, they made Christmas sound like them. Since 1976, they have delivered a brand of garage rock influenced by punk, R&B and soul...

  
• 09.15.2022

  José James

  One of my favorite Christmas albums of 2021 was Merry Christmas from José James, which featured the jazz vocalist in a classic quartet that included pianist Aaron Parks.  We talked in 2021 and ran part of the conversation last holiday season, but...

  
• 09.08.2022

  Julian Koster and His Singing Saws

  The world met Julian Koster as part of the Elephant 6 Collective in the 1990s, when he played a variety of instruments with Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and his own projects, The Music Tapes and The...

  
• 09.01.2022

  Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills

  The Cowsills answer a number of pop culture trivia questions, starting with "What real life family pop band inspired the 1970 television show, The Partridge Family?" They had hits with "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things"--best known for the...

  
• 08.26.2022

  Filmmaker Mitchell Kezin and ”Jingle Bell Rocks!”

  Documentary filmmaker Mitchell Kezin released the movie Jingle Bell Rocks! in 2013. In it, he focused on the human side of Christmas music, whether with the musicians who make the music--much the same way we do on 12 Songs--or by talking to...

  
• 08.11.2022

  Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel

  Twelve Songs returns after a life-induced hiatus with a good interview with Ray Benson from the Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. We talked in the spring when the band was coming to New Orleans to play Jazz...

  
• 04.07.2022

  A ”Molto Groovy Christmas” with Carlo Poddighe

  In 2014, Molto Groovy Christmas remade holiday favorites inspired by Italian and French movie soundtracks from the 1960s. Tracks also reference Esquivel, Jimmy Smith’s soul-jazz, and other out-there sounds, and the project as a whole is defined by unlikely, psychedelic textural juxtapositions...

  
• 03.31.2022

  ”Last Christmas” with Annie Zalenski

  Twelve Songs returns to regular programming this week with writer Annie Zaleski joining me to talk about Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and our favorite versions of it.    On Christmas Day last year, Zaleski told the song’s story at Salon.com, which is just one...

  
• 03.17.2022

  Highlights of the First 100 Episodes, Pt. 5

  When I started to look back at the highlights of our first 100 episodes, I envisioned it taking an episode or two, but once I started, I couldn’t keep the number down that low. Here we are with the fifth...

  
• 03.10.2022

  Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 4

  We're in the home stretch of the look back at highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs, with this episode getting into interviews during the pandemic when COVID affected everybody's plans. Guitarist and producer Chas Justus from Lafayette, Louisiana...

  
• 02.24.2022

  Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 3

  My look back at the highlights of The Twelve Songs of Christmas this week come from from a transitional period. I had good and very different conversations with musicians with very different careers, including the pop purists Hanson, the bluegrass crossover...

  
• 02.17.2022

  Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 2

  Last week, I started a look back at some of the highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs of Christmas. This week, Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5 talks about his relationship to his Christmas songs when a stroke...

  
• 02.10.2022

  Looking Back at the First 100, Pt. 1

  The previous episode with singer Meryl Zimmerman was number 100, and now that I've made it that far, I think it's time to stop and help some of you catch up. I've had a lot of episodes I'm really happy...

  
• 01.27.2022

  Meryl Zimmerman

  This is the 100th episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas, and I’m spending it with New Orleans' jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman. In late November 2022, she released her second album, A Very Meryl Christmas, so we talked about it...

  
• 01.20.2022

  Nochebuena with Patricia Vonne

  One sidebar in the last few years of 12 Songs has been the role of COVID in the creation of Christmas music. Some artists recorded Christmas albums to remind themselves that they were musicians during the pandemic shutdown of 2020....

  
• 01.13.2022

  A Latin Music Christmas with Arthur Hanlon

  How does a white guy from Detroit end up playing Latin music? Pianist Arthur Hanlon, one of the stars of the HBOMax concert film Piano Y Mujer, talks about that and his relationship to Motown in this week's conversation. We...

  
• 12.24.2021

  Mitchell Kezin of ”Jingle Bell Rocks,” Jim McCormick, and Bailey James

  This is the last episode of the Christmas season, but The Twelve Songs of Christmas is a year-around affair, so the conversations will continue in January after I take a much-needed week off. This week's episode includes an interview with filmmaker Mitchell Kezin,...

  
• 12.21.2021

  Amanda Shires, Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon, and Julian Koster

  This week, we have a few guests again as Christmas nears. Americana artist Amanda Shires is on hand to talk about For Christmas, and the way it reflects some of the less common impulses behind Christmas music. The husband and wife...

  
• 12.14.2021

  Bonus Episode: Twelve Songs x Ranking the Beatles

  Last year, Twelve Songs did its first crossover episode with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of the Ranking the Beatles podcast. During the COVID shutdown in 2020, Jonathan took the time on his hands as an excuse to rank all of...

  
• 12.09.2021

  Kristin Chenoweth, Ronnie Milsap, and Paul Gilbert

  Last week, Kristin Chenoweth was part of the episode focused on A Sentimental Christmas, an album of remakes of songs by Nat "King" Cole. Today, we continue that conversation to cover her new Christmas album, Happiness Is ... Christmas and 2008's A Lovely...

  
• 12.02.2021

  Jay Landers, Kristin Chenoweth, and Calum Scott on ”A Sentimental Christmas with Nat King Cole & Friends”

  For this Christmas season, producer Jay Landers put together "A Sentimental Christmas with Nat "King" Cole," an album that refreshes some of Cole's holiday classics with new arrangements and a handful of new duets with new singing partners Johnny Mathis,...

  
• 11.25.2021

  José James, Bruce Cockburn, and The Twangtown Paramours

  This episode drops on Thanksgiving, and if you're listening on Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving. Friday is Black Friday, the official, incontrovertible start to the Christmas season, and just in time for it, Twelve Songs has created an alternative to the all-Christmas radio...

  
• 11.23.2021

  Bonus Episode: Who Dat Jedi Crossover

  Twelve Songs of Christmas is based in New Orleans, so in the spirit of the season and podcaster camaraderie, I recently recorded a crossover episode with friends who figured out how to shoehorn their two great passions into one podcast. Who Dat...