Christmas Music?

Manitoba Christmas songs from Rusty and Savannah, Oldfolks Home, and JP Hoe, a strong Cover of the Pogues' Fairytale of New York, a new Christmas song from Mark Kozelek from an album that isn't even released until November NEXT YEAR, Bad Religion throwing a curveball, and a few more.

Cheap Trick's Come On Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas songs ever, even if they did just change the words to one of their own songs.


Rusty and Savannah - Under the Mistletoe - free download at Manitoba Music right now, buy the whole album from itunes.


Calexico, Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Kathleen Edwards - Fairytale of New York


Have you seen the documentary on The Pogues and that tune? It's very well done, and you can find it on YouTube.


Redd Kross - Super Sunny Christmas


Bright Eyes - Blue Christmas


Mark Kozelek - O Come All Ye Faithful


Mark Kozelek - Little Drummer Boy

JP Hoe - Holiday Songs


Bad Religion - Christmas Songs


The Dirty Nil - Christmas at my House


Oldfolks Home Mounties - Merry Christmas Maybe

Kathleen Edwards - Best Canadian Songs of All Time No. 5

This series of posts will be offering the definitive list of the best Canuck tunes ever recorded, scientifically tabulated, collated and obfuscated by the Brain of Scruff, in absolutely-not numerical order.


Kathleen Edwards is part of the new vanguard of singer/songwriters in Canada. like many great wordsmiths who make music, she doesn't readily fit into just one genre - is she pop, folk,rock, country, alt-country or some other new amalgam I don't know the name of yet? As her Twitter description says, "Don't make me choose between Bryan Adams and Ryan Adams. I won't do it."

Change the Sheets manages to sound both hopeful and haunting at the same time, a little melancholy and a little euphoric. KE's sweet voice soars over insistent keyboards, the band lays back and then pushes for a big climax that I can imagine being epic live, yet is still somewhat subtle on the recorded version. Edwards doesn't get sappy or overwrought, no big histrionics, yet she's still got the power to move listeners without trickery or pandering. There are a lot of artists who could learn a lesson or two from her. Heck, she even had the guts to call her album Voyageur, and I think that's all right.

Change the Sheets




Hockey Skates is another tune that deserves an honourable mention, as this video attests.

Hockey Skates


Photo at top of post by Kevin Lamb. You can buy Kathleen Edwards music here, as well as the usual digital outlets.

ECHO Songwriting Prize - Sloan, John K. Samson, Dan Mangan, Japandroids, Kathleen Edwards

Awards and awards shows come and go, I don't pay much attention. It's music I love, not the hulabaloo surrounding it. However, this year the Echo Songwriting Prize somehow has ended up with 5 nominees that I think are great. That has never happened before. Maybe the world IS ending this year.

Anyhow, SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) is supposed to spotlight "the most creative and artistic songs" with this prize, which you, the public, can vote on here. You can win an iPad, which might not help if that new tv show Revolution foretells our future.

You have until October 10 to vote, which you can do everyday if you want your favourite artist/band to receive $5000 (or you want that iPad). This year's nominees for the 2012 English SOCAN ECHO Songwriting Prize are "House that Heaven Built" by Japandroids, "Post-War Blues" by Dan Mangan, "Soft Place to Land" by Kathleen Edwards, "Unkind" by Sloan and "When I Write My Master's Thesis" by John K. Samson.

John K. Samson - When I Write My Master's Thesis

Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built

Sloan - Unkind

Dan Mangan - Post-War Blues

Kathleen Edwards - Soft Place to Land
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