Celtic New Year

Van Morrison with a song for the new year—"Celtic New Year"

Music from The Wolf of Wall Strret

I had a lot of problems with the film The Wolf of Wall Street, but the soundtrack does contain some great music. Here are performances of three songs it includes.

Cannonball Adderley Quintet - "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"



Howlin' Wolf - "Smokestack Lightning"



The Lemonheads - "Mrs Robinson"

Eye of the Hurricane

"Eye of the Hurricane"—My favorite David Wilcox song performed by Wilcox and Trace Bundy.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Julie Lee and Mike Farris perform "Go Tell It On The Mountain", with some instrumental help from Sam Bush and Rod McGaha.

O Come All Ye Faithful

"O Come All Ye Faithful" sung by the Choir and Congregation of the Washington National Cathedral.

Christmas Eve With You

Lindi Ortega's video for "Christmas Eve With You".

My Favorite Christmas Tradition

My favorite Christmas tradition is Darlene Love's annual appearance on the David Letterman Show to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original release of Love's recording of this song on the album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. After 50 years she is still kickin' it.

Here is her performance from last week.

Hallelujah

This is not really a Christmas song, and I have posted other versions of it before. (K.D. Lang, Lucy Wainwright Roche & Rufus Wainwright) However, it is included in Chris Botti's 2006 Christmas album December, which I have been listening to.   This is Botti's instrumental version of Leonard Cohen's song, "Hallelujah".  Even without the lyric, it stands out as one of the greatest song written in the 20th Century.

The Secret of Christmas

Another song from the recent album, Musical Gifts from Joshua Bell and Friends. Here are Bell and Michael Feirstein performing the "The Secret of Christmas". I don't remember hearing this song before, but it was written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen for Bing Crosby, and first performed by Crosby in the 1959 film Say One for Me. A clip of Crosby with Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner performing the song in that film is included below.

Tribute to Patsy Cline

A recent tribute to Patsy Cline performed by LeAnn Rimes.

Nemesis

I posted a version of this a couple years back, but here David Gray gives a great performance of his song "Nemesis" at a recent festival in Ireland.

Pretty Paper

"Pretty Paper" is a Willie Nelson song that I have heard for years, but never really stopped to listen to what it was about. This recent post on Willie's site identifying the man it was written about, prompted me to see if I could pick out my favorite version of the song. Chris Isaak has a good version, but I think my favorite is this one performed by Raul Malo.

Tribute to Mandela

The Soweto Gospel Choir performs "Asimbonanga" in tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Ray Price (1926-2013)

A 2006 Ray Price performance of Kris Kristofferson's song "For the Good Times". Price was awarded "Song of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music for his 1970 recording of this song.  He died yesterday at 87. Here is his Obituary

In the Bleak Midwinter

Sarah McLachlan performing "In the Bleak Midwinter", which is based on a poem written by Christina Rossetti.

Put a Little Love in Your Heart.

From the soundtrack of the movie Scrooged—released 25 years ago—here is Annie Lennox and Al Green with "Put A Little Love In Your Heart".

Vaughan sings Gershwin

From 1988, Sarah Vaughan sings a medley of Gershwin tunes.

Christmas Confusion

From the new album Musical Gifts From Joshua Bell, here is Joshua Bell, Hyung-ki Joo, and Aleksey Igudesman performing "Christmas Confusion".

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Originally broadcast 50 year ago, here is Judy Garland's 1963 Christmas Special.  It includes Mel Torme and her three children, and ends with "Over the Rainbow".

Gasoline and Matches

An animated video of Buddy & Julie Miller's song "Gasoline and Matches" performed by LeAnn Rimes and Rob Thomas with Jeff Beck on guitar.

This World Is Not My Home

Valerie June's performance of "This World Is Not My Home".

More of here performances in this post.

Roseanne Cash

I went to a Roseanne Cash concert at the Library of Congress last night. She has a new album coming out in January with all songs about the south. She performed the entire album, and then, when that was over, she did a couple other songs including this one. Here she is performing "Ode to Billy Joe" with her husband, John Leventhal.

Organic Moonshine Roots Music

I am having trouble deciding which songs off of Valerie June's first album, Pushin' Against a Stone, I should post. Here are two off the album, and a Sam Cooke cover. I am not sure if I can compare her singing to anyone else, but she self labels what she creates as "Organic Moonshine Roots Music".

"Workin' Woman Blues"—I consider this song the grown up version of Hazel Dickens' "Workin' Girl Blues".



"Somebody To Love"



"Bring It On Home to Me"

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Two of my favorites, Mavis Staples and Susan Tedeschi, perform "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" along with Derek Trucks.

Joe Jackson in Concert

If you have almost two hours, here is a sublime Joe Jackson concert from 2012. The band is awesome.

This Land Is Your Land

A new take on an old song—Sharon Jones performs the Woody Guthrie song "This Land Is Your Land".

Oh Happy Day

The Soweto Gospel Choir performing "Oh Happy Day".