One of the great and most influential American gospel singers, Mahalia Jackson recorded one of the definitive versions of “Silent Night.”
One of the reasons I still expand and maintain my own personal CD/MP3 collection is the holiday season, where I want to hear a mix of my favorite Christmas songs I have collected over the years, many that are not on streaming services. Another benefit is that when I put my holiday songs on random play it is more likely one of my favorite recordings will pop up. Of course, a streaming service might make it more likely I would discover something new. But for Christmas, there is a lot to be said for things that are old.
Amidst my collection on some old gospel Christmas collection CD that you can’t even find referenced on the Internet, I have a beautiful version of Mahalia Jackson singing “Silent Night.” There are many lovely versions of the Christmas classic, but hers has become one of my favorites.
Jackson, who was born on October 26, 1911 and passed away on January 27, 1972, is one of the most influential American singers. Her gospel recordings are powerful, both because of her voice and because of her genuine faith. So when she sings about the night Jesus was born, you feel you are there with her, capturing the joy and anguish of the world-shaking birth.
Below, Mahalia Jackson sings “Silent Night,” which was written in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Austria.
Wishing everyone happy holidays and an inspiring new year.
Science fiction author John Scalzi and singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan release a new Christmas song for 2020 and beyond.
Days before Christmas, singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan and science fiction author John Scalzi have released a holiday gift with a free download of their new Christmas song entitled “Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You).” It is a special holiday song for this difficult year, offering hope and a reminder we need to keep looking ahead.
Scalzi explained that while dealing with an illness that was likely Covid-19, he found it difficult to work on his current novel. So, he decided to try something different in writing a Christmas song.
He continued, “I wrote words that reflected where I was in this winter season, missing family and friends and looking toward when we could all be together again. And when I was done I looked at what I wrote, and I thought ‘This kind of feels like a Matthew Ryan song.’ So I got in touch with Matthew. He took a jumble of words and made them beautiful. He didn’t have to, but he did, and I’m grateful.”
So, Scalzi concluded, “This is from both of us to all of you. It has love and hope in it. May it help you through the end of a long year, and into a better year for all.”
The song fits perfectly for this year (“I know this year is hard for you / It feels like it’s meant to break us”), and you may find it bringing a tear or two. But it is also timeless, as we all have encountered our own individual bad years, longing for something in the past or the future.
Yet, this year, for our collective grief, “Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You)” is a wonderful holiday gift. “So have some faith it won’t be long / Until we’re once again together.”
“Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You)” is available for free download on Bandcamp until New Year’s Day 2021. I’ve already added it to my Christmas music collection, looking forward to hearing it years from now and thinking of how we made it through this year.
Listen to John Prine’s “Silent Night, All Day Long” as we reflect back on a difficult year with guarded hope for the coming year.
The world faced numerous losses this year. Although it is part of the human condition that we lose loved ones every year, this year was collectively difficult as we were struck by a pandemic that was not even on many of our minds one year ago today. As we watched the numbers climb on our television screens, we could lose track of the incalculable individual personal tragedies, largely because taking it all in would be too much to bear. The affected people we knew brought the impact home. And people in the spotlight killed by Covid, like Charley Pride, might bring together a divided country in unified grieving, if only for a moment.
One of the earlier deaths of a national figure occurred in April, when singer-songwriter John Prinepassed away from complications related to Covid-19. From his lyrics and his warmth, many of us felt a special personal connection to Prine, even if we had only heard his music and seen him on stage.
And so it seems appropriate that for this Christmas, we remember those we lost and reflect on the coming year with one of Prine’s perfect Christmas songs from his 1993 albumA John Prine Christmas, “Silent Night All Day Long.”
We held hands and stared at the lights on the tree, As if Christmas was invented for you and for me; When the angel on the treetop requested a song, We sang, “Silent Night” all day long.
Even as we are reminded, through memories of a year ago, that we can never know what tragedies and joys await us in the new year, we look forward to this coming year with guarded hope. As we persist through this winter, we pray for the changes from the new vaccines, new leadership, and the coming seasons.
And most of all we keep our faith that, as in the images of love in John Prine’s song, somehow we will get through it all together.
Steve Earle’s 1988 Copperhead Road album ends very differently than it begins. The album starts with the hard rock title track about a Vietnam veteran who — similar to his bootlegging father and grandfather — ends up growing illegal drugs. The album ends, by contrast, with a Christmas song, “Nothing But a Child.”
Earle originally wrote “Nothing But a Child” for the Oak Ridge Boys, which explains why it may sound a little out of place on the album. He knew the country group were putting out an album and tried writing a Christmas song for them.
With that deadline, Earle composed “Nothing But a Child” in July. Trying to find the Christmas spirit during the summer, he thought of the connection between the baby of the Christmas story and his own child.
After his song was rejected for the Oak Ridge Boys, Earle was putting the finishing touches on Copperhead Road. So, he decided to add this new song to his album. He put together a group to record it, and also called in Maria McKee (formerly of Lone Justice), who was in Nashville to record with U2. And, on a day that was “hot as Hell,” according to Earle, they recorded “Nothing But a Child.”
“Nothing But a Child” does begin with the Christmas scene of the Wise Men following a star. But coming upon the baby Jesus Christ, “They scarce believed their eyes, they’d come so many miles / And this miracle they prized was nothing but a child.”
From there, one may see how the song’s inspiration comes more from Steve Earle’s fatherhood than from any religious sentiment. He laments how “nothing but a child” can guide a weary world and allow all of us to recall being children ourselves again. There is something about remembering how we saw life as children that may change one’s perspective on what is important to us today.
So, “Nothing But a Child” is really a song about the faith to get through another day with hope in our hearts. It is a Christmas song the way Christmas can be celebrated in various ways by people of different religions — or no religion. And in doing so, finding something common and affirming in the traditions connected to the image of a baby in a manger thousands of years ago.
Perhaps the non-Christmas aspect of song partly about Jesus’s birth is part of the reason that none of the covers of the song approach the quality of performances by Earle, who has battled his own demons and started over more than once in his life. People who have covered the song include Kathy Mattea (on her 1993 Christmas album Good News), Robin & Linda Williams (also on a Christmas album), The Trail Band (in a rendition evocative of Earle’s versions), and various performances in churches (by congregations and choirs and solo performers). Yet, treating “Nothing But a Child” as a Christmas or religious song dilutes its universal message.
Earle’s song has always touched me in the way it connects us through our hopes. This connection makes the song fit better on an album with troubled characters with broken hearts rather than on an album with bells, Santas, and sleighs. And for me, in a year of trials that included losing two of my best friends, it reminds me of how I can still be hopeful in the upcoming year where my wonderful wife and I will soon be joined by another soul.
May you discover hope this season, seeking awe in whatever form, finding another chance allowed. Merry Christmas.
What is your favorite Christmas song that is not really a Christmas song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Merry Christmas to our readers who celebrate the holiday. Today’s Christmas song is “Christmas in Washington” by Steve Earle. The song first appeared on his El Corazón (1997) album, which is one of my all-time favorite records.
As Earle explains in this Austin, Texas performance from 2000, the song is about some of his heroes. Written in the wake of President Bill Clinton’s election in 1996, Earle explains his longing for real progressive change. He invokes the names of people like Woody Guthrie, Emma Goldman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
It has been more than twenty years since Earle wrote the song. But it seems even more timely this holiday season.
There’s foxes in the hen house; Cows out in the corn; The unions have been busted, Their proud red banners torn; To listen to the radio You’d think that all was well; But you and me and Cisco know It’s going straight to hell.
Happy holidays. Leave your two cents in the comments.
