Christmastime is Hereeeeee

Well dear readers it's almost that time of year again. I write to you from the front seat of our Infinity as we make our annual Christmas quest to the carpet capital of the world (that's right THE Dalton, GA). It is the time of year for commercials galore that are interrupted briefly by the cheesy Christmas specials that would make anyone say "Bah Humbug!" (ABC Family I am looking directly at you!)

But I digress, no matter how badly the new Christmas specials are there are a few which will always, no matter how Blue of a Christmas you may be having, make you be of good cheer. The greatest of these being "A Charlie Brown Christmas", a holiday staple since it was first released in the late 1950's. It is not just the story which makes it a classic of Charlie Brown's search for the true meaning of Christmas but also it's outstanding soundtrack.

The Vince Guaraldi Trio is able to paint a picture of the first snowfall, glistening evergreens, and a glowing christmas tree covered in lights and decorations with every song. It is a perfect connection of music and visuals as every slide of the piano is intertwined with the cartoon landscapes of Charles Schultz.

The album begins with "O Tannenbaum", an old christmas favorite brought into a new cool jazz swing to which it that will forever be connected to the image of aluminum trees as Charlie Brown searches for "The perfect tree". It begins slowly and reverently but quickly diluges into a upeat tempo as Guaraldi slides up and down the keyboard giving the listener a view of his winter wonderland where Christmas is not about the hectic last minuet shopping or frenzy of commercials but being together around the fireside unwrapping presents while the snow lies in banks outside.

The album also showcases Guaraldi's own songwriting abilities as he imagines the Charlie

Brown universe in his own original way. "Christmas is Coming" and "Skating"are two such examples of this where Guaraldi's songs though intended for background music jump out in their own right. In "Skating" Guaraldi tickles the ivory so that we are given the unmistakable

image of snow falling but it is not a

blizzard, it is a light flurry in which you try to catch the

snowflakes on your tounge."Christmas is Coming" gives you a view of childlike anticipation of Christmas. Where you just can't seem to go to sleep and restlessly toss and turn at 4:30 in the morning before you to wake up your parents as you stumble down the stairs to the loot waiting beneath the christmas tree.

But when it comes to his greatest work "Linus & Lucy" it's hard no to imagine the whole gang up on the stage dancing in their own funny and uniuqe ways, with Snoopy of course stealing the show. It is hard to imagine a Charlie Brown without this song that so uniuqely personifies everything that is the Peanuts cartoons. Just like it's hard to imagine a christmas special season without this treasured classic which always reminds us the true meaning of the season...

With that being said I wish to all of you a merry christmas and to all a goodnight.

Cheers,

Winslow

P.S. As a little gift to you readers here is George Winston's (see blog post #2 "A Montana Christmas") rendition of "Skating"

A Montana Christmas

Yes dear reader, Christmas is finally here, I am writing to you in the wee hours of December the 22nd with my sister still talking on the phone in the room next to me. (God rest my parents when they get THAT phone bill!) I hope as you read this blog you are hearing the music of George Winston's Album "December" being played in the background whilst multi-tasking at work or the home by shopping online trying to find places that will ship last minuet.

For me,George Winston's music has been a Carroll Family Christmas tradition for as long as I can remember. Every Christmastime my dad would pump our almost-as-old-if-not-older-than-i-am CD player with six Christmas Cd's that would play continuously throughout the holidays for any occasion. For dinner parties, visiting relatives, or to break the lull on Christmas Eve. The Cd's changed from season to season but one CD always started the season for us and would be the last CD we would listen to before the end of the Christmas season:

George Winston's "December".

For those of you unfamiliar with George Winston I will give you a brief biography, George Winston (like myself) was born in Michigan and later found his home in Montana (much like the Carroll family in the mid 90s). He is a New Age Pianist whose many successful albums include: "Autumn", "Linus and Lucy", "Montana- A Love Story", and of course "December".

For the longest time when I was younger, I used to believe that Mr. Winston was a friend of the family. That we were only one of a small number of people who would ever get to hear this beautiful music as Mr. Winston had yet to make it big. Montana is a small place and at my age I assumed we just knew everybody in the state on a first name basis. It was only in my teenage years that I discovered that this was not the case that in actuality this album had gone platinum in the US and Mr. Winston was widely known throughout the US.

"December" has the strange power of being able to capture, to me at least, what is essentially Montana. It is very simple yet breathtakingly beautiful music, that evokes both the natural beauty and the loneliness of the Montana countryside. Listening now to "Peace" I can close my eyes and see the snow fall in the early morning with the sunlight just coming up over the mountains to reveal a cabin that is the only sign of life for miles. Each song on this album sets this sort of tone, it is love ballad to Montana. It takes me back to the place where I am most happy, as I can almost hear the snow crunch underneath my boots with every note.

It is a symphony of Christmas spirit as well. It captures children's tumbling feet as the rush down the stairs to find the presents Santa has left for them. It is candy canes and poinsettias, it is Scrooge and Rudolph, it is the reading of the Bible before opening gifts and the small Nativity scene in the den. It is everything about Christmas that we loved as little children and now treasure as adults. So as we continue in our family tradition of listening to this album before the big day, I urge you to begin your own tradition with this album and see where the music takes you and your memory this holiday season.

Cheers,

Winslow

Welcome

Hello there all you who are now reading this (someone IS reading this right?) Welcome to Winn's musical journey! In this blog I will be semi-annually updating you on my life and the soundtrack that accompanies it. I first got an idea to make a musical blog from Tom Moon who's book "1000 Recordings to Listen to Before You Die" has been nothing short of a bible to me since I first received it last Christmastime. Some of the albums mentioned in his book will be featured in my blog as well. If you have not already checked out his book and his blog I highly suggest you do so now. (http://www.1000recordings.com/).

The album that has been on my mind all day today as I sat in my bed, ridden with the three C's (cold, cough, and chills). Is Bob Dylan's timeless masterpiece "Blood on The Tracks"

This album (released in 1975) is in my opinion, the greatest recording of Bob Dylan's storied and legendary career. It embodies everything that is Dylan, his ability to paint still life portraits of the characters in the lyrics of his songs, but still leaving just enough mystery for the listener to draw their own conclusions. It is something that very few of today's singer/songwriters are able to do (the only one that immediately comes to mind is Idaho's native son Josh Ritter). This album is without a doubt the perfect break-up album. Every song teems with stories of fate and star-crossed love gone wrong. Having experienced a break-up myself to my girlfriend of six months, I found comfort in the misery of the characters in Dylan's songs and became (pardon the pun) "Tangled Up in Blue".

Leonard Cohen once said that being a singer/songwriter is being able to "sing a song and get out of the way." And I believe that in this album Dylan is able to do that perfectly. By not making these songs autobiographical and all about him he allows the listener to relate their own experiences to each track. That is something about music that will always fascinate me, for example I will be listening to Josh Rouse's song "Come Back (Light Therapy)"

I think of the now defunct store Laser's Edge in Birmingham. And hopefully as you listen to it too can you not here the hustle and bustle of Five Points South and downtown in the Magic City?

Music has that unmatched power to help us remember events and places in just a few short notes. More on this later but I am short on time. So today's question of the day is what is your ultimate break-up song or album?

Cheers,

Winslow