Have Yourself a Wimbo Zuri Christmas

A Christmas Mix* from my private label**. Sample/download here (iTunes).

1. The Gloucester Wassail Song / Waverly Consort 4:13
2. I Saw Three Ships / Sufjan Stevens 2:34
3. Beautiful Star of Bethlehem / Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys 3:52
4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / Jimmy Smith 4:19
5. Navidad / Gipsy Kings 3:25
6. Come Ye / Nina Simone 3:39
7. O Little Town of Bethlehem / Sister Rosetta Tharpe 2:26
8. The First Noel / Cyrus Chestnut 3:28
9. Jingle Bells / Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 2:57
10. Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming / Sufjan Stevens 3:22
11. Il Est Né Le Divin Enfant / Trapp Family 1:18
12. Hoy Es Dia de Placer / San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble 2:02
13. Noite Feliz / Palavra Cantada 2:23
14. Sleigh Ride / Ella Fitzgerald 2:58
15. Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On / Ringo Starr 3:35
16. Jesus Ahatonnia (The Huron Carol) / Bruce Cockburn 6:31
17. Riu, Riu, Chiu / Benjamin Bayl & Choir Of King's College, Cambridge 2:09
18. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! / Sufjan Stevens 3:18
19. Go Tell It On the Mountain / Smokey Robinsoinson & The Miracles 3:46
20. Weinachten Im Moomintal / Dakota Oak 4:05
21. Children Go Where I Send Thee / Joan Osborne 4:23

* Two-thirds of the inspiration for this list comes from KCRW's wonderful annual three-hour Christmas/Gospel Music extravaganza, Morning Becomes Glorious, deliciously DJ'd by Andrea Leonard (I listen to the streaming archives year-round here: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003). Actually, MBG's playlists only maybe 20 percent holiday music; the rest is just good, very wide-ranging Gospel tunes — in fact, the Christmas songs are generally not the ones I love the most.

Thus, it felt sort of silly to be compiling a Christmas mix, till I realized that, hey wait, I do really love plenty of Christmas music. Really it's just a certain sort of sentimental, shopping-mall-type song that I don't care for (ah, but even exceptions there — Bing Crosbey's expertly-crooned "Silver Bells" nearly made the list). But most of the above is very traditional/choral (I sang the Gloucestershire Wassail with my high school choir at dozens of Christmas gigs), very Gospel, much more the Christmas Story than Christmas stories.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Wimbo Zuri mix without songs in lots of languages, from lots of eras. I think I've come out pretty well on that account.

** What's Wimbo Zuri, you ask? Well, aside from simply the name of my mix-cd-producing fake record label, it's not-quite-correct Swahili for "good song". And just fun to say.