Posts

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Mannheim Steamroller Christmas

Quick trivia question: what group has sold more Christmas albums than any other in the past 30 years? That would be Mannheim Steamroller, that improbable group of classic rock/classical/baroque combo that makes music like no other. Steamroller…
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Glen Campbell’s Christmas Variety Shows Coming to DVD

Two Christmas specials of the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour Variety Show dating from the 1970s will be made available on DVD this fall. The shows originally aired in December 1969 and December 1970, and featured a mix of sketches and musical…
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Christmas with a Chapman Stick

A friend on Facebook shared a video of a musician playing something called a Chapman Stick. I'm no musical dummy but I had never heard or seen anything like a Chapman stick before. As I watched the video I naturally wondered if any Christmas…
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Richard Marx and Everyone Else Has the Christmas Spirit

Trying to get a little Christmas spirit going? This video, on the recommendation of many, is good medicine. From his largely under-appreciated Christmas album of 2012 this video features the selfie videos of celebrities in music new and old…
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We Need a Little Christmas

Today is the 24th of May and there remains only 215 days in our countdown to Christmas. On this date of May 24th in 1966 the Broadway musical Mame made it’s debut starring Angela Lansbury in the title role, bringing the song (and many…
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John Denver Day

Today is the 31st day of December, leaving just 359 days until Christmas, and on this day in 1943 one of the most popular Christmas icons of the 1970s was born. It is John Denver Day. His given name was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. but…
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Hallelujah: Is it a Christmas Song?

How can a song with up to 80 original verses be considered a Christmas song? (Or how can it not?) In it's original form Hallelujah contained several Biblical references. Hallelujah was written in 1984 by Leonard Cohen and has gone on to…
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Top 10 Videos of Christmas 2013

In a world dominated by phones, tablets and small screens the on-demand of Christmas is by far the fastest growing form of entertainment at Christmas. A recent televised Christmas special variety show by Kelly Clarkson drew about 30 million…
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Handel’s Messiah

By Jeff Westover On August 22, 1741 George Frideric Handel sat down and began to compose music to Biblical texts compiled by his friend Charles Jennens. Handel was, by all accounts of the time, a typical creative eccentric. Known for varied…