A Little Christmas Here, And Where You Can Get More

Well, since today is Epiphany, you'll get kind of a double-feature post. First off, the confession--what I really wanted to do in the way of musical posts was a 12 Days of Christmas thing, which, you with your sharp eyes, will have noticed, I did not do. But my friend Mahri did, and not only did she pick some smashin' songs, but she posted a fair bit of background on each of them. So if you're looking for a good way to polish off your Christmas cheer, you can toddle over to Fire, Fleet, and Candlelight and spend an afternoon with a chance of meeting a few new carols. Many of them were new to me, anyway, and now they're going on my "it's just not Christmas without this one" playlist next year.

The sole tune I've come up with for posting on this occasion is. . .well, considerably less Christmasy, and really not even merry, but it is very well done. I was wandering the interwebs in search of a musical rendition of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Christmas at Sea," as I recalled hearing a version I rather liked last year. I was delighted instead to stumble across this one by a shanty group from Bristol. Sung. . .well, like a shanty, what else? It's a splendid bit of tunesmithing, not to mention singing. (Least it prove too sad a song for the season, the singers, The Longest Johns, have followed it there on Bandcamp with a "God Rest You Merry," that is also a most hearty feast for the ears--and actually cheery. So there. Merry Christmas after all.)