We all know someone — or maybe you are someone — who’s eager to bust out the Christmas music as soon as possible. I like to give Thanksgiving its due first, but the Yuletide has a ton of all-time jams, and quite a few Nashville musicians have made delightful contributions to the canon. With the season rapidly approaching, we’ve collected some recent and recent-ish locally sourced holiday music to add to your Bandcamp cart and your playlists.
Before we get started, there are some notable holiday shows that don’t have releases attached. William Tyler and Friends’ Nov. 29 gig at The Blue Room at Third Man Records isn’t Christmas-y per se — the annual-ish event is typically a mix of “cosmic pastoral” originals and fun covers with a rotating cast of great singers — but it always feels like a seasonal homecoming. Similarly, the 20th-anniversary run of Get Behind the Mule, a tribute to Tom Waits that benefits Second Harvest Food Bank, comes to The 5 Spot on Dec. 5.
Also on Dec. 5, JD McPherson’s Socks: A Rock ’n’ Roll Christmas tour makes an adopted-hometown stop at The Basement East. The 5 Spot hosts The Fats Kaplin Gang Christmas Extravaganza on Dec. 9, and the 13th annual Mike Farris Sings the Soul of Christmas revue hits 3rd and Lindsley on Dec. 13. Meanwhile, band of aces The Ornaments, in their 20th year of performing Vince Guaraldi’s beloved music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, settle into their residency at Eastside Bowl starting Dec. 17, and the sixth annual run of rock ’n’ soul party Super Jolly is at The 5 Spot on Dec. 20.
Various Artists, YK Records Holiday Sampler 2024
Last year, Michael Eades’ stellar indie label YK set a very high bar with this compilation of older tunes and new tracks. Musician and eminent producer Roger Moutenot’s “Letter to Santa” sets it up with an extended nod to the end of “Christmas All Over Again.” You’ve got Birdcloud’s bratty-by-design “Cool Christmas” and Tower Defense’s ripper “What Do You Want for Christmas?” as well as Stone Jack Jones’ contemplative take on “Away in a Manger” and Little Bandit’s heartstring-tugging version of “(Have Yourself) A Merry Little Christmas.” Matt and the Watt Gives’ rollicking and brutally honest “No Child (Wants Their Picture Made With Santa)” gets my vote for “best new Christmas song” across the board.
Uncle Ellen, Christmas at the Firehouse
Phenomenal musician (and podcaster) Ellen Angelico is a go-to side player for lots of great marquee artists, but she steps into the spotlight as Uncle Ellen. Her 2023 instrumental holiday release puts the fun back into some classics that you might have heard a time too many to think you can still enjoy. Her swinging take on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” reed-enhanced (via pump organ or maybe melodica?) “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and rocking “O Holy Night” lift my spirits at this (literally) dark time of year.
Kyle Hamlett Uno, 3 Ships
Kyle Hamlett is a master of mining fundamental folk sounds for deep meaning. His 2024 EP features two classics (“I Saw 3 Ships” and “Silent Night”) and one original (“It’s New Year’s Eve”) arranged for acoustic guitar. If you’ve found yourself singing along with the instrumental LP The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album, go to 3 Ships next.
Alanna Royale, “Little Christmas Tree”
Soul queen Alanna Royale’s 2024 single takes us back to 1973’s A Motown Christmas in lush period style with this cover of The Jackson 5’s heartbreaker about feeling left out of the seasonal cheer after a breakup. The likelihood is high you’ll get to hear this in person if you get tickets to her annual A Royale Holiday show, coming to City Winery on Dec. 8.
Tristen, Deck the Halls
The big news at present about top-notch songwriter and rocker Tristen is her first new LP since 2021: Unpopular Music dropped Nov. 7 and will be celebrated Nov. 22 at Soft Junk with Tristen the Night Away 3, her third guest-filled album release party. The Deck the Halls EP was released in 2011 as a three-song 7-inch and reissued digitally with three more tracks in 2019. Both its originals and its covers generally explore how the season isn’t universally joyful all the time — “Frosty the Snowman” being one notable exception — and it’s a nice antidote to an overabundance of jolliness.
Timbre, Silent Night
One of the things singer, composer and harpist Timbre Cierpke is best known for is her annual Christmas concert, and this year’s is set for Dec. 5 at First Lutheran Church — with hot cocoa for everyone, how much better can you get? Back in 2011, she also released a full album of Christmas music, featuring her reverent and thoughtful takes on carols familiar to most (“Carol of the Bells,” “What Child Is This?”) as well as some you might not know unless you’re familiar with liturgical music (“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” a somewhat more recent setting of an ancient devotional chant).
