Favorite Christmas Songs

As I'm sure everyone noticed, Christmas songs started playing back around Halloween. I'm not quite the humbug that my dad is, who thinks Christmas songs should only be played one day a year, but I understand how people can become tired of Christmas songs so fast. That’s why these next two blogs are meant to help you stay in the Christmas mood and maybe dip a little deeper into Christmas music than say the local pop station. I think why people become so tired of Christmas music is two fold...one new versions of songs come out each year, but very few artist are able to really put a original spin on say "frosty the snowman" or "Silent Night". My next blog will help you find a few original Christmas albums, but this blog deals with the second reason people get tired of Christmas music so fast...only the annoying songs are popular.

I'll list my favorite Christmas songs for you all to digest and maybe consider...if you don't agree, that’s cool. I seem to like the darker Christmas songs and the blues Christmas songs. They don't get played as much but their also very pretty and deep.

1. Oh come, oh come Emmanuel - Very dark and slow but beautiful. It’s my number one favorite Christmas song.

2. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Great song, can be jazzed up, slowed down, and much more.

3. We three Kings - We never sing this one in church, because most hymnals have it in a key to low for a lot of people to sing in. It’s too bad because it a beautiful song.

4. Merry Christmas Baby - Blues tune that every blues artist seems to cover. But no one does it better than BB King.

5. Carol of the Bells - It’s haunting and moving. Whether sand or played on bells it’s really a breathtaking song.

6. Christmas 911 - Another blues tune and Sonny Rhodes does it best.

7. What Child is This - Another great and pretty tune

8. A Christmas Song - by Jethro Tull.

9. Little Drummer Boy.

10. Blues for Xmas - by Everlast. No one's heard this one...its B side to the "Today" single way back in the 90's but I just like Everlast' s voice.

Greatest Day of My Life

This thanksgiving I experienced what may go down as one of the top ten days of my life. We went home on Friday the 21st. It was a long drive (7 hours) but Eva was really good most of the way and it didn't seem that bad. We took the Gorge which is one of my favorite ways to get to the west side of Washington State and its was all in all and good way to start off the vacation. However, the next day took the cake.

As you may or may not know I'm a huge music nerd, snob if you ask my wife, but I think she's just jealous of my ability to "listen deeper" and not to that new Spears song Womanizer over and over like some wives I know. My favorite bands are Pearl Jam, Gov't Mule, and the top one, Drive by Truckers. Well on the 22nd I was able to see them on the Rock N Roll Means well tour in Portland. The show was at the Crystal Ballroom, and I got to admit, the Roseland Theater is way better and remains my favorite place to see bands. However, location aside DBT rocked and it was a great show. What really put me in a good mood though was the fact that Washington State beat the University of Washington at football in the apple cup, just before we left to go see the show.

Now the media coined it the Crapple cup this year because both teams were #1 and #2 in the bottom 10 this year but that doesn't matter, the Apple cup means more than any bowl game to many cougars and the fact that we beat UW in double over time and kept them without a single win this season is the best present I or any WSU coug could get. When I was an undergrad, every year we'd pray, will this be the year the UW sucks so bad that they don't win a single game...well it finally may happen. They just have to lose to Cal this weekend, but even if they win...it means nothing to me or really UW fans I imagine, as they still remain the worst FBS team in Washington for another year.

As you can imagine, winning the Apple Cup and going to a DBT show with my father, wife and good friend Jessica just about blew my mind. So hears to you DBT, continue to rock and hope you someday realize that I would be a amazing addition to your band, and hears to you Cougars...while we don't need validation that we're better than UW, its still nice to know they can't argue with that.