THROWBACK THURSDAY: Christmas at the Dawn of Sound

Yikes, it's only two weeks until Christmas!

So for this Throwback Thursday, I'm featuring a compilation of Christmas songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by a cool vintage audio blog called Dawn of Sound (which I found via The Free Music Archive.)

Voices of Christmas Past actually was released as an album back in 1998. The Free Music Archive wrote:

The recordings were cylinders and acetates from 1898 to 1922. Every year after the release, the website was inundated with requests for the CD. Once it was out of print, Dawn of Sound released it online for free.

The 23 tracks include religious songs, kiddie songs (Did you know that Santa hid inside the phonograph?), stories, comedy routines, some visions of sugar plums and herald angels, a little Nutcracker Suite, and an early, early version of "Jingle Bells."

But it wasn't the first recording of that song.  According to Peter Nagy of Dawn of Sound, a banjo plunker named Will Lyle recorded the first  “Jingle Bells”in 1889, It was "the very first Christmas record," Nagy said. (The song was written back in 1850 by a Massachusetts man named James Pierpont.)

No known copies of the Will Lyle recording exist, Nagy said, But Track 3 in this collection, an 1898 Edison brown wax cylinder titled, “Sleigh Ride Party,” featuring the Edison Male Quartette is centered around "Jingle Bells.

The original liner notes said:

This collection of carols, songs and monologues from the original vintage recordings capture the essence of the Christmas spirit as it was in the opening two decades of the 20th Century. So gather up the family, wind up the phonograph and take a trip back in time to the early 1900’s and celebrate the holidays with the “Voices of Christmas Past”.

You can play it below and download any or all of the songs at FMA.




Alas, it looks like the Dawn of Sound blog has been inactive for a few years. But it's still up for all to enjoy.

So merry Christmas to all!

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Words of Truth from the Rev. Billy

Back in the early '80s when I was trying to make it as a musician, I sometimes got compared with another singer with whom I wasn't familiar.

No, not Celine Dion. It was the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, a South Carolina-born singer, piano player, comedian and true man of God.

I guess we had some similarities. Both of us sang funny, usually irreverent songs based in blues, country and primitive rock 'n' roll.

Both of us were played on the late, lamented KFAT radio in Gilroy, Calif.

Both of us had a perverse fascinations with Elvis, Satan and pro-wrestling.

Both of us have degrees in education. (He was a special ed teacher, while I never did find full-time employment as a teacher.)

But there were differences. I barely could strum a few chords, while Rev. Billy could actually play that piano. Hell, he was mentored by Sunnyland Slim himself.

Plus, Billy actually has landed paying gigs with pro wrestling!

So once I learned who Rev. Wirtz was, I was honored by the comparison. I took the compliment whether I deserved it or not.

Enjoy some videos:



And here's one of his best wrestling tunes:



And here's some surf music, Billy C style:



I just learned that Rev. Billy and I have something else in common: He does a radio show. Rev. Billy's Rockin' Rhythm Revival airs on WMNF in Tampa, Fla. (Apparently it airs on KPIG, the heir to KFAT, also.)

And he's got a podcast version too. I'm listening to one at the moment where he sandwiched an Iron Butterfly song between Big Mama Thornton and Memphis Slim. In some places they call that "Freeform Weirdo Radio"! You can play that episode below:

Remembering John Lennon

Thirty four years ago, Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was murdered by a crazed shithead with a gun.

I was in bed with my then wife, who at the time was eight months pregnant with a little human who would later turn out to be my beautiful daughter.

I cried. Spent the next day in weepy disbelief. That night I'd been scheduled to play on KUNM's Home of Happy Feet. I sang a very angry "Working Man's Hero" on the show.

I still get upset.

Here's a video of Loudon Wainwright singing his murder ballad inspired by the killing, "Not John."



Here's a radio report about the killing;

A New Gregg Turner Kickstarter Album

Brace yourself, Bridget, my Angry Samoan crony Gregg Turner has launched a new Kickstarter project for a new collection of songs that so far exist only in his troubled mind.

He's calling it "Chartbusters!" and. as he expains,  that's ...

Only suitable to follow the last one: Plays The Hits. Lotsa catchy melodics ("Franz Kafka"), some Del Shannon-inspired doo-wops (I beg indulgence for the comparison), a Roky Erickson rocker or two (the "Stand For The Fire Demon"-ish "Kremlin Dog" as well as a cover of "I Walked With A Zombie") and even a kids' song called "Hide And Seek" with my 11-year old daughter Nico joining in on the chorus !  Hey - and whatever happened to Sheila Klein and Marsha Bronson, Lou Reed's graduating class of 1967? Check out "The Box" for what will be the "Gifted" iconic/sonic sequel update 48 years later (pushing the boundary of blasphemy, I know).

Sammy the Spatula and Whitey discuss options

And yes, there's a new video featuring dramatic interpretations from the collection of weirdos I've dubbed the "Satan's Bride Players," including an Oscar-worthy (Oscar Meyer, that is) performance by ace thespian, ME. It's not only a cinematographic masterpiece, it's an incisive behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge behavioral-health practices, 

(Sorry it's not on Youtube, at least not yet, so you'll have to watch it on the Kickstarter site.)

So check it out, Unlike many crowd-funding scams you might have read about recently, this one's reasonable. $15 bucks get you a coy of the CD, expected to be released next summer. And bigger contributions gets you prizes (including a "personal harassing phone call" from the Mean Nurse you'll meet in the video. (Who looks a lot like Satan's Bride herself.)

Discaimer: I'm writing this post not in my usual role as critic, but as a cheap hustler for a pal. Since I'm involved in the video etc., any pretense of critical integrity here would be an insult to us all.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 7, 2014 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist below: Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
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