Posts Tagged ‘Holiday’
Each week this holiday season, we’re finding a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bringing it to you, for free, as our Holiday Single of the Week. My Morning Jacket isn’t immune to the pull of yuletide harmonies, having first knocked out an EP of seasonal songs on My Morning Jacket Does Xmas Fiasco Style more than a decade ago. Recorded with The Head and the Heart, “When the Bells Start Ringing” is a Jacket original, evoking soft bluegrass textures and the spirit of returning home for Christmas. “When the Bells Start Ringing” appears on a new My Morning Jacket iTunes Session of holiday songs.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or a band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. tobyMac is an all-around entertainer who just happens to have a message in his music. And this is the time of year when CCM artists truly shine. “Christmas This Year” is everything you’d expect from the four-time GRAMMY®-winner: huge choruses, a lush, sleigh-bell-laden backing track, and moving lyrics that remind you what this holiday is really all about.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Many standards are from films that never made the revival circuit or Broadway musicals that never quite caught on. Not pianist Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmastime Is Here,” which is revisited yearly via the classic TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. While the vocal version with a chorus of angelic Peanuts voices is most familiar, the longer instrumental track gives Guaraldi’s elegant trio the chance to stretch out and showcase their considerable skills.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or a band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. With the holidays awash in a blizzard of misplaced receipts and snarled tire chains, now’s a good time to stretch out and relax with a holiday nugget given a soulful treatment by the tempting Temptations. This warm cover of “Silent Night” is like sunshine on a cloudy (with a chance of snow flurries) day. “Silent Night” appears on Number 1’s: Christmas, an album of classic and contemporary Christmas favorites from Gene Autry to Elton John to The Chipmunks.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Our Discovery Download puts the focus on a different genre each week, offering up a free track we think is worth your attention. With your holiday shopping done months ago (yeah, right!), there’s no better time to cue up New York City-based vocal group Naturally 7 and its stirring take on “O Tannenbaum.” The seven members usually raise the roof by mixing vocals with beatboxing, body sounds, looping, harmonica, and rappin’, but for this traditional holiday classic, Naturally 7 go the smooth route — just butter-soft harmonies merging to one unified voice that is moving and soothing. “O Tannenbaum” appears on the group’s holiday album Christmas – A Love Story.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or a band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. Art-pop rockers Neon Trees caught our attention earlier in the year with a stick of dance floor dynamite, "Animal"; on "Wish List," frontman Tyler Glenn talks about turning into one ever since enduring a romantic breakup. Throughout the effervescent pop-rock track, Glenn paints a picture of a cozy abode decked with holiday decorations, but all he really wants for Christmas is his relationship back.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Our Discovery Download puts the focus on a different genre each week, offering up a free track we think is worth your attention. One of the on-going ironies of popular Christmas music is that holiday albums are often recorded during the dead heat of summer, giving many a winter song an ironic origin. So the warm and breezy sounds of Nashville-based singer/songwriter Dave Barnes’ original “Very Merry Christmas” comes as a refreshing surprise. Sure, sleigh bells are brought in towards the end. But with soulful organ, island-worthy guitar work, and easygoing drumming, it’s as suited for the glow of the bonfire as the heat of the ski lodge.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
This week, we’re following the holiday route with a track from Celtic superstar Enya. Her soaring melodies and bewitching instrumentation has made her one of the most distinctive and beloved vocalists in the world. The award-winning, multi-million-selling singer’s new album is devoted to the imagery and sounds of winter with a Christmas slant although don’t except any covers of “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer”. This 15th century hymn gets a distinctive, dreamy re-working here. If you like the track, check out the album.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
This month, you’ll be noticing a particular holiday slant to our free tracks. What can we say? We’re feeling the spirit. Faith Hill is known for her new country stylings, but on this version of the holiday hymn, she shows her wide-ranging vocal skills. It’s an emotional, orchestral reading of one of the most beloved holiday favorites. If you like the track, check out the album.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
This week, we’re following the holiday route with contemporary R&B crooner, Brian McKnight, who here adds a slick, big-band arrangement to the song originally made famous by Andy Williams in 1983, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” This track comes courtesy of McKnight’s new holiday release, I’ll Be Home For Christmas. If you like the track, check out the album.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
