Alternative Christmas songs

Here are a few of my favorite not-so-merry Christmas songs:

River by Joni Mitchell

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on. . .

Mitchell, Joni. Blue. Burbank, CA: Reprise, 1971. Sound recording. 

Merry Christmas, Emily by Cracker

Emily was twenty three
Sitting on the ground
Under a dead palm tree
6th and Speedway
On Christmas day . . .

Brick by Ben Folds Five

6am, day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb. . .




Christmas in Prison by John Prine

It was Christmas in prison
And the food was real good
We had turkey and pistols
Carved out of wood . . .




My friend Chris LeRoy does a great cover of this John Prine song. I like it as much as the original.



And speaking of John Prine . . .

My family had a very John Prine Thanksgiving:



And speaking of family . . . 

My cousin Allen Covert produced this Chanukah favorite:


Click to here to buy the song.

ps. It's pretty raunchy,  but I really liked Allen's most recent movie, That's My Boy.

See the guy in the red Izod shirt? That's my cousin!

pps. Happy Holidays, Love Rebecca.

Show me how this thing works

In honor of the second song off the new Cracker album, here are some really good owner's manuals and how-to books.

This is how I learned to be cheerful:

Peale, Norman Vincent. The Power of Positive Thinking ; The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking. New York: Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 2003.

This is where I picked up my mad flirting skills:

Westerman, Marty. How to Flirt: A Practical Guide. Los Angeles: Price Stern Sloan, 1992.

This is is how Uncle Donald learned to play the harmonica:

Gindick, Jon. The Natural Blues and Country Western Harmonica. San Diego: Cross Harp Press, 1986.

And speaking of harmonicas . . .


Not only can my (recently adopted) big brother Johnny Hickman play a mean harmonica, but he's also an excellent writer. Check out his monthly column in Scene Magazine.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,

I love this John Prine song

Happy Mother's Day! Marc, Mom, Uncle Donald and I are having a blast singing online karaoke together. Here's one of my favorite John Prine songs:





My Uncle Donald is a huge John Prine and Steve Goodman fan. He's reading a great book about Steve Goodman and the Old Town Chicago folk scene, Steve Goodman: Facing the Music by Clay Eals with an introduction by Arlo Guthrie. It's loaded with great stories about John Prine, Arlo Guthrie, Jimmy Buffett, Kris Kristofferson, and even Paul Anka.