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”The Twelve Songs of Christmas” tries to sort out the place of Christmas music in our culture by talking to the people who make it.
Season eight ends with what I hope will be a tradition--a Christmas party, with a few guests and a lot of music. This week's guests include...
This week’s episode features two interviews—one with Grammy-winning jazz saxophone player Miguel Zenón helping us appreciate the salsa Chris...
We're in the last weeks before Christmas and I have more interviews than I can handle. This week starts with a version of " Wonderful Christ...
We're in December now, and this week we have three conversations. William Shatner's face is on the pop culture Mt. Rushmore, and when I had...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) made itself part of this year's music story with AI acts The Velvet Sundown, TaTa Taktumi and Breaking Rust mak...
Multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory remembers playing and recording with Brian Wilson from 1999 until he retired from live performances in...
I started thinking about how to address Brian Wilson’s death on the podcast since we learned of his passing. “Little Saint Nick” and The Bea...
Producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee has a history of making recordings that hover uncertainly in time. Sounds from different eras a...
Toronto's Kristian Noel Pedersen has released 27 EPs or albums of Christmas music, 26 of which are on his Bandcamp page . What started as a...
I've been out of town this week, and when I thought of an episode from the archives to revisit, this one from 2021 with guitar hero Steve Lu...
Since streamed playlists and all-Christmas radio are the way most people hear Christmas music, they're fascinations of mine. This week I'm b...
Chris Murphy of the Canadian indie rock band Sloan describes them as "a cult band," but they're a cult band with legs. They started in 1991...
Mark Davis has turned the in-store music cassettes he pocketed while working at a K-Mart in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s into “ Attention K-...
Last year, Minneapolis-based jazz pianist Nick Bhalla released Saint Nick, a lovely album of solo jazz piano treatments of Christmas classic...
The headlines tell a version of the story: “MARIAH CAREY SUED AGAIN OVER ‘ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU’ — BY THE SAME GUY,” according to...
This week's guests are Black Market and Wise Owl (or Nate Bridges and Brandon Niznik) of the Los Angeles-based duo Black Market Dub . On the...
These days, we take the all-Christmas radio format for granted. Every year, countless adult contemporary--AC--stations temporarily change th...
I think of this episode of Twelve Songs as a remix, a second pass at the same material with very different results. In 2003, The Blind Boys...
Eduardo Arenas surprised me in the first moments of this week's interview when he revealed that Chicano Batman had played its last gig for n...
Donna Summer has been a fascination of mine because she was on the cutting edge of electronic dance music, but since "I Feel Love" and other...
A new season of Twelve Songs begins with a conversation that is, frankly, more about AI—artificial intelligence—than it is Christmas music,...
Season seven of 12 Songs comes to a conclusion with three very different conversations and artists. Ha-Sizzle is one of the finest examples...
We're approaching Christmas, so this week I have excerpts from longer interviews that I'll run at full length next season. Steven Wilson is...
We're officially in December, the Christmas season, and I have more interviews than I can get through in the weeks leading up to Christmas....
Midge Ure from The Rich Kids, Ultravox and Visage co-wrote and produced "Do They Know it's Christmas" 40 years ago this week on November 25,...
Husband and wife duo Dean & Britta have a sound that suits contemporary Christmas music beautifully. They've done a few movie soundtracks in...
Twelve Songs goes to Las Vegas this week, first to talk with Sally Olson and Ned Mills of the tribute act Carpenters Legacy about The Carpen...
Earlier this season, I interviewed The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood about his ambivalent relationship with Christmas music. This week I...
I've been out of the country, so this week is an encore presentation with two very different artists--pop instrumental piano player Jim Bric...
This week I'm talking with blues artist Jontavious Willis , who recently released his album West Georgia Blues. I wanted to talk to Jontavio...
This season has featured surf Christmas music, calypso Christmas music, Sicilian Christmas music and smooth jazz Christmas music, so it can'...
Americana artist Mindy Smith has been referred to on 12 Songs before. At some point in the COVID years I talked about my love of "Santa Will...
Music journalist Annie Zaleski returns to 12 Songs this week. She last appeared in 2022 to talk about Wham!'s "Last Christmas." In 2023, she...
I've long believed that if you can't get a good interview out of the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood, you should hang up your keyboard and...
Saxophone player Boney James has two Christmas albums, Boney's Funky Christmas and Christmas Present. Both make sense as the place where jaz...
Our surf Christmas episode inadvertently laid the groundwork for this week’s, which focuses largely on Calypso Christmas music. New Orleans’...
In 2021, I interviewed Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, a band I've only grown to appreciate more over the years. They released their first thr...
I don’t usually get to end a conversation on Christmas music with memories of radio legend Art Bell and his late night deep dive into the pa...
Michela Mussolino introduced me to a new body of Christmas music this week. The New Jersey-born Memphis resident specializes in Sicilian fol...
I have so little surf Christmas music in my collection that I turned to WTUL DJ Hunter King, host of " Storm Surge of Reverb " to see if the...
The new season of Twelve Songs starts with an interview with Thomas Mertz, one of the founders of the social media game Whamageddon. To win...
Last Christmas, I promised that 12 Songs would return with Christmas in July 2024. Since July 25 falls on a Thursday, it seemed like an appr...
Season six of 12 Songs comes to a close with some of the highlights from the 2023 holiday season and a conversation with DJ/producer/busines...
Today's show is a lot about the backstage of the music business as the Vancouver-based alternative rock band Mother Mother talks about findi...
This holiday season, Imogen Clark released "Not Christmas Here," talking about how all the wintery signs that Christmas is coming don't mean...
This episode has been a few years in the making, but I was finally able to find a quiet moment in the busy lives of Amy Ray and Emily Salier...
Unfortunately, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is no longer around to talk about his 1996 solo piano album A Dave Brubeck Christmas. Craft Recordi...
I listened to one episode of Scott Leopold's "Holly Jolly Xmasu" podcast and I was sold. As a Stereolab and High Llamas fan, I felt like the...
Blue Man Group started in 1987 as a performance art concept by guys who also harbored rock 'n' roll dreams. It has grown into an institution...
I love when episodes overlap. Today, soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed talks about--among other things--his love of Huey "Piano" Smith's Chris...