Podcasts about twelve songs

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck and Sam kick off Christmas week with three incredible guests. First, Brian Earl, host of the Christmas Past podcast, delves into the fascinating origins of holiday traditions like the Nutcracker, the 12 Days of Christmas, Toys for Tots, and more. Next, John Fuller of Focus on the Family shares insights on the meaning of family during Christmas, balancing traditions, and creating lasting memories. Finally, Alex Rawls, host of the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast, explores the history and charm of holiday music, revealing how it brings people together. Join us for heartwarming stories, festive tunes, and meaningful reflections to make your season merry and bright!www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegroundsShow sponsors:Invest YrefyYrefy offers a secure, collateralized portfolio with a strong, fixed rate of return - up to a 10.25%. There is no attack on your principal if you ever need your money back. You can let your investment compound daily, or take your income whenever you choose. Make sure you tell them Sam and Chuck sent you!Learn more at investyrefy.com4Freedom MobileExperience true freedom with 4Freedom Mobile, the exclusive provider offering nationwide coverage on all three major US networks (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile) with just one SIM card. Our service not only connects you but also shields you from data collection by network operators, social media platforms, government agencies, and more.Use code ‘Battleground' to get your first month for $9 and save $10 a month every month after.Learn more at: 4FreedomMobile.comDot VoteWith a .VOTE website, you ensure your political campaign stands out among the competition while simplifying how you reach voters.Learn more at: dotvote.voteAbout our guests:Brian Earl is the creator and host of Christmas Past, the longest-running and #1 podcast about Christmas. Since 2016, Brian has been sharing the fascinating stories behind Christmas traditions and memories from listeners around the world.-John Fuller is the Vice President of the Audio team at Focus on the Family Broadcast and co-host of several popular programs, including the Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast, Focus on the Family Minute, Focus on the Family Marriage Podcast, Focus on the Family Parenting Podcast, and the Christmas Stories Podcast.-Alex Rawls covers indie music and culture at MySpiltMilk.com and talks about Christmas music on the “Twelve Songs of Christmas” podcast from Christmas in July until Christmas. He lives in New Orleans. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

#492 Twelve Songs Of Christmas - RCA Victor - LSP-2758 - Year 1963 - Side A + B by Jim Reeves

What's up, dudes? They say the sequels are never as good as the first. I think The Empire Strikes Back proves them wrong…but Band Aid II doesn't. I have music journalist Alex Rawls from The Twelve Songs of Christmas and My Spilt Milk with me to talk all about the second version of the charity song done in 1989! Spoilers: it's not as good as the first, but it's still fun!On Friday, December 1, 1989, Bob Geldof called Pete Waterman to ask if he would consider producing a new version of “Do They Know It's Christmas.” Waterman was part of The Hit Factory, a production team made up of himself, Mike Stock, and Matt Aiken. They were known for hi-NRG or Eurobeat style, with tempos usually somewhere between 102-140bpm, four-to-the-floor kick drums, staccato hi-hat, and bass lines frequently looped with fast eighth or sixteenth notes doubled at the octave. In fact, they produced 13 UK #1 singles and 3 US #1s. Waterman even postponed his wedding and rallied several artists together.Subsequently, on Sunday, December 3rd, the assembled artists recorded at PWL Studios in South London. Bob Geldof and family were present. On Tuesday, December 5th, the updated version was played for the first time on London's Capital Radio, 95.8 Capital FM. Advanced sales reached 500,000 copies, and the single was officially released on December 11th. It spent 3 weeks at #1, though Band Aid's original hit spent 5 weeks at #1 and sold over 2 million copies (which was approximately $24million in sales).Kylie Minogue? Check. Bros? Yep. Cliff Richard? A little out of place, but he was definitely there! So grab your denim jacket, put on an uptempo kick drum backing track, and jam out to this episode all about Band Aid II!The 12 Songs of ChristmasFB: @TwelveSongsofChristmasTwitter: @MySpiltMilk IG: @myspiltmilkGive us a buzz! Send a text, dudes!Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com! Later, dudes!

New Podcasts The Rose Suchak Ladder Podcast – A podcast that discusses a myriad of different Christmas topics. CJ invites personal friends, friends from the Christmas Podcast network and friends across the world to share their love of everything Christmas! The Twelve Songs of Christmas Podcast – The Twelve Songs of Christmas runs from Christmas […]

Greg catches us up on Coachella 2024, including Grimes' unfortunate mishap on stage. Then, thanks to a an email from anonymous listener, Kresimir Tokic, we're honored to welcome Victor Mitrani back to the show. Victor, recording as Little Oil, released his 2nd album, Twelve Songs, last month, He shares stories behind some songs and explains why he indulges humor when writing lyrics to to his songs.Songs:Little Oil - “Hey Judas”Little Oil - “Love Scenes”Little Oil - “Empty, Vacant, Pure, Divine”Little Oil - “Peace in the Wasteland”It was great having Victor back and you should check out Twelve Songs. Thanks for listening!

Reid describes his list of favorite Christmas songs.Spotify Playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/5VguPr6vMmeewKQSk4txZM?si=ade0a8c0e44a485cO Come, O come, Emmanuelhttps://youtu.be/UAzIQP1RjIcIn the bleak midwinterhttps://youtu.be/ZC9C5kHL884

In 2020, I had a good conversation with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips about the surprising amount of Christmas music they have, starting with Atlas Eets Christmas, which they recorded and credited to "Imagene Peise." We talked about that album's origins, which make sense when you hear them, as well as the Christmas on Mars project and a host of other holiday one-offs the band has recorded. I ran this conversation that fall, but since I'm on family vacation this Thanksgiving week, I'm re-running this episode.  This year's "Twelve Songs of Christmas" Christmas mix is available now. Write me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send you a folder with the file and a song list. You may know some of the songs from the show, but I think it's a safe bet that most of these songs or versions will be new to you.   

www.tamarawilliamson.ca THERAPY 6 MY RELATIONSHIP FEEDBACK LOOP I'm looking for sponsors or patreon's. message me... Back by popular demand .. some people hate my therapy podcasts and some LOVE them. I dunno.. when I was editing this I noticed how much I was stumbling like I'm in a flap whilst making it... lots of questions?????  Featuring songs from my collection of Twelve Songs recorded during Covid. So here you go.. some soul searching with Psychotherapist Anne Shnur.  

Twelve Songs returns after a life-induced hiatus with a good interview with Ray Benson from the Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. We talked in the spring when the band was coming to New Orleans to play Jazz Fest, and you can see my story focusing on the band celebrating 50 years in the game with its Half a Hundred Years album and tour. That tour is always going on or soon to restart, so check your local listings because if they aren't coming to town, they'll get there sooner or later. We talk about COVID, which became very real for the band when members of the band were hit hard by it earlier this year. We also talk about his long-time musical friend Willie Nelson, Benson's admiration for his "Pretty Paper," and hear Christmas music by the band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, The Resentments (on a song by one of my favorites, Jon Dee Graham), and Folk Uke, which features Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie's daughters.  

This week we've got the one and only Steve Leaf with us. We discussed how can analog and digital sound work together. We also take on the age old question of what is the best decade of music. Be sure to check out Steve Leaf's most recent album, Twelve Songs! Feel free to email us with comments, suggestions, or questions at mimusicpodcast@gmail.com

In 2014, Molto Groovy Christmas remade holiday favorites inspired by Italian and French movie soundtracks from the 1960s. Tracks also reference Esquivel, Jimmy Smith's soul-jazz, and other out-there sounds, and the project as a whole is defined by unlikely, psychedelic textural juxtapositions over gently funky grooves. The album came with a mystery, though. The cover reads, “Roman Coppola and Alessandro Cassella presents,” but it's not until you open the package that you discover who actually made the music. That task fell to Italian musician and producer Carlo Poddighe, who arranged the songs and played all the parts.   This week, Carlo Poddighe tells the story of the album and talks about the fun and the challenges that accompany having a studio full of the vintage gear needed for a project like this one.    Molto Groovy Christmas isn't on Spotify or Apple Music, but CDs and mp3s are available through Amazon and a few vinyl copies remain for sale at the album's Bandcamp page.    Poddighe talks about the influence of a number of Italian soundtrack composers including Ennio Morricone, the best known in the United States. A Morricone track is included, as is a track from the 1995 album Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party, a very psychedelic collection of soundtrack music that prompted renewed interest in European soundtrack music from mid-‘60s to the early ‘70s.  If you haven't already done so, please subscribe to Twelve Songs wherever you get your podcasts so that you don't miss an episode.   

Twelve Songs returns to regular programming this week with writer Annie Zaleski joining me to talk about Wham!'s “Last Christmas” and our favorite versions of it.    On Christmas Day last year, Zaleski told the song's story at Salon.com, which is just one of the places where she has covered pop music and Christmas music over the years. She also wrote a book on Duran Duran's Rio for the 33 1/3 series.    The song has become a fascination of mine for a lot of reasons, one of which is that I've only really come around to it in the last few years. For a long time, I understood those who played Whamageddon online during the holiday season, but eventually the durability of the song and its stylish, bonkers, of the moment video won me over.    Annie and I also talk about cover versions by Jimmy Eat World, Carly Rae Jepsen, Manic Street Preachers, and Lucy Dacus. The episode closes with one of my favorites from last year by Japanese noise rock band Boris. If it speaks to you, you can find it at Boris' Bandcamp page.    In the conversation, I mentioned the video for the version of "Last Christmas" by the Japanese rock band Chai, and Annie and I break down Wham!'s video. 

When I started to look back at the highlights of our first 100 episodes, I envisioned it taking an episode or two, but once I started, I couldn't keep the number down that low. Here we are with the fifth and final installment, and I can easily envision another episode or two of interviews conducted before 2021.  This week's episode includes a few interviews that were special for me, including Steven Drozd of Flaming Lips, 11 Acorn Lane, guitar hero Steve Lukather, jazz vocalist Jacqui Naylor, ZE Records' Michael Zilkha, Latin ska band Mento Buru, and singer Danny Boy and label exec John “JP” Payne of Death Row Records. There's something special in each of these for me. Some were people I had really wanted to talk to, others were really good, provocative conversations, and in the case of the Death Row interview, it led to a story I wrote for The New York Times.  Next week, I'll get to work on the next 100 with a new conversation. If you haven't already done so, please subscribe, like, follow, or do what you have to do with your podcast provider to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed weekly.   

We're in the home stretch of the look back at highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs, with this episode getting into interviews during the pandemic when COVID affected everybody's plans. Guitarist and producer Chas Justus from Lafayette, Louisiana talks about how COVID made his collection of Cajun French versions of Chrlstmas classics--Joyeux Noel, Bon Chrismeusse--possible.   I really appreciated getting romantic pianist and composer Jim Brickman on the show because someone who has 10 albums of Christmas music has a more nuanced take on it than those who have only dipped their toes in the water. We talked in 2020 about how his Christmas music relates to the music he makes the rest of the year.  Many of my guests are indie musicians, in part because their music frequently lines up best with my aesthetics and ethics, but it's also important to me that we hear Christmas music as something people make today in a variety of forms and not simply nostalgia from our parents or grandparents' generations. Excerpts of conversations with retro soul artist Kelly Finnigan (who made the modern classic A Joyful Sound), Christian vocal group leader Ernie Haase, Jamie Hilsden of the Christmas punk band The Myrrhderers, and Amy Carlson of pop band Office Romance all come from that place, though the conversations are very different.  I hope after hearing this show and the other retrospective shows in this series, you'll want to subscribe to Twelve Songs (if you haven't already), listen to back episodes, and tell your friends. I hope these looks back make it clear that conversations about Christmas music aren't necessarily about Christmas or to be set aside until that time of year. 

Hidden meaning.

My look back at the highlights of The Twelve Songs of Christmas this week come from from a transitional period. I had good and very different conversations with musicians with very different careers, including the pop purists Hanson, the bluegrass crossover artist Rhonda Vincent, and indie rapper Mega Ran.  This week's show includes excerpts from those conversations, along Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low, and Martin Lynds and Jen Gunderman of The Ornaments, a band of Nashville session players who at the time of the interview had played the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack for 14 years running.  One note on this episode: I was surprised when I grabbed the file for the Rhonda Vincent interview that I found my voice distorted on it. It didn't sound like that when I produced the episode, but there's not much to do about that now. I tried to minimize how much of me you needed to hear in that excerpt, but you needed some of my fuzzy voice to give her answers context.  If this is the first of your retrospective episodes, you can hear the first two here and here.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.  Here in New Orleans, it's Mardi Gras, so I'm taking the rest of this week and the start of next week to be part of my city. We'll meet again in two weeks.  

Last week, I started a look back at some of the highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs of Christmas. This week, Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5 talks about his relationship to his Christmas songs when a stroke prevented him from playing them at their CD release show. Americana rocker JD McPherson talks about the inspiration for the songs on his modern Christmas classic, Socks, and Magic 101.9 program director Steve Suter takes us behind the scenes on the all-Christmas radio format. New Orleans singer Debbie Davis talks about what it's like to have a Christmas show that becomes a tradition, and songwriter Josh Rouse remembers Christmas music in Spain.  In the episode, I mention a few stories I'd link to--my piece for Nola.com on the all-Christmas radio format, and my interview with Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant. 

The previous episode with singer Meryl Zimmerman was number 100, and now that I've made it that far, I think it's time to stop and help some of you catch up. I've had a lot of episodes I'm really happy with that have moments I'm glad I helped to get into the world. Some realizations probably came together for the first time when we talked. The conversations shed light on creativity, musicality, business, and spirituality--aspects the pop music enterprise that are too often overlooked or treated with too much care. I'm interested in all of these things, and Christmas music is a great vehicle to get into those topics.  You can hear all that in these excerpts from season one with guests Panorama Jazz Band, Robert Earl Keen, The Waitresses' Chris Butler and Mars Williams, PJ Morton, Pink Martini, and Lowland Hum. Originally, I thought I'd simply do one retrospective episode, but I realized pretty quickly that it would be three to four hours' long, or it would leave out too much to be satisfying for me. So I'll be back with more next week and likely the week after that. Listening back is a little humbling, hearing some ratty production and a laid back intro affectation so extreme that I don't need to share any of that with you. You can't help but notice it though if you go back and check out the early episodes.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant.   

This is the 100th episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas, and I'm spending it with New Orleans' jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman. In late November 2022, she released her second album, A Very Meryl Christmas, so we talked about it as a business proposition and chewed on the uncommon song choices she made for it. Some standards are there, but so are some less common choices. As you'll see, the more familiar ideas are dressed up in uncommon arrangements that take them into interesting places. Her bossa nova version of “What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?” was compelling enough to make me seriously consider an episode focused on versions of that song to fit in the week after Christmas. It didn't happen, but maybe next year.  In this episode, we talk about her cover of Louis Armstrong's “Zat You, Santa Claus?” and I mention how Buster Poindexter's version helped me see the song Meryl's way. Here's that version.  On this episode, I also draw attention to Attention K-Mart Shoppers, and online archive of digitized albums of background music played in the 1960s and ‘70s in Kresge and K-Mart stores. I'm fascinated by the Christmas albums, of course, but there's a lot to hear there.  After this episode, I'm going to take a week off the start the next hundred episodes with a look back at the best of the first seasons. That will take more listening and editing than I can manage in a week, but I'll be back with that in two weeks.   If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform, TuneIn, Audible, and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant. 

One sidebar in the last few years of 12 Songs has been the role of COVID in the creation of Christmas music. Some artists recorded Christmas albums to remind themselves that they were musicians during the pandemic shutdown of 2020. Some were able to get musicians who would otherwise be unavailable because COVID forced them off the road, and others had specific circumstances related to COVID that led to their Christmas albums.  San Antonio-based roots rocker Patricia Vonne falls into the latter category. In this week's episode, she tells the story of what prompted her to record My Favorite Holiday, and how she got an army of musical friends including Rubén Blades, Alex Ruiz, David Grissom, Rosie Flores, Stephen Ferrone, Carmine Rojas and more to participate.   I love Vonne's energy and positivity in this conversation. She never stops selling, but that makes sense. Her story is a working artist's story, and she lives from gig to gig and album to album. That's a perspective that's easy to overlook in the show biz world that many Christmas albums live in.    This week's episode also takes a quick look at the last Christmas-related hit of 2021, “Christmas Tree” by V of K-pop stars BTS. I argue that it's not really a Christmas song and pay more attention to an earlier, truer Christmas song from BTS, “Christmas Day” by Jimin and Jungkook.    If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant. 

How does a white guy from Detroit end up playing Latin music? Pianist Arthur Hanlon, one of the stars of the HBOMax concert film Piano Y Mujer, talks about that and his relationship to Motown in this week's conversation. We talk about the EP he released before Christmas, A Holiday Christmas Piano, and the roles Facebook and COVID played in making it happen. Along the way, we also talk about earlier Christmas releases and how Christmas music fits into Hanlon's big picture.  This week, we also look at one of the bigger songs of the 2021 holiday season, "Merry Christmas" by Ed Sheeran and Elton John, and the song that beat them to become number one on the British pop charts at Christmas. During our post-Christmas break, we went live on the IHeartRadio platform and Amazon's podcast platform. Now, you can ask Alexa and Siri to play the Twelve Songs of Christmas podcast and let them pop it up on your voice-controlled personal assistant. 

This is the last episode of the Christmas season, but The Twelve Songs of Christmas is a year-around affair, so the conversations will continue in January after I take a much-needed week off. This week's episode includes an interview with filmmaker Mitchell Kezin, whose documentary Jingle Bell Rocks! takes a deep dive into the world of Christmas music, talking to people who collect it and create it. It's streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime, and we'll talk more about the movie next year, but this week we discuss its origins including the songs and ideas that set him on the path for a documentary on Christmas music.  Then I talk to songwriter Jim McCormick, an old friend and successful songwriter in Nashville. Last year, he co-wrote his third number one, Gabby Barrett's "The Good Ones," and we catch up on the story behind that, as well as some of his favorite country Christmas songs. We talk about Kacey Musgraves, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan and more, thinking about the songs from the songwriter's or the industry's perspectives. Finally, I talk to young country artist Bailey James, who is still finding her audience. We talk about dealing with COVID times and her two Christmas recordings, which at the time of the interview made up a quarter of her output. How does Christmas music create marketing opportunities?  Alexandra Scott returns this week to discuss two of Phoebe Bridgers' Christmas songs--"The Christmas Song" and her cover of Merle Haggard's "If We Make it Through December."  We also hear some of our favorite contemporary Christmas albums, JD McPherson's Socks and Kelly Finnigan's A Joyful Sound, and The Polyphonic Spree, who put tickets on sale for their 2022 Holiday Extraganza this week. JD, Kelly, and Tim DeLaughter of the Spree have all appeared on Twelve Songs. We also heard new lofi Christmas music this week from Brooklyn's The Fundamental Sound.  Last week, my story on the influence of Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas appeared in The New Orleans Advocate. This week, a story I wrote on Christmas on Death Row, the Death Row Records' Christmas album, appeared in The New York Times. It's based in part on an interview on the podcast with Death Row vocalist Danny Boy and label exec John "JP" Payne from earlier this year. I'm going to take a week off and return in January with a new episode. Christmas will be over the conversations continue.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   Thanks to Car Floats for the sponsorship.

This week, we have a few guests again as Christmas nears. Americana artist Amanda Shires is on hand to talk about For Christmas, and the way it reflects some of the less common impulses behind Christmas music. The husband and wife team of Rod and Rose—country singer Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon—talk about why they recorded “Winter Wonderland,” and how their conflicting writing styles got them to a new song for this holiday season. Finally, indie multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster drops by to talk about his role in the 2008 album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime.    We'll have more with all three in 2022.   In the news this week, host Alex Rawls contributed a story on the influence of Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas to The New Orleans Advocate. The story includes quotes from George Winston, Steven Drozd, Kristin Chenoweth, Joey Burns of Calexico, Mega Ran, and Jen Gunderman of The Ornaments, all drawn from episodes of this podcast.    If you're maxing out on the Christmas music you have, let us help. At Spotify, you can listen to our 24-hour “Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio.” Just click Shuffle and you get the Christmas radio experience minus the repetition. Or, you can email Alex@myspiltmilk.com to get an mp3 of our 90-minute holiday mix.    If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  

Gregg's Guide to New Music: Episode 339 “The Twelve Songs of Christmas” Gregg is joined by his fellow Radio Ronin members Jimmy Chunga, Chandler Smith, and Josh Hansen for another special Christmas episode “The Twelve Songs of Christmas”. Gregg highly recommends checking out and supporting the following bands and musicians. Links to find more from them, and purchase their music are posted below. Suspense Heroes Syndicate – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Glam Skanks – https://glamskanks.bandcamp.com/ Stellar Kart – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music A Change of Pace – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music For All Those Sleeping – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Dwarves – https://thedwarves.com Skasouls – https://www.skasouls-uk.com/ Millington – https://millingtonband.bandcamp.com/ We Are the Union – https://wearetheunion.bandcamp.com/ Bowling For Soup – https://www.bowlingforsoup.com/ The Brian Setzer Orchestra – https://briansetzer.com/ We the Kings – https://www.wethekingsmusic.com/

Gregg's Guide to New Music: Episode 339 “The Twelve Songs of Christmas” Gregg is joined by his fellow Radio Ronin members Jimmy Chunga, Chandler Smith, and Josh Hansen for another special Christmas episode “The Twelve Songs of Christmas”. Gregg highly recommends checking out and supporting the following bands and musicians. Links to find more from them, and purchase their music are posted below. Suspense Heroes Syndicate – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Glam Skanks – https://glamskanks.bandcamp.com/ Stellar Kart – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music A Change of Pace – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music For All Those Sleeping – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Dwarves – https://thedwarves.com Skasouls – https://www.skasouls-uk.com/ Millington – https://millingtonband.bandcamp.com/ We Are the Union – https://wearetheunion.bandcamp.com/ Bowling For Soup – https://www.bowlingforsoup.com/ The Brian Setzer Orchestra – https://briansetzer.com/ We the Kings – https://www.wethekingsmusic.com/

Gregg's Guide to New Music: Episode 339 “The Twelve Songs of Christmas” Gregg is joined by his fellow Radio Ronin members Jimmy Chunga, Chandler Smith, and Josh Hansen for another special Christmas episode “The Twelve Songs of Christmas”. Gregg highly recommends checking out and supporting the following bands and musicians. Links to find more from them, and purchase their music are posted below. Suspense Heroes Syndicate – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Glam Skanks – https://glamskanks.bandcamp.com/ Stellar Kart – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music A Change of Pace – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music For All Those Sleeping – iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music Dwarves – https://thedwarves.com Skasouls – https://www.skasouls-uk.com/ Millington – https://millingtonband.bandcamp.com/ We Are the Union – https://wearetheunion.bandcamp.com/ Bowling For Soup – https://www.bowlingforsoup.com/ The Brian Setzer Orchestra – https://briansetzer.com/ We the Kings – https://www.wethekingsmusic.com/

Last year, Twelve Songs did its first crossover episode with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of the Ranking the Beatles podcast. During the COVID shutdown in 2020, Jonathan took the time on his hands as an excuse to rank all of The Beatles' songs, from his least favorite to his favorite. That list morphed from a Facebook conversation into a podcast with his wife Julia as the voice of reason.  Since The Beatles didn't release any true Christmas songs during their time together, last year we ranked the annual fan club-only releases, testing Julia's patience in the process. This year, we got together for a second crossover, this time ranking their post-Beatles Christmas music. Julia had reached a saturation point between watching, discussing, and podcasting about Peter Jackson's Get Back and opted for a badly needed night off. Jonathan and I discussed the obvious choices by John and Paul as well as less obvious ones from George and Ringo.  If you like what hear, you might consider adding Ranking The Beatles to your podcast feed. Thanks as usual to our sponsors at Car Floats, who asked me to contribute a Christmas music playlist to their website. I'm pleased to have curated a number of playlists this season including the 23-hour “Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio” playlist on Spotify. Go to it and click Shuffle to get the all-Christmas radio experience but with a greater variety of music. You can also still get this year's downloadable listeners-only playlist by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to request it.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  

Last week, Kristin Chenoweth was part of the episode focused on A Sentimental Christmas, an album of remakes of songs by Nat "King" Cole. Today, we continue that conversation to cover her new Christmas album, Happiness Is ... Christmas and 2008's A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas.  This episode also includes my interview with country legend Ronnie Milsap, whose Christmas with Ronnie Milsap was reissued this year, and guitar hero Paul Gilbert, who got in the Christmas music game this year with his new album, TWAS. Unfortunately, we had a wifi disconnect and, as you'll hear, had to pick up more or less where we left off. That gives us a choppy moment part way in, but that's life on the Internet.  This episode also includes new music from New Orleans-based jazz vocalist Meryl Zimmerman, who released A Very Meryl Christmas this year, and a cover of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" by Aidan & the Wild, Lewin, and the Revanche Family. It's on Another Christmas Vol. 2, and I'll talk to someone from Revanche Records in Amsterdam next year about the label sampler as a marketing strategy.  This episode also includes new music from Americana band Loose Cattle, who recently cut a version of Neil Young's "Star of Bethlehem" with the holidays in mind. Michael and Kimberly of Loose Cattle were early guests on Twelve Songs, and if you're in New Orleans, they'll play a holiday show Saturday at The Broadside with many of their musical friends. Finally, the episode closes with a version of "The Christmas Song" by The Polyphonic Spree. I interviewed Tim DeLaughter of the Spree last summer about their then-new album Afflatus and their Holidaydream Christmas album. At the time, he said that they planned to bring back their Holiday Extraganza this year in Dallas. It's on for December 18, and last time I checked, there were a few tickets still on sale. I'll be there this year, and if your tastes run toward the maximalist and psychedelic, it might be for you too.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  

For this Christmas season, producer Jay Landers put together "A Sentimental Christmas with Nat "King" Cole," an album that refreshes some of Cole's holiday classics with new arrangements and a handful of new duets with new singing partners Johnny Mathis, John Legend, Gloria Estefan and more.  Today on the show, Landers talks about the hows of whys of putting together this kind of project, and why Cole continues to sing these duets well after his death. Kristin Chenoweth and Calum Scott are two of Cole's singing partners this time around, and they talk about the experience, Cole, and what they learned about him in the process. Singer Alexandra Scott returns this week to talk about Icelandic pop artist Dadi Freyr and the Christmas songs he released in 2020 and 2021.  This episode ends with a lovely cover of Low's "Just Like Christmas" by Gabrielle Aplin. Last year, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker appeared on Twelve Songs in an episode that felt surprisingly intimate and, perhaps for that reason, became more personal than I expected.  This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  

This episode drops on Thanksgiving, and if you're listening on Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving. Friday is Black Friday, the official, incontrovertible start to the Christmas season, and just in time for it, Twelve Songs has created an alternative to the all-Christmas radio station, Twelve Songs of Christmas Radio on Spotify. It's a 20-plus hour playlist of songs that are or should be Christmas favorites, and all you have to do is click Shuffle to get the radio effect, minus the commercials and station breaks.  If that sounds a little daunting, you can also email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to get a copy of this year's 90-minute listeners-only Christmas mix. It covers a lot of ground and offers some new takes on Christmas classics, and it will almost certainly introduce you to some Christmas songs you haven't heard before. For those looking for a more irreverent, indie-oriented Christmas collection, I recommend XO for the Holidays Vol. 10, which fits the bill nicely. In this week's episode, I'm again featuring excerpts from interviews I conducted this fall. José James presents himself as a jazz vocalist for the hip-hop era, but that's only occasionally obvious on his new Merry Christmas from José James. On it, he and a traditional jazz trio give us a beautiful, timeless Christmas album that sounds like what might happen if a Sinatra-like singer fronted a Bill Evans-led band. I also talk to Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn, who is starting his tour celebrating 50 years in the business in December. The tour should have started last December, but, you know, COVID. We talk about the tour and his 1993 Christmas album, Christmas, including one of the less likely songs on the album and where it came from. Finally, I talk to Nashville's Twangtown Paramours, who have a new album, Double Down on a Bad Thing, due out in February. We talk a little about that, about how its recording was affected by COVID, and how they used a new Christmas song, "My Gingerbread Man," as a marketing tool. This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.    

Twelve Songs of Christmas is based in New Orleans, so in the spirit of the season and podcaster camaraderie, I recently recorded a crossover episode with friends who figured out how to shoehorn their two great passions into one podcast. Who Dat Jedis usually talks about the New Orleans Saints and Star Wars, and this week they asked me to join them to add a conversation on Christmas music to that mix. I enjoyed this conversation because Aaron, Fredo and Dave's questions are the ones casual listeners to Christmas music have, and it was fun to connect them to some of the themes that run through this podcast and tie some of them back to specific episodes I've done over the course of the last three years. We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find it at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   The next regular episode will be in your feed on Thanksgiving. 

Welcome to the 96th episode of the WhoDatJedi podcast! This week, your hosts -- Aaron Svoboda (@Aaron_Svoboda), Alfredo Narvaez (@NOLA_Fredo) and David Gladow (@davegladow) -- are joined by New Orleans music writer Alex Rawls (@Alex_Rawls), who produces his own podcast, the "Twelve Songs of Christmas," which takes a closer look at unique or interesting takes on traditional Christmas music. This concept of telling the same story over and over again might be familiar to Star Wars fans. So, we talked about some of the complexities of that. What makes a piece of media special? What makes a sequel or cover song worth your time? Does a familiar song or story provide a better canvas for evaluating an artist? And what are some of the best and worst Christmas songs of all time? We covered all of that and absolutely took a look at some of the "geekier" Christmas songs in existence in the process. We also talked some Saints, "Rogue Squadron" delays, Kathleen Kennedy, and Disney+ Day. This show is big ... but it's worth your time. Listen on Podbean, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Tune In + Alexa, Amazon Music/Audible, iHeartRadio, and follow us on Twitter & Facebook!  If you like what you hear, be sure to click that follow button and leave us a positive review!  Read more of Fredo's musings here. Read more of Dave's musings here. Song credit: Far, Far Away (Star Wars Jazz), by the Swamp Donkeys Visit their website for more of their music! ---  Related: 'Rogue Squadron' delayed Related: Kathleen Kennedy's contract extended

Last year, some time after Thanksgiving I had to change format and use excerpts from a few interviews to get to everybody I've talked to about Christmas music before the holiday comes. This year, I have to start now since I already have enough interviews to get to February if I ran one per show.  This week, I'm talking to some of my favorite people. The Fleshtones are the long-time garage rock gold standard, and singer Peter Zaremba is always a great person to talk to about that corner of the rock 'n' roll world. Since it seems like a shrinking one, we talk about that and how their most recent single, the Spanish-language "Mi Engañaste Bien," plays into that. We talk about the bond between record collectors and, of course, their 2008 Christmas album, Stocking Stuffer. This week also features Susan Cowsill, the youngest member of the '60s family pop band The Cowsills. Susan has never stopped singing or making music, and has been part of New Orleans' music community since she moved here in the 1990s with The Continental Drifters. Cowsills memories are inevitable for her, particularly now that she and two of her brothers have a podcast of their own, The Cowsills Podcast. We talk about that, Branson, some of her favorite Christmas songs, Karen Carpenter, and the experience of recording a Christmas song for Debbie Davis and Matt Perrine's Oh Crap! It's Christmas Vol. 2. Recently, the Numero Group reissue label released the very entertaining Christmas Dreamers: Yuletide Christmas (1960-1972), and this week I talk to Adam Luksetich about the process of pulling the collection together, and how his own relationship to Christmas music affected his choices. Finally, singer Alexandra Scott returns to discuss Mariah Carey's re-entry into the Christmas music arena with her new song, "Fall in Love at Christmas," featuring Khalid and Kirk Franklin. This episode of Twelve Songs is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, which makes reusable fabric stickers for your car.  We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  f you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.    

It's mid-November, and with COVID numbers trending in the right direction, Mannheim Steamroller will return to the road soon. One of the Monsters of Christmas Rock, the group will start on Tuesday, November 16 in Loveland, Colorado, and it will have two companies on the road until December 30, when they'll finish up in Dallas and San Diego. The tour schedule is online, and tickets are on sale now. The tour will take place as it has since 2008 without founder/composer/arranger Chip Davis, who talks about why in today's episode, along with his journey from a series of albums with "Fresh Aire" in the title blending classical music, electronic music, and prog rock to 1984, Christmas, and Christmas music. Davis talks about his electronic music influences, as well as how he found an audience for an act that didn't fall neatly in any musical camp. He also talks about managing his success and dealing with the reality that Christmas music had become central to the Steamroller's identity, even if Davis didn't see it that way.  Also in today's episode, host Alex Rawls and singer Alexandra Scott discuss two Australian Christmas songs, Paul Kelly's "How to Make Gravy" and Tim Minchin's "White Wine in the Sun." We're still giving away our 2021 listeners-only Christmas mix. Write alex@myspiltmilk.com and request a copy.  This episode is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, purveyors of removable, reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.      

This episode is bittersweet for me. The things I love on Quad City DJs' All-Star Christmas make me very happy, and this week one half of the Quad City DJs, CC Lemonhead, tells the story of the Jacksonville, Florida DJs' journey from "Whoot! There it Is" to "Tootsie Roll" to "C'mon and Ride It (The Train)" to "What You Want for Christmas." It's the kind of story I love, with people working up homemade solutions to musical challenges, and what happens along the way.  Unfortunately, one of the things that happened is that CC and his partner Jay-Ski fell out during the recording of Quad City DJs' debut album for Atlantic Records, Get on Up and Dance, and he was out of the picture entirely for the recording of All-Star Christmas in 1996. Equally unfortunately, I didn't know that until a half-hour into our interview. So far, Jay-Ski has not responded to interview requests, but I'm going to keep trying. Fortunately, last episode's guest, Bill Adler, tracked down one of the singers on the album, an artist who goes by the name of Big Tyme and recorded "Xmas Blues," otherwise known as Bonquisha and Otis, which bounce rapper Big Freedia turned me on to on a previous episode. Adler wrote the story for LL Cool J's Rock The Bells website, so I this episode I read an excerpt of it to help answer one more question about the album. In this episode, singer Alexandra Scott returns to talk with me about new Christmas music from Meghan Trainor, Ingrid Michaelson, and Amanda Shires. You can hear Alexandra's music on her Bandcamp page. This episode is sponsored by Car-Floats.com, purveyors of removable, reusable fabric stickers for your car.  If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.  

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has worked to be more than just the jazz band your parents knew. Creative Director and tuba player Ben Jaffe has worked to ensure that the New Orleans musical institution has a place in the contemporary music conversation. That has led to some choices that purists have questioned, but it also means the band still has a presence in the culture, unlike many of its peers. This week, I talk to Jaffe about the hall's holiday traditions and its own Christmas recordings, including a collaboration with singer Irma Thomas for the 2013 Holidays Rule compilation, and four Spotify Sessions recordings that the band did for the streaming service with previous 12 Songs guests Big Freedia, Boyfriend, and PJ Morton. In this week's episode, I also talk to Alexandra Scott about new Christmas music from Norah Jones and calypso Christmas music from Mighty Sparrow, Lord Nelson, and Lord Kitchener. This week on the pod, I announced that am making a special listeners-only Christmas mix. If you wish to receive a copy, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   

We met Dan Zanes as the singer of The Del Fuegos in the first generation of America's indie underground in the mid-1980s. As he explains in our conversation, he discovered after the band broke up that people were more interested in a cassette he made of family-oriented folk he made with his daughter, her friends and their parents in mind than they were in his solo album. That set his course, and he has been working in the family-friendly field for more than 20 years now.  We talk about family-friendly music, folk music, and how his Christmas album, Christmas in Concord, fits in to that musical world. His wife and musical collaborator Claudia is part of the conversation as well, even though she wasn't with him on Christmas in Concord. She is on their new album, the social justice-oriented Let Love Be Your Guide. This episode also inaugurates a change as singer and friend Alexandra Scott joins to talk about Christmas music with Alex, this week focusing on Kelly Clarkson's new "Christmas Isn't Cancelled (Just You)" and her biggest Christmas song to date, "Underneath the Tree." If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   

"Santa Baby" has gone through some changes. When Eartha Kitt recorded it in 1953, it was controversial because women--and particularly black women--didn't talk about desire so bluntly. It was a cool artifact from one of Christmas' back rooms until Madonna covered it in 1987, and that seemingly put the song on the radar of a generation or two of women performers including Arianna Grande and Kylie Minogue. This week, I'm joined by three strong women to discuss what makes Kitt's track special, and what changes when others perform it. Journalist and critic Alison Fensterstock contributed an interview with Rickie Lee Jones to Mojo earlier this year, and she is a regular contributor to NPR.org among other places. Singer Dayna Kurtz's passion and passions are clear in her work, whether the projects explore her personal life, her musical life (as part of Lulu and the Broadsides), or her activist life (as in the case of "What Would Jesus Say"). Alexandra Scott appeared on 12 Songs last year to talk about Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas," and singer Alexandra Scott has always made songs that sound like direct communications with the listener, whether the lyric reflects her innermost thoughts or something more fabricated. Even musical exercises sound meaningful when she sings them.  In the episode, I talk about Pearl Bailey's "Ten Pound Box of Money." That's the song from 1958 adjusted for inflation. When Bailey recorded it, the title was "A Five Pound Box of Money." Sorry for the confusion. Maybe a 10 pound box of money reflects my needs and desires more than Bailey's since that's the lyric I sing in my head when I think about the song.  This episode also starts to pay attention to the releases scheduled for the 2021 Christmas season starting with Brett Eldridge's "Mr. Christmas." The album by the same name won't be out until November, but the title track is out and we give it a first listen.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or favorites you want to share, I'm at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   

Episode 18 the long lost finale of season 1! on this episode Dan Fisher and Julio Gomez review 2 albums - Twelve Songs by Steve Leaf and Fourth Turning. Theme song by Thom Hunt. Additional Music By Dan Fisher. Editing by Julio Gomez. Creative Consulting by Cassie Heuton. A Grand Rhapsody Production.   Season 2 begins in september! bandscamps@gmail.com for submissions

Bruce Iglauer didn't plan to celebrate Alligator Records' 50th anniversary the way he has. Iglauer started the blues label in Chicago in 1972 and intended to load up a bus with musicians from the label's past, present and future and play around the country. Unfortunately, the Delta variant made that unsafe, so instead he has had to celebrate with an anniversary compilation, 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin' Music, and talking about the label and the stars who defined it on shows like this one. Iglauer's here because Alligator has released two albums of new Christmas music, 1992's The Alligator Records Christmas Compilation, and 1996' Genuine Houserockin' Christmas. He tells stories about some of the artists who cut Christmas music including Koko Taylor and Gatemouth Brown, and talks about the world that led him to form Alligator in the first place. Iglauer starts, though, by talking about how the COVID that forced Alligator to change its plans is affecting musicians.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or favorites you want to share, I'm at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.   

Singer Grant-Lee Phillips is the first 12 Songs guest to have worked as a mall Santa. The solo artist who rose to fame in the alternative rock band Grant Lee Buffalo had Christmas songs talks about that experience this week, as well as what he learned about songwriting from Christmas songs.  In 2020, Phillips released the Winterglow EP, and he talks about the role the Gilmore Girls television show played in the title track, as well as how he selected the infrequently covered songs he also recorded for it. In the episode, Alex also talks about the Texas Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel and music from their two Christmas albums, Merry Texas Christmas Y'all and Lone Star Christmas Night. If you have any questions, suggestions, or favorites you want to share, I'm at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. 

Think of this as a remix. Last year, I interviewed New Orleans bounce artist Big Freedia for an episode about his Christmas music including the EP he released last season, Smokin' Santa Christmas. In early January, I interviewed New Orleans' founder of "rap cabaret" Boyfriend about Amy Grant's A Christmas Album. We also talked about her work with Big Freedia--a part of the conversation I saved because the Amy Grant conversation was a full episode on its own. (Boyfriend has also appeared on the show to talk about her love of The Carpenters.) So this week, I've pulled the two interviews together, combining highlights of the Big Freedia interview with Boyfriend's behind the scenes point of view, and I've included a short digression into Boyfriend's first Christmas song, a version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. This episode also includes another call-back. When I interviewed Calexico's Joey Burns, we talked about the Spanish language Christmas song, "Mi Burrito Sabanero," which they performed with singer Gabi Moreno on their Seasonal Shift. This week, I go through some of the recorded highlights of the song's history, though they really don't make it any clearer why that song has developed a seasonal following in Miami.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or favorites you want to share, I'm at alex@myspiltmilk.com. If you haven't already done so, please do what you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify. 

Nick talks in private to Steve about the recording process and upcoming release of his latest album TWELVE SONGS.  Available for pre-order now and everywhere on JUNE 11.   Steve Leaf is performing live @ SHORTS BREWERY in BELLAIRE, MI on FRIDAY JUNE 11    

Jim Reeves’s Twelve Songs of Christmas (1963) and Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). Also, in our final episode of 2020, Rusty’s daughter Nora makes her debut to talk about polka music, we discuss Christmas stockings, and we read mean tweets about someone named Michael Bubble. Finally, things get a little spooky, as we explore the legends … Continue reading S2E8 – Dingy Claus Ruined My Swatch

On today's episode of The SHAIR Podcast is the 2nd episode of the O-Zone, where I host a new featured show on InRecovery Radio brought to you by the Star Worldwide Network studios in Scottsdale, Arizona and produced by Bill Gates. Today, we have Mary Lyn joining us, and Mary Lyn has a CD out called Twelve Songs, and I'm going to let Mary Lyn tell us a little bit about everything that she's got going on currently. Mary Lyn, are you with us? Mary Lyn: I am. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be a part of the O-Zone. I love it. Omar: I love it, and feel free to call me O. Mary Lyn: Okay, O. That's great. Just call me Mary Lyn. Omar: This is exciting, so Mary Lyn, please tell us about your CD. Tell us where the inspiration came for the CD. I also know that you have a workbook that coincides with this CD and where it comes from, so tell us where it was inspired from and where you're going with it. Mary Lyn Twelve Songs Mary Lyn: Well, sobriety has just been such an awesome journey for me, and I think I love recovery more now today than I did when I first got sober. I've been playing guitar since I was 16 years old, and just writing songs and music, and it's very personal for me, my songwriting, and it's kind of how I come to understand things ... Is through songs. Or even communicate. It was always through lyrics or songs or going, "Hey, listen to this," and then someone could tell how I was feeling, because I wasn't really capable of describing how I was feeling, so music was a great tool for me to use to help other people see where I was and vice versa. When I got sober, I just was trying to understand the 12 steps for myself. I was just trying to figure out ... You sit in those meetings when you first get sober, and it's a whole new language. I mean, I never heard people talk like this before. They have all these funny little sayings; Ninety meetings, ninety days, first things first, easy does it, and all this stuff. I was just like, "Wow. Okay, I'm just trying to absorb it myself." I started writing songs about being sober, and I had gotten in touch with a producer that I used to work with before drugs and alcohol took me out of the game, and I said, "Can I play some songs, and can we make some demos and stuff?" I kept bringing him these songs, and he goes, "You should make a CD," and I was like, "What? No. No. I'm not going to make a CD." He goes, "Well, you should," and then I went home, and a couple of weeks later ... Really, I woke up in the middle of the night and I said, "Oh, my God. The CD is 12 songs, and each song is going to be inspired by the 12 steps," and then the journey began. Mary lyn I just kind of went through this journey of doing steps and then looking for the hook, because I didn't want the CD to be this ... I wanted it to be relate-able to any ... Something that you would hear on the radio. I want people to enjoy the music if they were in recovery or were out of recovery, so I really wanted it to have a national flavor to it, so that's what I did. I went around and tried to find hooks and how would I ... How do you explain step two? Came to believe in a power greater than ourselves to restore us to sanity, right? I mean, how do you write a hook to that? And ninety meetings in ninety days, right? Because that's when that shift happens, in that time period where you kind of either get it or don't. And so then we just kind of went on from there, and then I just kept doing the next indicated thing with the CD. I'd never made a CD before, so I just kind of asked questions, and it took two years to put that CD together. It took me a year to write the songs, and then it took me a year to get money together to pay for the producing of it and the artwork, and I found out about how you distribute things and all of that. It was just such an amazing journey, and I never thought that the music was going to go where it went. It was really just something personal. I was amazed that one person bought the CD, because I was really just kind of doing it for myself. I've had to do reorders after reorders of it, and it just blows me away. It's been played all over the world, and I get emails from people saying how ... From Japan and Australia and England. It's like, "Wow, this is so cool." It's completely God inspired, and the whole process of AA has helped me get to the next steps.