Old Enough to Forget

I figured, you can't really go wrong with Mr. Showmanship. I was still rooting around for records before Christmas, and honestly I ended up with more records than I had time to sit and digest. Oh, playing them was another matter, but sitting and taking it in and then trying to compose a pithy regurgitation of my auditory experience just took time I didn't have this season. Regardless when I found 'Twas The Night Before Christmas I was pretty excited, mainly because I'd be able to play it in the basement when mum was over, and not have her complain about the noise. After all, her favourite song ever, is Frank Chacksfield's "Ebb Tide" so her tastes run to the schmaltzy ... but in a good way. For me it just hearkens back to another time and it always feels nostalgic. I won't fall into the trap of equating them with the good old days, or a simpler time ... not being there I can't make such a sweeping generalization and not come across as a naive simpl...

Another of the Pickwick releases I seem to keep finding. There is no date, which is pretty standard, but it's a pretty safe bet this collection of songs goes back to the '50s and probably early '60s. Pickwick seemed to delight in packaging budget collections and here on The 12 Days of Christmas it's a pretty standard collection of the the big classics. As I've come to expect with these records, they are short. Woefully short. The majority of the songs clock in at just over two minutes, and a couple are under the two minute mark. Although the Jimmie Rodgers version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" is a second shy of the three minute mark - at least according to the back of the jacket. Bonnie Guitar pulls of the longest song with her arrangement of "O Holy Night" that was really nice. I actually thought it was going to be a guitar piece played by a Scotsman - Bonnie Guitar , get it? It wasn't.  The songs run the gamut, but are all very much of an...