Dollar Country Christmas
I’ve been writing birthday songs for friends and family my whole life. It’s a good writing exercise and after a while, something good actually comes out! Sometimes it’s a wholesome guitar and vocal thing, other times it could be ‘anti-dance’ music or just weird soundscapes built from my current favourite handmade mangler. Christmas songs are a good challenge as well. People ask “why?”. Why not?!
When you write songs about ‘things’, like events or objects (rather than just lost love, or “how great it feels to be here right now”) you’ve already got material you can pull from. Christmas is a great example of this. Everyone, in the ‘developed’ cultures on earth, has concepts and items popping up in their minds once you’ve mentioned it. Whether it’s the Coca-Cola Westernised Santa or the weird good and bad-Santa’s from some parts of Europe, or the different ways giving and receiving are experienced, there’s your material right there.
With that in mind, and these two other guidelines,
Keep your expectations low
Finish it quickly
... I invite you to write a Christmas song as quickly as you can. And maybe, in the future, you can help us slowly purge the list of Christmas hits and turn it into a new selection of easily hate-able festive ditties.
People have been doing it for years, obviously. Imagine how many Christmas songs were only heard once, by the room of people occupying the space around the piano. Unfortunately the new westernised experience of Christmas tends to be an exercise in over-consumption and playing THE SAME SHIT SONGS FOR THE WHOLE OF DECEMBER.
So here are a couple of Christmas playlists with songs you won’t ever have heard before, including the classic “Christmas In Jail” and the unforgettable “I’m pickin’ fights for Christmas”. I beg you, though, please not to be too offended by the seriously misunderstood “I Want A New Baby For Christmas”.
Please deeply enjoy these 2 hours of Dollar Country Christmas songs.
https://www.mixcloud.com/DollarCountry/dollar-country-episode-044-a-dollar-country-christmas/
https://www.mixcloud.com/DollarCountry/dollar-country-episode-160-a-dollar-country-christmas-ii/