Our Winter Holiday Playlist

“Be the example, be the peace, the quiet, the wordless person in the world for a moment”

Winter is a time of many seeming contradictions – darkness and celebrations of light, bitter cold and burning warmth, hunkering down and braving the elements, flurries of activity and utter stillness. There is much to learn from these contradictions. They are part of the rhythms and cycles of life and each deserves reverence. Busyness and sport are inherent to the season, but it is in Winter’s stillness where things are silently recon guring, subtly preparing for the growth yet to come with the Spring, a fresh new year, and new beginnings.

It’s a season where much of the world goes into hibernation. Maybe not so much for us humans, but we do feel the call in our bones, if we are honest, and it would serve us well to heed it. I borrow the words of “Live Awake” writer Sarah Blondin: “Learn to honor your being’s call to rest. If the moon were always full you would never know the peace of the darkest night, and the wealth that lives there. Be the example, be the peace, the quiet, the wordless person in the world for a moment. And then in time, be the bud, the bloom, the glowing green.” This season’s playlist celebrates these dichotomies. It anchors on a few familiar, celebratory holiday refrains. But it also infuses some fresh blood into the arrangements and mix as we open our hearts and minds to the new. It embraces the cold stillness of the air, matter freezing before us, so brittle it could crack. Yet the music also invites us to enjoy that stillness, to go inward, and recharge too. For all the bluster of winter, there’s magic in the hunkering down under blankets of snow on snow on snow.

I invite you to take a listen to this month’s Winter Holiday playlist via Spotify, and if you’ve got some favorites of your own, I’d love to know about them! https://tinyurl.com/wkcq3xp

Feel free to email me at sharonjohnsonnyc@yahoo.com or follow me on Instagram @sharnyc1.

Winter Wonderland

Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra

Freshly released is this reimagination of the pre-World War II seasonal staple, from actor Jeff Goldblum’s jazz passion project. Cool keyboards and a loungey groove are a treat to serve over a holiday cocktail hour. The style and sound are quite reminiscent of the famous 1965 “Charlie Brown Christmas” from jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. And both make a great backdrop for falling snow, while staying warm by the fire with a hot toddy. If you’re still craving more, check out “Snowfall” by the independent Finnish artist Idealism.

Little Drummer Boy-Peace on Earth

The Flaming Lips

Also just released, the quirky and celebratory Lips pay homage to this beloved medley of peace and goodwill famously done by David Bowie/Bing Crosby in 1977.

The World’s Smiling Now

Jim James

With the good vibes flowing, this groove latches right on, pushing back the questions of what may come, and just appreciating the present moment: “Oh is this love a light in the dark of the world.”

2000 Miles

The Pretenders

Even amidst celebrations, a loneliness can accompany the season, and Chrissie Hynde’s voice captures that melancholy beauty as “…the snow is falling down, and it gets colder day by day.”

Auld Lang Syne

Andrew Bird

As old year transitions to new, a traditional toast to days gone by. Appearing in Scottish song as early as 1588, poet Robert Burns gave us the words we joyously botch today as the ball ceremoniously drops. Bird’s rendition offers an engagingly upbeat twist. And for a modern Celtic take, a very honorable mention goes to Banna de Minstrels’ version.

In the Cold Cold Night

The White Stripes

In winter, the world is brought back to its raw elements, and this sparse yet sultry track off 2003’s “Elephant” is stripped down as bare as the trees.

So Heavy I fell Through the Earth

Grimes

When the weather’s unrelenting, the weary world weights down and grinds to a halt. Retreat within as Grimes offers a balletic interlude akin to a flurry of splintered ice shavings, dancing across frozen surfaces.

Sunday Morning

The Velvet Underground

Amidst the holiday hangover, this stark, optimistic xylophone draws a picture of a bright winter morning, sun glinting off the pristine snow and icy trees, with an invitation outside to make the most of the last day of a wintry weekend.

January Rain

David Gray + La La La La

Something in the Rain, Part 2

Rachael Yamagata

As Winter settles in, there’s still charm to nesting, and these two rainy day songs compliment the gray days and wet evenings that drive us indoors, still somewhat grateful for the excuse: Instrumental guitar gorgeousness from Gray’s stunning “Lost Songs”, and Yamagata’s tinkling piano keys and husky whispered reverence for the here and now.

People Everywhere (Still Alive)

Khruangbin

And when we just can’t take another slushy day and storm in the forecast, here’s a musical trip to the tropics, via this Texas based trio to warm the bones. From their 2015 debut “The Universe Smiles Upon You”, the influence is 60’s/70’s Thai and southeast Asian pop, rock, and funk, and the feeling is all sunny good vibes.

Faith

Bon Iver

Lastly an encore and some faith, to accompany the extra month that always tags onto the long Winter season. Even if Winter’s drizzle lingers longer than we’d like, and we fear we may never see green again, we can take comfort knowing of those quiet seeds, hidden under the cold hard Earth, growing full, ready to burst forth in Springtime splendor soon: “I know it’s lonely in the dark, and this year’s a visitor; We have to know that while faith declines, I’m not all out of mine.”