We've had multiple mentions on this site of this act (a one-man band setup for Ryan O'Neil) for Volume 1 of his Christmas recordings and several singles releases that eventually become part of the albums. He's back for 2023 with a new vinyl album, also available for download or streaming. Where the previous album was mostly folk-pop with some orchestral flourishes, the current album is much more orchestral and pop, probably in keeping with Ryan's evolution into a sometime soundtrack composer. I'd point to the song "December 24, 2021 (Webb Space Telescope Launch)" as an example of that. Another original is "Snow (String Version)," which you'll note has strings on it. Several tunes are led with ukulele and at least a couple foist off the Christmas cliché of singing kids on us. Since it's on streaming, you can decide for yourself whether it's too mellow for you or not. The other tunes are mostly familiar; "Winter Wonderland," "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas," "Christmas Time Is Here," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," "Frosty the Snowman," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "The Secret of Christmas," and, from the "Frozen" universe, "When We're Together." The collection closes with "Auld Lang Syne." Amazon has the download, and streaming is most places, but you'll have to go to the artist's website for vinyl.
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Relevant is an online magazine and podcast emphasizing religion and spirituality, and its other sections on lifestyles, culture and the arts are informed by that mission. As you might guess, they like Christmas, and so we have a free download equal to a double-CD set of music that fits their mission. (Make sure you get parts 1 and 2.) Some of the folks featured on here, like Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, the Oh Hellos, Dustin Kensrue, Sleeping at Last, Found Wandering, Sugar & the High Lows and several others, have been featured on Mistletunes before or at least on other compilations we've covered. This is a mostly adult alternative collection of mainly mellow items curated with the spirituality hook of the magazine in mind. Highlights include a more poppy version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Kids than you normally hear, Ben & Nolle's brooding electro-pop take on "Angels We Have Heard On High," Evan Wickham's modern Christian rock original "End of Exile," and Sugar & the High Lows' polyrhythmic take on "Jingle Bells." As previously mentioned, it's free, though in exchange for your e-mail address, which so far has only gotten me an occasional e-mail site update. If there really were four previous collections, you can't tell from the website archives, though I imagine the rights to the songs on past collections were only granted on a temporary basis. UPDATE: "Cindie" e-mails us the link to Volume 4.
Blood:Water Mission is a charity founded by the Christian rock/pop band Jars of Clay to help fight the HIV/AIDS and clean water crises in Africa. This 2012 collection, from Noisetrade, is intended to raise awareness, and hopefully some money, to support the cause. As to the music, this is what you would expect from Nashville-based singer-songwriters, mostly folky and country-style takes on original songs and classic carols. Jars of Clay contribute their previously released "Almost Christmas," Sleeping At Last offer the original "Snow," Phil Keaggy performs a medley of instrumentals, "The Visit and the Song Of Shepherds Medley," Joy Williams of Civil Wars delivers a solo vocal over piano of "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella," Charlie Peacock puts a little spark into the proceedings with "Mystic," Rob Gonzales sings that love is "The Answer," Sandra McCracken gives us "This Is the Christ," Elenowen gives a country reading to "Silent Night," Lara Landon sings "The Virgin Mary," Plumb gives us a stately "What Child Is This," and Rhett Walker wraps things up with "O Come O Come Emanuel." A fair number, though not all, of these folks are Christian artists, so there's a lot more religion in the original songs than general Christmas wishes, and it's not a particularly rocking collection, but it is one to highlight a good cause.
Results matching “sleeping at last”
Sleeping At Last is a one-man band with a lot of TV placements of his original songs and a history of Christmas recordings. For 2022 there's an EP, two versions of the original title song, a pensive ballad calling out references to "It's a Wonderful Life," and a cover of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." It's too late for "Snow" to turn up on an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" this season, but it and "Midnight" are the kind of tunes you'd expect to hear there. Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music; no Amazon at this writing.
- Sleeping At Last continues to add Christmas songs to its ongoing playlist. For 2021 we get "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," and the artist has announced another new song is coming as well. UPDATE: It was "Winter Wonderland."
- Ben Rector previously updated his 2020 album with another song, and now he's added yet another, "The Best Is Yet To Come (A Song for the New Year)." The current version is a piano vocal; a band take is expected December 10.
This one-man band has been doing new Christmas songs annually for years now, frequently covers but occasionally originals. 2020 brings us a new original, a slow-tempo ballad with piano and string backing. It's probably not telling to advise that the secret is the "Christmas things you do all year through." Not exactly a barn-burner, but definitely the downbeat changeup your party mixes may need. Click the cover to grab it from Amazon. UPDATE: Sleeping at Last has added another Christmas tune for 2020, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
- Pomplamoose created a collection called Winter Songs, but we missed the window by which you had to click through and join their Patreon list to get it. Apparently it was a CD, as they mentioned mailing it to people.
- Christian rockers Emery have an EP called Cocoa and Christmas, but you can only get it by joining their affinity program.
- Sam Phillips had an EP called Cold Dark Nights a decade ago; this year she remixed and remodeled the songs and added four songs to turn it into an album available only through her website, with $1 from the sale benefitting the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental charity.
- Sleeping At Last, which has maintained a fearsome pace of creating new Christmas songs every year, has recorded "Christmastime Is Here" and "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" for 2019.
- Nicholas Burgess did Xmas Gold in 2018, and this year he's got an EP, Nuggets of Xmas Gold, with three of the songs from that collection that were recorded during rehearsals for a live performance. They're very different sounding, so check 'em out on Bandcamp.
- Tyler the Creator led the new "Grinch" movie soundtrack with two Grinch-related songs, and he went further, releasing an EP, Music Inspired by Illumination & Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch." It's six tunes with a bit of Christmas to them, but not a lot; check them out for yourself.
- Sleeping at Last has a Christmas album that came out six years ago, but the artist kept adding to it with a new song each year. For 2018, he dropped a cover of the "Frozen" tune "When We're Together," which is actually from "Olaf's Frozen Adventure." The artist bills this as the start of Volume 2, if you're interested. Free from Noisetrade.
- If you'd like to keep up with what you've been reading on Mistletunes this season, the Paste Holiday Sampler is freely downloadable and includes a bunch of songs already reviewed here.
- I was recently made aware of the Brantley Family Band, which has been dropping full Christmas albums every year since 2004, and they've released a new one for 2018 on Bandcamp. The current one is a greatest-hits compilation and the new song for 2018 is "This Christmas." I opted against a full review because there's a lot of "letting the kids sing" to the more recent numbers, but I noticed there were some fairly crunchy-sounding numbers in the earliest years of this endeavor, so you might want to go spelunking in their discography.
- And for those of you hungry for a classic rock holiday reference, this post at Dangerous Minds regarding a little-known Rolling Stones Christmas number might just liven up your holiday conversations, especially if the topic turns to whether anybody got tickets to the 2019 tour.
We're still getting ready to post individual reviews of such things as Cheap Trick, Gwen Stefani, Holiday Rules 2, the new Rock By the Sea compilation, a Bloodshot Records comp, Sia, and a handful of singles. In the meantime, here's a few short takes.
- Sleeping At Last has been gradually building an album's worth of Christmas tunes over the years, and for 2017 what had already been issued as an album becomes a vinyl artifact, two discs' worth in fact. With the additional sonic real estate comes two additional songs, covers of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "The First Noel."
- Real Gone Music has a two-CD reissue of the Supremes' only Christmas album for 2017, The Ultimate Merry Christmas. There are 50 tracks featuring three different versions of the album, the original mono and stereo mixes and a 2017 remix, along with all the previously released bonus cuts and a few newly unearthed gems.
- Rhino has re-re-reissued REO Speedwagon's Not So Silent Night for 2017 with the addition of "We Three Kings" and a new remix of the previously available "I Believe in Santa Claus." Completists, hit the download button.
- Ghostface Killah and Run the Jewels are selling ugly Christmas sweaters this year. Not a new meme, but it's new in that hip-hop performers are turning it into swag. I'm waiting for Nick Cave's, or maybe Iggy's, before I reach for my wallet.
- Sleeping At Last is continuing to add one new cut a year to a Christmas album that originated back in 2012. This year's cut is "The Christmas Waltz (2016)."
- Taraji P. Henson apparently had a Christmas special full of R'nB takes on Christmas songs from such folks as Missy Elliot, TLC, Smokey Robinson, Snoop Dogg and Pharell.
- Fiona Apple used "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" to take a poke at Cheeto Benito. It's clearly something off the cuff she did into her iPhone, so I'm just going to let it stand rather than write something more elaborate.
- Los Campesinos did a different version of their song "When Christmas Comes" from their previous Christmas EP and it was added to Amazon Prime's "Indie For the Holidays" playlist. Or you could just buy it outright.
Sleeping At Last is the d/b/a name for the musical endeavors of one Ryan O'Neil, and has been since 1999, according to Wikipedia. Some of these songs have turned up on other collections, like this year's Paste Magazine holiday sampler and The Sounds Of Christmas Volume 2. I'm not familiar with this act's past work, but this is a fairly sedate folk-pop grouping of 11 familiar carols and one original song, "Snow," a rather nice piano-led ballad of holiday hope. The rest of the album is well done but not particularly notable, although we give props for what is the first cover I've heard of "Christmas Is All Around," the retinseled Troggs song that was featured in the movie "Love, Actually." It's a folky rendition rather than the classic rock approach of the original. But it's free from NoiseTrade, so there's no penalty for checking it out for yourself. UPDATE: A new song has been added each year since this originally came out; 2013's song was "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," 2014's song was "O Come O Come Emanuel," and 2015's song is "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."
Relevant is an online magazine and podcast emphasizing religion and spirituality, and its other sections on lifestyles, culture and the arts are informed by that mission. As you might guess, they like Christmas, and so we have a free download equal to a double-CD set of music that fits their mission. (Make sure you get parts 1 and 2.) Some of the folks featured on here, like Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, the Oh Hellos, Dustin Kensrue, Sleeping at Last, Found Wandering, Sugar & the High Lows and several others, have been featured on Mistletunes before or at least on other compilations we've covered. This is a mostly adult alternative collection of mainly mellow items curated with the spirituality hook of the magazine in mind. Highlights include a more poppy version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Kids than you normally hear, Ben & Nolle's brooding electro-pop take on "Angels We Have Heard On High," Evan Wickham's modern Christian rock original "End of Exile," and Sugar & the High Lows' polyrhythmic take on "Jingle Bells." As previously mentioned, it's free, though in exchange for your e-mail address, which so far has only gotten me an occasional e-mail site update. If there really were four previous collections, you can't tell from the website archives, though I imagine the rights to the songs on past collections were only granted on a temporary basis. UPDATE: "Cindie" e-mails us the link to Volume 4.- By now you're aware that Bob Geldof got the Band Aid back together for Band Aid 30, once again performing "Do They Know It's Christmastime" with an all-star cast, this time to raise money for the fight against ebola. I mention it in passing only because it's not available in the USA, although if you're willing to do the "switch stores" dance on iTunes, you can probably grab it there. UPDATE: Grab it from Amazon.
- Along the same lines, a group called the Peace Collective, another ad hoc group of musicians and singers, has put out a song called "All Together Now," written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the British/German Christmas truce during World War I. Again, not available in the USA.
- In the past, we've had the group Sleeping At Last posted here for a Christmas album released in 2012, and a single of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" from 2013. For 2014 the group has added "O Come O Come Emanuel," and if you're just finding out about this, the album has been updated for 2014 with both those singles. You can get it free, or for a tip, on Noisetrade.
This is the second compilation to promote the work of the Orphan Care Network and the first to emphasize Christmas. This 2014 collection is on NoiseTrade, which means you can download it free or leave a "tip," and obviously leaving tips will make it worthwhile for the organization to produce further collections on this scale. There are 25 songs from indie bands of various stripes, but it's mostly pop-rock of the Americana style, with folk and country influences popping up, and a fair number of Christian performers. Sleeping At Last's "Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" is here, and there is an array of familiar carols offered by other performers, like Green River Ordinance's "Let It Snow," Stephen Miller's "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," Act of Congress' "Joy to the World," Seth Philpott's "Jingle Bells," Page CXVI's "Silent Night," Folk Angel's "The First Noel," Brady Toops' "O Holy Night," Aaron Hale's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and some more obscure tunes like "Come Thou Fount (Advent)" by Luke Brawner, the Brilliance's "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," and Tim Bridgham's "The Race That Long In Darkness Pined." Among the originals are Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors' somber "Everything's Changed at Christmas But You," Matthew Mayfield's folky "It's Christmas Time Again," Robby Seay Band's "Mary's Song," John Hatfield's "Peace of God," Charlie Hall's drum-heavy "Break Forth" and Ellie Holcomb's bouncy "Christmas For You and Me." Overall the vibe is of earnestness and not much in the way of rocking the house, but you can preview the collection for yourself at Noisetrade.
This act offers a new Christmas song every year, and for 2013 it's the John and Yoko classic. It's added to the group's Christmas Collection on Noisetrade, which we previously mentioned here. If you haven't grabbed the collection before, grab the updated version with this song added.
Blood:Water Mission is a charity founded by the Christian rock/pop band Jars of Clay to help fight the HIV/AIDS and clean water crises in Africa. This 2012 collection, from Noisetrade, is intended to raise awareness, and hopefully some money, to support the cause. As to the music, this is what you would expect from Nashville-based singer-songwriters, mostly folky and country-style takes on original songs and classic carols. Jars of Clay contribute their previously released "Almost Christmas," Sleeping At Last offer the original "Snow," Phil Keaggy performs a medley of instrumentals, "The Visit and the Song Of Shepherds Medley," Joy Williams of Civil Wars delivers a solo vocal over piano of "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella," Charlie Peacock puts a little spark into the proceedings with "Mystic," Rob Gonzales sings that love is "The Answer," Sandra McCracken gives us "This Is the Christ," Elenowen gives a country reading to "Silent Night," Lara Landon sings "The Virgin Mary," Plumb gives us a stately "What Child Is This," and Rhett Walker wraps things up with "O Come O Come Emanuel." A fair number, though not all, of these folks are Christian artists, so there's a lot more religion in the original songs than general Christmas wishes, and it's not a particularly rocking collection, but it is one to highlight a good cause.Looks like curating Christmas collections agrees with Ken Kessler, longtime friend of this site. His first collection, Volume 1, appeared on this site last year, and for 2010 he's back again with Volume 2. This year's collection is intended to benefit Sweet Relief, the charity that helps working musicians cover their medical bills (I should add American musicians, owing to this country's history of offering only the shabbiest of safety nets to its citizens, particularly the ones who don't work for Fortune 500 companies or in government). Like Volume 1, the collection casts a wide net for listeners, with lots of ballads in the early going, but this year's collection has more rock 'n roll moments. Many of these songs have been out before, but only in limited editions or for fans. Vertical Horizon's version of "I Believe in Father Christmas" makes a fresh appearance here, Belinda Carlisle contributes her 80s version of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," Deep Blue Something contribute an unreleased version of "Little Drummer Boy," and the modern-day version of 60s party band the Swingin' Medallions does a Christmas update on the old Bruce Channel song with "Hey, Hey Santa." Ken also snagged cuts released only last year by Bootlegger ("Coming Home For Christmas") and Sleeping At Last ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"), along with what is likely to be a cut from Dave Stewart's long-promised Christmas album ("White Christmas") and the North Pole All-Stars, made up of regulars from Little Feat, with their "Santa Gotta Get Some," a song that was recorded to help pay down the medical debt following the death of band member Richie Hayward last year. Kathy Sledge, who with her sisters did "We Are Family," pops up here with her version of "The Christmas Waltz," and Chase Stevens contributes an original, "First Christmas Apart." There's more, which Ken helpfully lays out for you at his MySpace page. All told, a good album for a good cause, with plenty of possible mix disc choices.
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