Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, Christmas (And Dad Wants Her Back). Should Dad get his wish?
music
Swaller dollar
For John Prine, who loved Christmas and died of COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. Geez, I miss him.
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley
Gayla Peevey, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Though it’s been said many times, many ways, some girls just don’t want rhinoceroses.
Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
Robert Earl Keen, Merry Christmas From the Family. Because it’s just not Christmas without a can of fake snow.
With Boston Charlie
Patty Surbey & the Canadian V.I.P.s – (I Want) A Beatle For Christmas. Dammit, Santa, she said Ringo, not bingo.
Deck us all
Once again this goes out, with tidings of comfort and joy, to the Mickleblog.
Nyuck nyuck nyuck and ho ho ho.
Autumn
“Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow…”
It’s National Acadian Day
Bonne fête nationale de l’Acadie!
Lennie Gallant, Ouvrez les aboiteaux
From Lennie and Patricia Richard’s YouTube channel:
This is a song Lennie wrote for the third World Acadian Congress held in Nova Scotia in 2004. The aboiteaux were series of dikes and drains that the first Acadians built using the powerful tides to claim many thousands of acres of land in order to survive. The aboiteaux design would allow the moon to pull the water out of the fields on low tide but not allow it to return on the high. Ironic that Acadians themselves were later also pulled from the land with the devastating deportations and not allowed to return. The Acadian Congress gatherings were the first in 250 years to assemble over 200,000 Acadians and their Cajun cousins of Louisiana since that infamous event. The French chorus says: “Open up the Aboiteaux…Let my heart return with the waters.”
Sirène et Matelot, Acadian Girl
June
It’s Accordion Awareness Month in the U.S. Celebrate the stomach Steinway.
Big brass
It’s International Tuba Day. How low can you go?
Rannygazoo 