By Dave Nance
Holiday Greetings! I’m writing to remind you: The 3rd Tuesday Beginner’s Bluegrass Jam, sponsored by SWBMAI (Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association), and hosted by yours truly, Dave Nance, will be held this Tuesday evening, December 15, 2009, at the Up North Bar at 514 E. Wilson St.
I’ll be there by 7:30 P.M.; we’ll start the jam by 8.
What’s on tap for this month? Any bluegrass or old-time or such that anyone wants to try, but also — Christmas music, of course!
I thought about trying to line up some Christmas bluegrass, but it turns out that once you get past “Christmas Time Is a’Comin’” (by Tex Logan, covered by Bill Monroe), there’s just not very much of it there. Even if you widen out to “Country” as a genre, the pickins is still mighty thin. Really, there’s only two main kinds of Christmas music: there’s the good ol’ Christmas carols — and then there’s the great classic pop(ular) songs, many out of Tin Pan Alley and the golden period of American popular song which stretched from the 1920’s into the 1960’s.
Well, I thought, Bluegrass is also really a kind of “pop” music: popular music made for and spread through LP records. And just about any song can be played “Bluegrass style”, with the right instruments and the right feel. So, I thought, let’s try to “Bluegrass” some of the songs in the popular Christmas music canon – like these:
- Blue Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t2d0HIjIgo (Elvis Presley)
- I’ll Be Home For Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQL-8nzbjtM (Elvis Presley)
- Please Come Home For Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCxvCAxHRUw (Charles Brown)
- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQzlJRjXSGY (Frank Sinatra)
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcQU3LYNZQc (Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders)
- White Christmas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vPfOjAw5Z0 (Bing Crosby)
- The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting, etc.) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cubgWvBfs24 (Nat King Cole)
- Silver Bells – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stEjTFMb940 (Jim Reeves – so I guess this is Country!)
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzpYOKGMxuI (Frank Sinatra)
(and, of course: Christmas Time Is a’Comin’ — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXfBYXElPII (Bill Monroe)
NOTE: I have put together Lyric and Chord charts for each of these, and I will bring enough copies for everybody. I’ve tried to “tame” some of the “jazz chords” that occur in some of these songs, so that they should all be pretty playable.
And, of course, any Xmas songs or carols anyone else would like to try — or just plain ol’ Bluegrass if we get enough Christmas cheer.