Fresh off their very special concert at the Lobero Theater here last week with the great Blake Mills sitting in (more on that later), watch below as the dauntingly-great Dawes perform their original, never-before-heard “Christmas song” Christmas Parties in which they commemorate drinking other folks’ beer and give a non-Christian vantage of the season.  Another beauty from one of our favorite bands.

Last night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert continued his Christmas Carol Week by having The National and Gregg Allman join Colbert to sing Silver Bells. The National’s Matt Berninger kicked things off with his deep baritone and the voices of the ensemble melded nicely on the song.  Colbert, of course, interjected some spoken-word humor into the proceedings. Check it out below.

Neko Case has deservedly been showing up on this year’s Best Albums of 2013 lists (including ours, soon come) for her album The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You.  Case and her great band will be featured on the January 11th Austin City Limits broadcast (with Jason Isbell).

Watch below as Ms. Case and crew deliver a driving, powerful version of the song Man off the album.  Apologies for the erroneous edit and abrupt end to the video.  Case completes a month-long European tour in Madrid tonight.

Neko Case on Austin City Limits “Man” from Austin City Limits on Vimeo.

Live on Letterman–the gift that keeps on giving.  Just in time for holiday giving, the folks at Letterman outdid themselves this week in securing the great Glen Hansard and his huge band for an 80-minute performance for their Live on Letterman series. We have been agog over Hansard’s live sets ever since catching him (embarrassingly, for the first time) and a large band in 2012 at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. To see what we saw and what you should catch the next time you have the opportunity, watch this outstanding performance below.  What we’ve learned is that Hansard gives everything he’s got every single time he performs; if you don’t believe us, watch as he exhorts and tears up (in the 24th minute) during the heart-rending Bird of Sorrow.

Along the way, watch Hansard wax about the Beatles, question the use of the phrase “Happy Holidays,” and perform songs from his last album Rhythm and Repose, and brand new EP Drive All Night.  During the set Hansard and his great, huge band perform Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting, the new Lonely Deserter, When Your Mind’s Made Up (from the movie/Broadway show Once), Bird Of Sorrow, Low Rising, another new song Her Mercy, Song Of Good Hope, Drive All Night, and, finally, Hansard’s popular hit Falling Slowly.

Happy Hansard Holidays!  (Apologies Glen.)

We would have given our left ventricle to have been in NYC on Tuesday at WFUV Radio’s Holiday Cheer concert at NYC’s Beacon Theatre.  At WFUV, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) hosted the festivities while the likes of Glen Hansard (Once, Frames), Kathleen Edwards, St. Nick Lowe, and Beth Orton performed, all as bountifully backed by Calexico.

Recently the combo of Sam Beam, Glen Hansard, Kathleen Edwards, and Calexico delivered a rapturous cover of Fairytale of New York, the Pogues’ and Kirsty MacColl’s Christmas classic on Fallon.  Watch below as the voices of Beam, Edwards and Hansard combine perfectly on the song, lifted into the air by Calexico’s magical accompaniment.  Evidently, at WFUV Sam Beam described the song as “one that he envisioned Santa Claus writing to Mrs. Claus.”   Uh-huh.  Possibly.

The last time we heard the song performed live was approximately 25 years ago when Joe Strummer was leading the Shane MacGowan-less Pogues in San Francisco in a raucous, rousing rendition.  While that night was unforgettable, we’ll take Beam and Hansard combining with the ever-comely and gifted Edwards on this particular song any day of the week (Edwards plays the role of Kirsty MacColl much better than the lovely Strummer).  If ever a group of talented artists should combine into a super-group, it is Beam, Edwards and Hansard.  We hope we see and hear them together much more often in the future.  Watch on Fallon below. After, watch the Pogues’/MacColl’s original.

We aren’t much for parades (or clowns), so apparently we missed Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings con-joining with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts to perform Ain’t No Chimneys In The Projects from a float in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.   Thankfully, the only reason to watch that parade is now available in the form of an animated video for the song.

It’s been a tough time recently for Ms. Jones who has been going through cancer treatments after successful surgery earlier this year (our prayers for continued healing and good news for Ms. Jones!).  Watch below and listen to this ode to Jones’ persevering mother.   The song’s lyrics follow the video.

“When I was a child, I used to wonder
How Santa put my toys under the tree
I said, “Mama, can you tell me how this can be
When there ain’t no chimneys in the projects?”

Ain’t no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain’t no chimneys in the projects

Mama sat me down and said, “Baby, Santa Claus does magic things.”
As soon as you’re asleep, a chimney will appear
And in the morning you will see all he brings.
Don’t you worry that there ain’t no chimneys in the projects.”

Ain’t no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain’t no chimneys in the projects

Now I’m all grown and I see
It wasn’t Santa who got that magic done
Mama, now I know you were the one
There ain’t no chimneys in the projects

Ain’t no chimneys in the projects (not in the ghetto)
Not in the projects
Ain’t no chimneys in the projects”

In October Kentucky’s Cage The Elephant took over the Letterman Show stage (and Dave too) and unleashed an elephantine performance of new centerpiece song Come a Little Closer off of their latest album, Melophobia.  Last night the band showed up on Jimmy Kimmel and trumpeted another new anthem off the album, Take It Or Leave It.   After, watch as they reprise one of the best songs of the year, Come a Little Closer.  Cage The Elephant is obviously ready for the big top.

Confirming we’re in the throes of the giving season, Clem Snide/Eef Barzelay has just released a new EP entitled So Down We Go, which includes a free download of Christmas chestnut Silent Night.  Check out more great songs from Barzelay, including the seasonal title-song, his contemplative cover of Silent Night and a re-imagining of his great song All Green.  And then buy the EP for yourself and someone you know.

We have found ourselves holding t0ugh recently in the court of Joseph Arthur.  Arthur has been on a roll, with his paint-by-music performances and other offerings.  Comes now JA has co-opted Mike Mills (REM) and Bill Dobrow for a new leg of his tour entitled The Ballad of Boogie Christ Act 2.  This band is an animal of a different color, with Arthur, Mills and Dobrow together limning the archetypal blues-boogie-rock trios of the ’60s and early ’70s.  Check it out below when the threesome hits its stride in Pennsylvania last Thursday on I Am The Witness, with Arthur and Mills bouncin’ bass-guitar lines and vocals off of one another.  It’s a throwback pleasure to behold.

“The world is in me, I am not in the world.  There is bliss beyond this world of pleasure and pain.”  Indeed.

Here are the upcoming dates in the East and Quebec for your winter concert enjoyment.

Miraculously, we’ve flipped the December switch and moved into holiday mode.   Each year it seems to get harder and harder.  Last year we were mired in serious Grinchdom until that magical, mysterious tour of Christmas by Sufjan Stevens and his talented elves at the Henry Fonda Theater in LA.  On that night, as he has done for years in December with his Christmas Songs and video offerings, Stevens and troupe brought forth the joy and uplift that the season can, but oft-times doesn’t, entail.  It was one of the Best Concerts of 2012 and definitely the most entertaining of the year (this year’s most entertaining concert award goes hands down to Chuck Prophet & the Mission Express for their show at the Make-Out Room in October–if you missed it, an even more festive possibility is Prophet’s impending New Year’s Eve show at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, CA).  When Stevens and band segued during last December’s show mid-song from Christmas Unicorn into Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, we experienced Christmas catharsis in full.

A year later we covet a return engagement by Sufjan, but it doesn’t seem to be in the offing or in the stocking.  So to survive the season we are listening non-stop to Stevens’ Songs for Christmas Volumes 1-10.  You can stream Volumes 6-10 below with accompanying seasonal background.  Or go to the Silver & Gold widget below it (song 58, Christmas Unicorn, is the Christmas bomb).  ‘Tis the season folks!

And if you’ve been really nice, the coveted Silver & Gold Vinyl Boxset is available anew HERE on Asthmatic Kitty.