Merry Christmas or merry anything you like. This time of year, for me, is as much about the passing and marking of time, as it is about anything else. Two events in particular speak to this aspect of the holiday season. They are the new calendar year and the winter solstice.

The winter solstice is how this whole thing got started in the first place, as most historians have the birth of the man known as Jesus of Nazareth occurring in the spring. So, for over the past two thousand plus years, an entire array of rituals arose from the marking of the shortest day of the year.  

These customs are often forced down our throats under the guise of religion, family and tradition. Like a junkie looking for his next fix, we keep chasing those three elusive concepts. With the inevitable passage of time, we lose loved ones whose fond memories are very often attached.

Then we have a feast for the senses. We eat things that we don’t eat at any other time of the year. Tastes and smells are very powerful sense memory triggers.

Then there is Christmas music. Yikes…talk about a sense memory screw job. Songs that you wouldn’t listen to on a dare at any other time of the year are forced down your ear holes for weeks preceding December 25^th. Those weeks have stretched to October in recent years, as the insatiable beast of commercialism is on the prowl and intent on devouring everything in its path.

Given all of this, a melancholy often becomes a dominate feature to the holiday season. If one has the audacity to point out the obvious, they are called a “Scrooge.” Thanks Dickens…                                        

As adults we strive to pass this torture and sadness on to our children. We share with them the same holiday traditions that have given us such angst through the years. It works and the Christmas Spirit stays alive in perpetuity.

If all this weren’t bad enough, I have our annual Christmas Edition of BLUES JUNCTION to torture you. I make a few changes each year to try and keep you on your toes but why fuck with tradition. You know the old saying if it isn’t completely screwed up, why fix it.

By now you have read my interview with the secular star of the holidays…Santa Claus. To that I say, read it again. It is one of my favorites. I hope it is one of yours as well.

There is the nauseating piece entitled The Best Christmas Albums of All Time. As I mention in the brief introduction to the piece, “Christmas music does not have to suck. You just have to know where to look.” I lied. Christmas music does suck. Having said that, these twenty albums suck a little less.

My favorite Christmas album of all time, hands down, bar none is a relatively new release by J.D. McPherson entitled Socks. Read my review of this modern holiday classic. It doesn’t suck.

I hope you all have some room for a little holiday magic in the form of poetry. If so, you might enjoy 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. If you don’t like it, don’t worry, it might disappear. Remember it's magic.

By the time you read this, it will be too late to put any CDs in the mail for stocking stuffers but buy a CD from Charlie Lange anyway.  By using Spotify or Pandora you are essentially putting a lump of coal in the stockings of the musicians who have given our lives such joy. You don’t want to do that.

Getting off the Christmas bull sh*t for a moment, we have some features I believe are worthy of your attention. They include a new Recommended Listening column. One of the new releases that caught me by surprise was that of a unit led by Elias Bernet. Enjoy a conversation I had with this very talented musician. The Elias Bernet Band’s new CD is entitled Better Off With The Blues.

This time of year, we miss loved ones. Back on December 8th we, in the blues community, observed the anniversary of the passing of Hollywood Fats. In the larger world of pop and rock music we did the same for John Lennon. December 8th for my family is the day we celebrate the birth of our Mom.

She, like many of our mothers, came to represent the holidays. Our Mom encapsulated those three things I mentioned earlier, religion, family and tradition. Our family’s holiday traditions revolved around our Mother. With this in mind I thought this would be a great time of year to revisit the interview I conducted with my favorite musician, my Mom. This interview took place on Easter Sunday 2020. She passed away in July of that year, just a few months later.

As the year comes to an end, I reflect on the past year. I think the best thing we can say about 2021 was that it wasn’t 2020. As bad as it was, it was a vast improvement. For instance, in my country, we have a President again. Cue the Hallelujah Chorus.

Damn, I’m back on that Christmas thing again. Just when I thought I was out. They pull me back in. You can’t fight it. You can only hope to survive the holiday season. So, whether or not you think Jesus was just a swell guy or a messiah, I believe his simple message of love, charity and humility is a good one. Don’t confuse and convolute that message to forward your own agendas. Don’t get hung up on the virgin birth, Son of God thing either. That’s not the point.

The point is be good to one another. Get vaccinated and wear a mask.

Thanks for your continued support and I look forward to seeing you all next year (in a couple of weeks) with our annual Best of 2021/Year in Review edition of BLUES JUNCTION.

Merry Christmas

Editor’s Note: This Letter from The Editor is dedicated to my dear friend Michael Kinsman. We will hear from Michael next month in our annual feature entitled, Dave’s Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists.