Aloha.
‘Tis the season etc. and no end of Christmas adverts, and now playlists as well. Mostly so far this year, it’s been just too much of the same. The Pretenders’ 2000 Miles is a wonderful Christmas song, but haven’t we heard it too many times already? Chris Rea’s Driving Home…same. The Pogues’ Fairy Tale, same. No one would argue these are not great songs - classics of the Christmas canon. But by the time December arrives they’ve been going round and round. It’s interesting that despite more & more artists making ‘seasonal’ albums in recent years, it can be argued that the last real bona fide addition to the classics was Mariah Carey’s All I want For Christmas Is You. And that was in 1994. Not a genuine evergreen Christmas classic for 25 long years. Deary me.
Still, there is always room to be different. I’m not saying I am the first to associate Christmas songs with a Hawaiian slinky guitar sound, I am not. But it’s the sub-genre I’ve come to appreciate the most at this wonderful time of the year. And I believe, this is the best playlist out there to gather together a collection of both old and new Christmas songs in which the slinky slide guitar is the star, and the mood is a distinctly Hawaiian brand of melancholy (i.e. quite cheerfully reflective).
I’ve been building this playlist for years. I always loved the Hawaiian classics, like Mele Kalikimaka, Bobby Helms’ Jingle Bell Rock and Elvis’s Blue Christmas (it seems to count). But I am also a huge Aimee Mann fan, and a few years ago, her Christmas album (she was early to the trend of artists making ‘holiday’ records so fair play, Aimee) had slide guitar central to almost every track, and it got me very hooked (cough, apologies). The collection was called One More Drifter In The Snow (2006), and it’s played every December in my house. Cheerful it isn’t, but it is darn good anyway.
Then a whole decade, country-pop superstar Kacey Musgraves did the same thing, with A Very Kacey Christmas (released in 2016). This was a more upbeat affair for sure, but both these albums are just the best examples of the more recently recorded xmas albums, so you should save and play them both every year as I try to do.
They feature heavily here, so much so that this isn’t just a Hawaiian xmas playlist, but really Kacey & Aimee’s Hawaiian Christmas, with special guests - including The Surfers, Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, and some people still alive today as well - the wonderful Pink Martini, the wonderful Puppini Sisters and Linda Ortega. The collection all blends together so well it’s a sort of fantasy music show really - like Jools Holland’s New Year Hootenanny - but warmer. Those of you tuned in to the cultural radar may have noted that Kacey has her own xmas special show right now on Amazon Prime Video. Well, perhaps next year if Kacey and Aimee enjoy this as much as you will, they may well get together and make it happen. You never know. I mean, stranger things happen this time of year don’t they?
Now, a last note...I know not every track on this playlist fits the Hawaiian mood. But, you know, it is Christmas and the odd liberty here and there is allowed, right? That said, twang away on the slack key guitar and get merry blue this xmas, or every xmas.
Is it cold outside? I don't think so, not in Hawaii, it isn't baby.
Kacey, Aimee & friends agree...the presents this year sit under the palm tree.
Mele Kalikimaka everyone.
There is just so much Christmas music now, a few weeks in December is almost not quite long enough to get all the listening done let along the shopping, the eating and drinking! But I do insist, not a faint note of xmas songs in my house until December the 1st - that is a hard and fast rule. I’ve become adept at ignoring the whole pre-Christmas hysteria before actual December - it’s ridiculous to hear seasonal songs in coffee shops in early November.
Ps. If you are an Aimee Mann fan or indeed, so far uninitiated, you can also check out Aimee Cure The Mann on the Artist page.