This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas folks, and here's a great set for you with the best blues that Christmas ever brought to us. And these are the blues - so most of them will deal with the downsides of Christmas. Christmas is the most wonderful holiday of the year - when you have your loved ones, family and friends around.
But it's no fun, and maybe the hardest day of the year when you're alone, and maybe that counts most for those serving their time in jail. And for whatever reason they are there - I think everyone deserves some attention with Christmas. Dedicated to these men and women - here is Leroy Carr with Christmas in Jail.
01 - Leroy Carr - Christmas In Jail, Ain't That A Pain
02 - Little Esther & Mel Walker with Johnny Otis - Faraway Christmas Blues
When your loved one is far away from you for the holidays - well that's a reason to cry out the blues. You got Little Esther and Mel Walker backed up by the band of Johnny Otis with the Far Away Christmas Blues and could just Santa bring your baby back home - in fact it's a theme that comes around in many a Christmas song - and it still does. Who would need presents under the tree when that just could be possible.
In the next one Babe Turner - under his stage name Black Ace - tells Santa Claus he ain't needing Santa to bring him anything if he won't bring his baby back. Here is, from 1937 the Christmas Time Blues.
03 - Black Ace - Christmas Time Blues (Beggin' Santa Claus)
04 - Bumble Bee Slim - Santa Claus Bring Me A New Woman
(jingle)
05 - Bertha 'Chippie' Hill - Christmas Man Blues
06 - Kansas City Kitty - Christmas Mornin' Blues
A whole lotta Christmas blues - after Blace Ace that was Bumble Bee Slim on Decca from 1936 with Santa Claus Bring Me A New Woman. The flip of it was titled Christmas and no Santa Claus - so the entire record was in the mood for the holiday season. It just wasn't recorded under the Christmas tree - the session was held in August before.
Then after the jingle bells came Bertha Chippie Hill singing the blues on a lonely Christmas. If Santa can't bring her a man he rather bring nothing at all. This Christmas Man Blues is from 1928 recorded for Vocalion, and again, recorded months before.
Then finally the mysterious Kansas City Kitty with Georgia Tom on the 88s with the Christmas Mornin' Blues. It's not clear who this Kitty was - some think Mozelle Alderson, others Addie 'Sweet Pease' Spivey, the sister of the more famous Victoria Spivey - but it may well be someone else too.
Loneliness for Christmas - I told you - is the main theme for the holiday blues. Here is the No Christmas Blues of Mary Harris, with Charley Jordan on the guitar, released on Decca for the holiday season of 1940.
07 - Charley Jordan with Mary Harris - No Christmas Blues
08 - Tampa Red - Christmas & New Year's Blues
Tampa Red was that with the Christmas & New Year's Blues recorded in 1934 for Bluebird, another lament on a Christmas not celebrated. Lonely, out of money, there's no way to celebrate the season, facing a landlord throwing you out and no money for the turkey - if he just had anyone to share it with.
Christmas is a great time when you have family or friends around you. These days we should not forget the homeless and the lonely around us - as for them the holidays are an even more painful than everyday's struggle to survive.
In the next one Victoria Spivey sings the blues on Christmas with her man deep in trouble, in jail facing accusations of first degree murder. Here is from 1927 on the Okeh label, the Christmas Morning Blues.
09 - Victoria Spivey - Christmas Morning Blues
10 - Champion Jack Dupree - Santa Claus Blues
Champion Jack Dupree was that with the Santa Claus Blues - more on a lonely Christmas.
And for the next one Harmon Ray with the Christmas Blues. You'll probably notice how much this sounds like Peetie Wheatstraw. Harmon Ray was a good Wheatstraw imitator - including that typical ooh-well-well between his verses - and from 1935 to '41 when Wheatstraw died, the two worked together. This was recorded in 1947 for J. Mayo Williams who by then had his own record label. It was never released at the time, but it got its distribution with the book 'The Devil's Son In Law' of Paul Garon, a biography on Wheatstraw that included a CD.
Here it is - the Christmas Blues spelled as X-mas.
11 - Harmon Ray - Xmas Blues
12 - Butterbeans & Susie - Papa Ain't No Santa Claus (Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree)
Papa Ain't No Santa Claus and Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree - finally we have some on the lighter side but it's maybe less of a Christmas song - it's rather about a marriage quarrel and that was the favorite subject of this comedy duo - a married couple, Jodie and Susie Edwards performing as Butterbeans & Susie.
Next the typical guitar work of Lightnin' Hopkins. And here the woman did get home on time to celebrate a good Christmas - like it's supposed to be. Merry Christmas of Lightnin' Hopkins.
13 - Lightnin' Hopkins - Merry Christmas
14 - Jimmy Witherspoon - How I Hate to See Christmas Come Around
One of the greatest blues shouters - Jimmy Witherspoon with How I Hate to See Christmas Come Around from 1947 on the Supreme label. Out of money, trying to pawn his radio, nothing to celebrate the day, no tree, no turkey, no chicken, no stockings.
Next some Chrismas humor when Sonny Thompson describes the features of the woman who loves him - false teeth, a flat head and legs like a bird. He wouldn't have that woman on a Cristmas tree. Here is, on the Miracle label, Not On A Christmas Tree.
15 - Sonny Thompson - Not On A Christmas Tree
16 - Goree Carter - Christmas Time
That were Goree Carter and "Little T-Bone" Tyler Dee Bell, a blues guitarist from Austin, TX with Christmas Time and Bell got himself his nickname for playing much in T-Bone Walker's style. Well together with Carter that's a whole lotta electrically amped guitar for a Christmas song. Well I did prove again that it's well possible to compile a Christmas set on stomping Rhythm & Blues.
There's time for one more. One of these typical happy uptempo storming boogies of Mabel Scott - here is her Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.
17 - Mabel Scott - Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
And Mabel Scott ends today's special on the Christmas Rhythm & Blues and most of my blues today were about the poor and the lonely for whom Cristmas is a punishment rather than a joy. It's part of the holiday spirit that we not just celebrate the season for ourselves, but that we also think of them, that we reach out and comfort them, open our doors to join the celebration. It's a thing that everyone can do - and should do.
And there's another thing I want to say. These days I see cars, pickups and trucks on the highways with bumper stickers reminding us to keep the Christ in Christmas. Now, none of these blues, nor most of the way we celebrate this special holiday, reminds us of the meaning of it - Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus. If you believe in God, this should be, I think, it should remain the main ingredient of your Christmas. Compared to that, Santa Claus is just a nice tradition, as is the tree and the lights and the jingle bells and the turkey and the family gathering and everything else that we fill our Christmas with.
I wish you a wonderful Christmas and all the best for the next year. May God be with you and inspire you - and the world - to be a better person and to bring peace.