Christmas murder ballads

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Guestblog! By none other than Santajan, our MC on December 22 in Paradiso. And an avid Christmas music collector, Christmas music singer (here!), as well as a writer of several music books. This is the latest, on compilation albums. Jan gets out his sharp tools for this post:

"Long live Christmas compilation albums!" The predictable ones by the major record companies are eclipsed by private initiative: I think of the compilations released from time to time by the Excelsior label and, of course, the annual round-ups (preferably on cassette) by CAGGs own DJ Oscar.
It was Phoebe Bridgers's beautiful cover of ‘So Much Wine’ that drew my attention to the original version of this tragically surreal song by the American group The Handsome Family.


What a fantastic story: a drunk man throws off all his clothes in the snow and whispers through bloody teeth that he can't take it anymore, before passing out and remaining in a coma for hours. Bridgers sings it with melancholy and compassion: there isn't enough wine in the world to save you from the bottom of the glass.

I don't have the album with the original version of The Handsome Family (In The Air from 2000), but I found the song on the Christmas compilation Blue Christmas that came free with the British music magazine Mojo in December 2004. A rich and challenging album that includes, besides Christmas songs by The Flaming Lips and Rufus Wainwright, the fantastic six-minute ballad ‘Let's make Christmas mean something this year’ by James Brown. Plus the unforgettable ‘Cora Jones’ by the late Neal Casal, about a sweet little twelve year old country girl who doesn't return from a walk in the snow.

Casal's Christmas spirit takes on added significance in the context of the murder of Dutch girl Lisa earlier this year: "How can a man take the life of another? They found Cora dead by the side of the road." Not all Christmas songs are about peace and light: a murder ballad also belongs on the Christmas playlist.
Santajan

EXTRA: CAGG posted more versions of So Much Wine earlier, see HERE.

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