Skip to main content

Christmas Favorites: Patreon edition - Part 2

You can find Part 1 directly under this post or right here if you're feeling lazy. No judgement here. I'm going to keep up the pattern I started in part 1 meaning that we're kicking things off with...

VoicePlay and what has become my favorite version of "The First Noel". I'm serious. I love this arrangment - great job by Geoff Castellucci. It's breathed a lot of life into this song and it's wonderful. All while finding ways to highlight each member at times. The beat is just sick. Love it.



And now for a song that completely creeps me out. No really. The lyrics are pretty disturbing and I'm not a fan. I'm talking, of course, about "Baby, It's Cold Outside". So why include it? Because somehow the Hound + the Fox took this unsettling lyric and made it...charming. I'm not entirely sure how they did it, but they it. The video is pretty adorable. Check it out,

                                      


So I really like it when people take two songs that don't seem like they should go together and make it work. That's exactly what Pentatonix, along with guest vocalist Tory Kelly, have accomplished with their "Winter Wonderland/Don't Worry Be Happy" mashup. 

                                   


Back to Peter Hollens and his take on another of my favorite Christmas songs, "O Holy Night". Such a strong vocal by Peter! He really puts his all into it and I love that. Dude's got some pipes. Not to mention that his dog is really cute. Which has nothing to do with the song itself, but dogs just make everything better. 



And now for something different. From the loveable gents of Home Free. We have a song about loss and how, well, good it can be. You'll see what I mean. These guys are too much. This is one that requires multiple viewings to see everything. There's a lot going on and it's glorious. Here's a Home Free (specifically Tim Foust) original, "Full of Cheer". 



So I decided that I really need to include one of the fabulous collaborations between Evynne and Peter Hollens. Their voices sound so fantastic together. This was the obvious choice. Even if it didn't originally start off as a Christmas song. I'm not so sure it's considered one now, but the message is still quite appropriate for this time of year. This is a gorgeous rendition of a beautiful song. Here's "The Prayer". Enjoy.



Another Christmas classic for you all. "White Christmas", as performed by VoicePlay. I find this video weirdly endearing. It kind of sums up why I love these guys. Great vocals and they don't take themselves too seriously. This video always makes me laugh. It's so ridiculous in the best way possible. And they back it up with talent. Nice bass bomb by Geoff and it must be said: Tony's dog? Adorable. 





Lastly, I want to conclude with a video that reminds us that not everyone gets to go home for Christmas. Whether they are the brave men and women of our military or a first responder or what have you. There are people who don't get to spend the holidays with the people that they love because they're busy keeping us safe and helping us out in our time of need. To any of them who might come across this, and also to their families, there's really only one thing to say. Thank you.

Please take a moment to remember all of them as you watch Home Free's video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". I've watched this a few times since they released it and it never fails to make me cry. It's a beautiful tribute. Well done, boys.



As always thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this. Merry Christmas!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Song review: Water Tower Town by Scotty McCreery

I have an odd relationship, or whatever you want to call it, with American Idol. I was interested when I heard about it and watched the first three seasons, got annoyed with the third season and didn't watch the next only to start watching again during the fifth season. I loved the show during its sixth and seventh season, but started getting annoyed with it in the eighth. Sometime between then and now I've gone from being annoyed with it to now hating it as I see it for what it really is. I could go into more detail about that, but I won't. At least not here; maybe at another time. I'm sure many of you are wondering why I'm bothering to bring it up in the first place. Well, it's because I decided to do a review of "Water Tower Town" by the current American Idol for my next song review. Now, if you're a fan of American Idol, you might not like what I'm going to say next, but I ask that you stay with me because it'll end up being importa

Album review: Christmas with Scotty McCreery by Scotty McCreery

First things first, I'm wishing everyone who celebrates a happy Hanukkah! Perhaps that's a strange way to kick off a review of a Christmas album, but it wouldn't have felt right not to include it. And really, when you really think and learn about what each holiday is about you see that in a way the first Hanukkah is one of the things that made Christmas possible. So once again, happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate. Those of you who have read my album reviews know this, but the way I do album reviews is to give my overall opinion and then look at each song individually after the cut. Which means that album review posts can get pretty long. Just a warning. This album came out back in October, but I never listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Hence why there hasn't been a review until now. So what do I think? I think that releasing Christmas albums can be a little risky. The majority of these songs are so well known and loved already. They've been recorded

Video Spotlight: Sam Tsui

I first found out about Sam Tsui from a collaboration that he did with one of my favorite male singers, Peter Hollens. As it turned out, some of my friends are also fans of Sam's and there was a point where I kept seeing people post some of his videos. So finally I decided to go check out his YouTube channel. Turns out, he has all kinds of great covers on there and even some originals. I liked him and knew it was only a mattered of time before I wrote about him.  The only trouble was picking which video to write about first. There were a bunch of strong contenders and it's safe to assume that all of those will get a spotlight at some point down the road. But it was hard to pick. The obvious solution was just to do a video spotlight on Sam himself. We'll be talking about five of his videos. Starting with the first one I saw.