Category: Christmas Blues

Show Notes: 

After being chastised last year for not putting out a new Christmas show I bow to peer pressure with a brand new one. I’ve been doing a Christmas blues show for many years and was always frustrated with the lack of a really good collection of early blues Christmas songs. Way back in 2005 I hooked up with the Document label to put together a 2-CD, 52 track collection of blues and gospel songs from the 1920’s to the 1950’s called Blues, Blues Christmas. The record proved to be popular and a second volume was released in 2009, a third volume in 2013, a fourth volume in 2015, a fifth volume in 2020 and as of last year we are up to a whopping seven volumes. Most of the tracks come from those collections but there are a number that have not been collected yet. You can read the liner notes to those collections by visiting my writing page.

The first commercial Christmas blues record was cut by Bessie Smith. Her classic “At The Christmas Ball” inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded “Silent Night, Holy Night” for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For more in-depth notes you can refer to previous shows.