O Holy Night ( #BOTB )

        I'm getting the feel of Christmas of late.  My wife and I have been binging on Hallmark Christmas movies and paid a rare visit to the mall on Sunday.  And I've been playing Christmas songs in our church youth band that has been recently started up.  Well, not an all youth band since I'm in it.  At least it's been making me feel somewhat young.  But now for some Christmas music...

Battle of the Bands

 

        Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and  StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   I do this event  each month on the 15th and the 1st of the month.  The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.

O Holy Night

      This is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs.  I used to sing it to my younger brother when he was about 5 and he would ask me to sing "Fall on Your Knees" for him before he went to sleep. I was about 14 at the time.  When I hear this song I can't help but think of those times.  Here are two versions of the song for you to consider and then tell us which you like best...

     

Lost Dogs   "O Holy Night"  (2007)

Rebecca St James  "O Holy Night"  (1997)

Time to Vote!

        Don't be naughty!  Be nice.  Vote please.   Which song interpretation do you prefer?  Battles are no fun without you the reader participating.    Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind.  You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

        Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.

Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands
 
'Curious as a Cathy' 

Sound of One Hand Typing

Landmark Sounds (Diedre Knight)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS BY DEBBIE D

Trivial Music Silliness

Mike's Ramblings

Results Sometime Before Christmas

Judy, Judy, Judy--Good Night John Boy

        I'm still in a sort of blogging limbo for an indefinite period of time, but I've got my Battle of the Bands posts mostly already set up so the next one scheduled for December 15 should appear without a hitch.  Likewise I'm going to make a point to get the winner announcements on my blog.  That's what I'm here for today.

        My most recent BOTB contest put up versions of the Christmas song "White Christmas" with versions by Johnny Cash and Judy Collins.  Some readers readily made the connection between the "JC" initials and the "reason for the season", which was somewhat impressive, but not necessarily surprising knowing about many of my readers.  My next BOTB post will again be Christmas themed and will continue the "JC" theme.

The Winner Is...

        If Bing Crosby had been in the running, his version would have been the clear winner.  A couple voters insisted in voting for Bing thus negating their votes.   Neither of the recordings I used in this Battle were overwhelmingly popular so I thank voters for at least picking one of them.

         My vote nearly went to Judy Collins due to her vocal and lovely instrumental backing.  However, Johnny Cash receives my vote.   Collins's version seemed a bit cold to me--maybe appropriate for a song about snow, but not so pleasing to my ears.   Judy Collins does have a beautiful voice and the addition of the cello for the instrumental interlude nearly won me over.   In the end though Johnny got my vote for the fun sound of the arrangement and the singing and playing.  It's the version that would hold up best for me with repeated listenings.

         Bottom line though is that my vote didn't really matter.   Judy trounced Johnny with nearly twice as many votes. 

The Final Count:

Johnny Cash      9 votes

Judy Collins       17 votes

        Hope you'll be here on Monday December 15th for another Christmas themed Battle of the Bands.  This next one will be kind of unique and I think you might have fun with it.  It may even stir up a memory or two for some of you.  

         Have you got the Christmas spirit yet?   Are you expecting a white Christmas this year?   Do you prefer your Christmas songs to sound bouncy happy or melancholy peaceful?  

       

Related articles

• Let's Have a Frank Discussion About...the Perfect Christmas Song
• Left has Gone Insane: White Christmas Song Now Racist
• Why so many Christmas songs were written by Jews
• Battle of the Bands: White Christmas

Going Against the Grain

Palouse Wheat Field Sunrise (Photo credit: The Knowles Gallery)

          This week I'm taking things easy.  After all Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  A lot of you are frantically trying to finish NaNo novels.  Comments on my blogs usually drop about this time of year.  Of course comments have been dropping anyway--partly due to my own slow down of commenting on your blogs and probably partly due to some of my topics.

          One of the blog topics that has been seeing lower visits is the Battle of the Bands.  Now, I shouldn't complain because I still get a goodly number of visits for those posts--probably more than the average blogger gets.   I typically have been getting at least 20 or so voters on each contest with a few added comments by non-voters.  This is not too bad I guess, but it's not like it was back when I was getting 50 or more comments on a post.

          Okay, so I'm making a big deal out of a little bit of a drop in comments and maybe it's not really that much of a drop.  And this week I will probably be visiting very few blogs as I do whatever I will be doing. We'll see what happens this week.   Now I feel so stupid for even bringing this up.
 
           That's me.  Always going against the grain.   Slap a couple of slices of bread around me and call me a sandwich.

Battle of the Bands Clues

          Coming this Sunday December 1st I'll be doing another Battle of the Bands face-off.  It looks like the hosts at Far Away Series and Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends are going to be doing Christmas songs in December so I guess I will too.

           Since 'tis the season I guess I can handle a Christmas related song or two.   My first pairing this coming Sunday will be what is possibly the most performed Christmas song of all time.  Actually it's performed so much that it's not only during the Christmas season, but it's become mostly associated with Christmas.  What song will it be?  I've left a couple of clues in this post.  One that is very obvious but that will probably not be noticed.  Be here Sunday to find out for sure, but you can also guess in the comments.

Related articles

• 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS' #8 (Or, 'SATCHMO VERSUS DARIN')
• Battle of the Bands: Iron Man
• 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS' #7 (Or, 'FATS VS. SATCH VS. BOCEPHUS')
• Whole grains are good for you. Oh, wait, scratch that...THEY'RE GOING TO KILL YOU [Scary]