New Year's Eve!!

This new years we are having a house party, but despite Christmas being all over a week away, I'm not done with my Christmas music yet!

This year we will be listening to Christmas remixes as the background music to our evening. I absolutely love the 'Christmas Remixed' album but this weeks song that's totally been my theme tune is the Baby It's Cold Outside (Mulato Beat Remix).

Plug your computer into some decent speakers and crank up the bass for this gem.

Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas...

This Saturday's song has been done by many, but in my opinion, none have come close to doing so great a job as Ella Fitzgerald does it. There's just something so fitting for the season about her voice.

Known as the 'First Lady of Song' she well deserved the title. Her vocal range spanned three octaves and her purity of tone, impeccable diction, intonation and phrasing make her one of my favorite artists of all time.


In fact, an Ella fitzgerald christmas playlist should be in every home at this time of year.

Caro Emerald

I love this lady! Caro Emerald's album 'Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor' is definitely going on my christmas list. The album features ballroom jazz, cinematic tangos, groovin' jazz tracks and infectious mambos that sound like they were recorded in the golden age in Hollywood's most celebrated recording studios. But the smoking beats, catchy songs and inventive production mark Caro out as a present-day phenomenon. She's fun, light hearted and so easy to listen to. I can't help but dance whilst doing my housework when she is on the radio.

Here's a track from the album 'That Man'.



And if you liked that, here is a little bonus (it's nearly christmas after all!) her acoustic 'You're All I Want for Christmas' with Brook Benton was just recorded in the last two weeks, and here it is:

On Our Side

I feel I've been very good in not introducing loads of christmas music (now that my son's birthday is done I am totally christmassifying my house right now), and although this weeks artist does have some amazing christmas songs (her versions of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and O Come O Come Emmanuel are totally worth buying full albums for), the song I'm sharing is not a christmas one.

I mean it's not specifically a christmas song. You could play it at anytime of the year really, including christmas. Events this week have brought this song back into memory so here it is, Bethany Dillon 'You Are On Our Side'



KidSave

This weeks song is by Lionel Neykov. I was first introduced to him by GarageBand when I fell in love with his song 'Freeze My Senses'.

Lionel is a talented song writer, and although this week's song isn't his best vocal track (IMHO) I've chosen it because I want to encourage you to download it from KidSave. He's what Lionel has to say about them:

Kidsave is a wonderful organization that specializes in helping foster kids and orphans make a lasting connection with a family. Because they realize there's nothing more important in the development of a child than being able to rely on someone who you know is going to be there for you no matter what. And that's what this song is all about. I was taking the love of my parents so much for granted. But when I fell on hard times last year, the truth is nobody else was there for me. Nobody else believes in me as much as my parents do. And now I know how precious that is. How much we all need that.

On Kidsave's website there are some pretty shocking statistics about what happens to foster children and orphans who have to grow up without that kind of love and support. How much more likely they are to run into hardship and trouble. So it really makes sense to try and find parental figures for these kids, even for the older ones, the teenagers. They perhaps need it the most. Because it's never too late to create that special bond. And it's never too late to rekindle it either...

For more on our interest in orphans, you can read the 'Adoption' tab on my main blog.

So here is the song, it's called Vanio and you can download it here for a donation of $0.99 or more.