14/22 - Harbor Myself Away From Everyone Else

Slowing down with everything, but speeding up with playlisting, here I provide thee with the first of a two-parter holiday collection! All in all ten christmassy non-christmas songs. The first five represent that very slowing down; cozying up; pottering about in preparation... The next five will be presented on Christmas eve!

 

 

Duke Ellington Orchestra ft. Ivie Anderson - There's a Lull in My Life

This song is on my morning playlist, so I actually listen to it all-year-round, quite often. But every christmas season shuld have a bit of old crackling jazz, and Ivie's voice has just the right timbre for this season. Even though it's really a sad, unrequited love, kind of song, it does make me feel somehow reassured about lulling: nothing much is happening, and that can be really enjoyable at times.

 

 

Damien Jurado - Over Rainbows and Rainier

No, this has nothing to do with rain; Mt. Rainier is a snow- and glacier-tipped mountain in the state of Washington, so perfectly suitable for a winter playlist. And with the achingly beautiful last two verses I think of this as the 'travelling home for christmas' candidate of this bunch:

Let your cries be of joy
May it always and forever fill the void
And allow my heart some room
May it be so that you'll one day need me soon

With my wheels in a turning and my back to the window
I collected every wave from the shore
I forgot I was human as I laid up my emotions
And I knocked them like dishes to the floor

 

 

Clairo - Harbor

I am home by myself on the island for the third day in a row, with a sore throat and a cough as my excuse to not make any errands into town. Through my window I am watching the birds at my feeding station, ice flakes and eiders floating in the sea, and the lights-garlanded ferries come and go in the strait. Coffee, home baked saffron buns, and Clairo's voice makes me feel perfectly harbored here on my lonesome.

Andrew Bird - Carrion Suite

I've been intending to put this piece on a Top 5 for a long time, and now I finally found the spot for it, in all its 10-minute glory. Of course, Andrew does actual Christmas tunes too, but his instrumental companion release to 2009s Noble Beast has been with me since then and brings a warm calming atmosphere like few other records. 

 

Shirley Collins - The Rose and the Briar

I am never not in the mood for another version of Barbara Allen – probably my favourite traditional tale of love and death – and when it's 86-year-old folk hero Shirley Collins singing it, complete with bird calls and what sounds like a foghorn in the background, I am transported beyond time and place. Which is a good place for the second part of Petter's season-playlist to pick it up in a week's time....