Black Diamond Show Playlist: 12/12/11 (and 12/15/11)

On this week's show, we continue what we started last week: Playing a mixture of holiday or winter-themed songs, new material, and some of my favorite songs from the past year. I tried to mix unusual holiday songs with some of many people's favorites.

I sent email out to several listeners about finding a Hanukkah song or two that would be close to the genres you're used to hearing on the Black Diamond Show. Debbie from Maryland (an Internet listener) reminded me that Woody Guthrie had written a lot of Hanukkah songs; and so, the second half hour of this week's show concludes with Woody singing "The Hanukkah Dance." I"m guessing it was recorded in 1945 or 1946. By then Woody had been living across the street from his Jewish in-laws in Coney Island for several years. Apparently he and his mother-in-law got along famously.... The Woody Guthrie Foundation has a nice article about Woody and The Yiddish Connection that you might enjoy.

We also spend some time with Taylor Armerding from The Bluegrass Gospel Project. They'll be appearing in East Hartford on Saturday 12/17. As with most of the BDS interviews, I had fun talking with him and I think you'll enjoy hearing from him, too.

If you miss hearing the show on Monday, remember it will repeat at 10pm EST on Thursday night on the WNHU2 stream at wnhu.net. (The Thursday night repeat will switch to 6pm beginning in 2012. Still 10pm for the rest of 2011.)

Thanks for your support of WNHU, bluegrass music, country music, and my occasional forays into other kinds of music.

• Artist / Song / Album / Label / Date / Notes
• Don Stover / Black Diamond / Things in Life / Rounder / 1972 / Theme
• Peter Rowan / Christmas Time’s A-Coming / Sugar Plums, Holiday Treats from Sugar Hill / Sugar Hill / 1993
• April Verch / Durang’s Hornpipe / That’s How We Run / Slab Town / 2011
• The Gibson Brothers / Help My Brother / Help My Brother / Compass / 2011
• Charlie Sizemore / No Lawyers In Heaven / Heartache Looking For A Home / Rebel /2011
• Rose Maddox & The Vern Williams Band / Philadelphia Lawyer / This is Rose Maddox / Arhoolie / 1981
• The Bluegrass Cardinals / Way Down Deep In My Soul / Way Down Deep In My Soul, Best of Sugar Hill Gospel, Volume 2 / Sugar Hill / 1986, 1993
• Tracy Lawrence / White Christmas / All Wrapped Up In Christmas / Lawrence Music Group / 2011
• Donna Ulisse / You Will Be Delivered / Holiday Single / Hadley Music Group / 2011
• Brad Leftwich & Linda Higginbotham / Breaking Up Christmas / No One to Bring Home Tonight / County / 1984
• Bluegrass Gospel Group / Cherokee Shuffle / Wander On / Vital / 2006
• Taylor Armerding / Interview / Black Diamond Show / WNHU / 2011
• Bluegrass Gospel Project / All Prayed Up / The Bluegrass Gospel Project / Vital / 2002
• Bluegrass Gospel Project / Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven / The Blue Morpho / Vital / 2009
• Bluebilly Grit / Ready for a Change / Ready for a Change / Rogue / 2011
• Travers Chandler & Avery County / Mandolin Tango / State of Depression / Patuxnet Music / 2010
• Woody Guthrie / The Hanukkah Dance / The Asch Recordings, Volumes 1-4 / Smithsonian Flokways / c. 1945 , 1999
• Carolina Road / Cold Carolina Snow / Back to my Roots / Rural Rhythm / 2011
• Lonesome River Band / Footprints in the Snow / Live at Bean Blossom / Rural Rhythm / 2011
• Ken & Brad Kolodner / Snow Drop / Otter Creek / Fenchurch Music / 2010
• Townes Van Zandt / Snowin’ On Raton / Sugar Hill 50 / Sugar Hill / 1992, 2009
• Hank Snow / I’ve Been Everywhere / The Essential Hank Snow / RCA Nashville / c. 1961, 1997
• The Bluegrass Martins / Happy on the Mississippi Shore / World of our Own / self / 2011
• The Greystone Ramblers / Christmas Island / A Winter’s Night Ramble / self / 2008
• Riders in the Sky / Let It Snow, The Last Christmas Medley You’ll Ever Need to Hear / Christmas the Cowboy Way / Rounder / 1999
• Dirk Powell / Joy to the World / A Fret-Free Christmas / Valcour / 2010
• Ray Stevens / The Little Drummer Boy Next Door / Through a Different Window / MCA Nashville / 1997
• Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers / Atheists Don’t Have No Songs / Rare Bird Alert / Rounder / 2011
• Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers / That White Christmas Song / Sugar Plums, Holiday Treats from Sugar Hill / Sugar Hill / 1993
• David West & Joe Craven / My Favorite Things / A Spectacular Bluegrass Christmas / CMH / 2001
• Poppa’s Kitchen / Burning Flame / A Rockin’ Hanukkah / self / 2006
• Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers / Boston Jail / Rambler’s Call / Rebel / 2009
• The Missy Werner Band / I’d Rather Love a Memory / Three Kinds of Lonesome / self / 2011
• Don Stover / Black Diamond / Things in Life / Rounder / 1972 / Theme