I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas music. I genuinely love it, but there are rules. First, I’m a big Grinch about playing Christmas music early. I’m stricter than most people on this issue, but can’t we all agree that Thanksgiving is the absolute earliest date to break out the sleigh bells?

There is also too much excellent Christmas music out there to accept listening to the same bad ’50s schmaltz every year. I understand that the holidays are all about tradition, but some traditions need to evolve.

With those sentiments (and a little Christmas cheer) I offer up the following mix, which will hopefully provide an improved soundtrack to your holiday season. It’s got songs spanning six decades and many genres, with songs you hear every year, and some others that don’t get enough love. Enjoy.

[Special thanks to Scooter for contributing songs from his extensive collection of Christmas tunes as well as his help with making this mix.]

December Mixtape: Merry Christmas Baby

1. The Drifters - “White Christmas”
2. Darlene Love - “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
3. Otis Redding - “Merry Christmas Baby”
4. Charles Brown - “Please Come Home for Christmas”
5. The O’Jays - “Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without the One You Love)”
6. Ray Charles & Betty Carter - “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
7. The Beach Boys - “Little St. Nick”
8. Elvis Presley - “Blue Christmas”
9. Brenda Lee - “Christmas Will Be Another Lonely Day”
10. Aretha Franklin - “Kissin’ by the Mistletoe”
11. Fiona Apple - “Frosty the Snowman” [f. Jon Brion]
12. John Denver - “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk this Christmas)”
13. The Band - “Christmas Must be Tonight”
14. Blitzen Trapper - “Christmas is Coming Soon”
15. The Eels - “Everything’s Gonna Be Cool this Christmas”
16. My Morning Jacket - “Christmas Time is Here Again (Bring out the Joy!)” [Live]
17. Feist - “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”
18. Sufjan Stevens - “Sister Winter”
19. The Raveonettes - “The Christmas Song”
20. Billy Squier - “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You”
21. The Kinks - “Father Christmas”
22. NRBQ - “Christmas Wish”
23. Stevie Wonder - “What Christmas Means to Me”
24. James Brown - “Soulful Christmas”
25. Clarence Carter - “Back Door Santa”
26. Albert King - “Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ ”

You can also download the whole mix as zip file: December Mixtape - Merry Christmas Baby. To import the songs as an ordered playlist, go to iTunes, click on File > Library > Import Playlist… and select the .txt file in the mix folder.

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More: Check out our previous mixes

I’m posting the September installment of our monthly mixtape project right at the last minute, with a whopping 5 hours left in the month. The inspiration for this month is a genre that we give very little attention to at Stranger Dance: bluegrass.

One of my best friends just moved to southwestern Kentucky, so this was a good excuse to give her a quick primer on Bluegrass State’s gift to music, and one of my favorite genres (yeah, I actually own both a banjo and mandolin, and used to work for a bluegrass radio station).

With the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival around the corner, it’s also a good time to get better acquainted with some choice pickin’.

I think bluegrass is tragically underrated and woefully misunderstood. With the possible exception of Django Reinhardt and maybe old bossa nova, no other music can lull me into a blissful trance like bluegrass. Judging by the above cartoon, I think Mr. Schulz agreed. Hope you do too.

Download the whole mix as zip file: High and Lonesome Mix

1. David Grisman - “I Ain’t Broke (But I’m Badly Bent)”
2. Tony Rice - “Old Train”
3. Del McCoury - “Cheek to Cheek with the Blues”
4. Jerry Douglas - “Shoulder to Shoulder”
5. JD Crowe & the New South - “The Old Home Place”
6. Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen - “Friend of the Devil”
7. Butch Robbins - “I’ll Be on that Good Road Someday”
8. Tony Furtado with Tim O’Brien - “Man of Constant Sorrow”
9. Alison Krauss - “Down to the River to Pray”
10. David Grisman - “A Life of Sorrow” [f. the Nashville Bluegrass Band]
11. Bluegrass Cardinals - “Blue-Eyed Boston Boy”
12. Tony Rice - “Ginseng Sullivan”
13. Béla Fleck - “Crossfire”
14. Tasty Licks - “Blue Days, Black Nights”
15. Bluegrass Album Band - “Head over Heels”
16. Doc Watson - “The Train that Carried My Girl from Town”
17. Joe Val - “Along about Daybreak”
18. Bill Keith - “Crazy Creek”
19. Norman Blake - “Ginseng Sullivan”
20. Alison Krauss & Union Station - “Every Time You Say Goodbye”
21. David Grisman & Del McCoury Band - “Can’t Be Darlings Anymore”
22. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
23. Lonesome Standard Time - “Lonesome Standard Time”
24. Boone Creek - “Drifting Too Far from the Shore”
25. The Stanley Brothers - “Angel Band”
26. Tony Rice Unit - “House of the Rising Son”

Here’s one for the weekend. Everyone loves a good mixtape, and everyone loves a good cover song, so here’s a mix I made of some of my favorite cover tunes.

The mix spans a good deal of genres (R&B, country, reggae, folk, bluegrass) and artists - from relative unknowns (Clem Snide) to legends (Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Townes van Zandt).

It zig-zags a little, from an acoustic Sublime cover of Marley, to Reverend Al covering the Fab Four (worth it just to hear a band member yell “Shut up, Al Green” in the beginning) and breaks quite a few of my rules for making mixes along the way.

This is definitely a mix, so feel free to download everything and listen to it as such, or just pick and choose. Enjoy.

1. Townes Van Zandt - “Dead Flowers” (The Rolling Stones)
2. Sublime - “Marley Medley (Guava Jelly/This Train)” (Bob Marley)
3. Al Green - “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles)
4. The Grateful Dead - “Wake Up Little Susie” [Live] (The Everly Brothers)
5. Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen - “Friend of the Devil” (The Grateful Dead)
6. Gillian Welch - “Hickory Wind” (The Byrds/Gram Parsons)
7. The Flying Burrito Brothers - “Wild Horses” (The Rolling Stones)
8. Ryan Adams - “Wonderwall” (Oasis)
9. Johnny Cash - “Rowboat” (Beck)
10. Ray Charles - “Ring of Fire” (Johnny Cash)
11. Jenny Lewis - “Handle with Care” [f. Conor Oberst, M. Ward & Ben Gibbard] (The Traveling Wilburys)
12. Hamell on Trial - “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (Bob Dylan)
13. Aretha Franklin - “Let it Be” (The Beatles)
14. Medeski, Martin & Wood - “Bemsha Swing / Lively Up Yourself” (Thelonius Monk / Bob Marley)
15. Charlie Hunter - “No Woman, No Cry” (Bob Marley)
16. Clem Snide - “Beautiful” (Christina Aguilera)
17. Stevie Ray Vaughan - “Little Wing” (Jimi Hendrix)