Susan Cowsill "Real Life"

Are you ready for the holidays? That may seem like a common question, but in a way, it is an anachronism. I have been thinking about what it was like back in the days when we made everything ourselves. Yeah, we can be crazy busy with shopping and wrapping and cooking and cleaning, and house guests and visits. But baking from scratch, creating all the holiday delights that cannot be purchased and must be made lovingly, that takes time. I was thinking about how many labor saving devices we have now, that some things have become pale facsimiles of what were our handed down traditions, in the interest of the ease of a tube or a cellophane, a shrink wrap, or can of this or that. (Not that there's anything wrong with Cheez Whiz!)

One of my favorite Christmas memories was during my time in Pittsburgh, where I started my career in radio. I was over at my friend Suzanne's mom's house, and she had been cooking tirelessly forever. There were homemade pizelles with the most delicate anise flavor, all kinds of other baked goods with confectioner's sugar and sprinkles. But the dish I will never forget was her for-real, from scratch pork and chicken liver pate redolent with cinnamon, cloves, sage, mace, bay leaves and a healthy shot or two of brandy and cream. Cooked at low heat for two hours...filling the house with an enticing, incomparable lingering aroma. Georgette was French Canadian, and an amazingly wonderful chef. And a cantankerous bundle of joy, with a cockeyed no BS perspective on life. She was deft at cutting through the crap; delightfully, honestly, so ahead of her time. We drank and ate and laughed, sitting in the best place, the kitchen, exploring the wonders of sensory overload, and celebrating love and friendship. Companionable, in the moment, perfect. Suz and I are still friends today, decades later. Georgette sadly has passed. This time of year we savor the sights and sounds and aromas, and especially the memories.

Susan Cowsill released her second solo album, Lighthouse, in May. It tells of terrible loss, that of her brother Barry Cowsill in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina, and of the damage to her adopted hometown of New Orleans. She lost almost everything she owned, and she poured the emotion into these songs. She writes from a place that is at once incredibly personal, yet universally relatable. And though there was tragedy, there is time for joy in this album too.

We filmed Susan and her band in Nashville this September at the Americana Fest. The song is "Real Life" in all its swings of fortune and glorious contradictions. Love it, hate it, live it.

- Jessie Scott

Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks "Carol of the Bells"

"You are entering a world of sound. You are entering a world of sight. You have crossed over into the land of shadow and substance," of course paraphrased from Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. It was a show that left an indelible mark on the nascent television viewing audience; we of the Mad Magazine generation, snarky and offbeat. We were known to daydream about the idea of bohemian living. We fantasized about slipping the tight coil of peer pressure and status quo. Everybody was just so, I don't know, NORMAL back then. At least that was what you led with. Because if anyone found out you were DIFFERENT...well you just wouldn't be POPULAR!!!! Oh how I dreamed of the day when I didn't have to care about that stuff anymore. And I am so glad we broke the societal chains, what with Woodstock and Hippiedom, and emerged on the other side of that with a much richer acceptance of others, of different kinds of people. Of acceptance. I might have told you this before, but one of the things I loved best about working at XM Radio is that we were everyone. Old, young, male, female, every national heritage imaginable. We were a regular Star Trek cast. Yes, I suspect there even were aliens among us, too.

One has to think that cult hero Dan Hicks might also have been influenced by some of the same early media stirrings of individuality. He is a hipster for the ages, for four decades-worth, anyway. And hark, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks have just released a swinging and swaying seasonal album called Crazy For Christmas. Dan began his career in 1965 as the drummer for San Francisco band The Charlatans, heavily psychedelized, before forming the acoustic ensemble Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. The original girl singers were called The Lickettes. Of course they were! He blends and mindbends styles; folk, jazz, blues, swing, and The Great American Songbook, to which is added a cunning and ironic twist, his sense of humor. Tom Waits says, "Dan Hicks is fly, sly, wily and dry." Yes to all of the above, and yes to this zany and imaginative treatment of "Carol Of The Bells."

- Jessie Scott

PS I miss Space Ghost Coast to Coast!

Paul Thorn "I Don't Like Half the Folks I Love"

Get ready, it's coming. Just because you are related doesn't mean you get along. But it might mean you will be seeing them in just a few days for Christmas. I don't have any advice for you. I am not going to tell you to tie one on so you don't care. I won't say to bury your nose in a newspaper, or wear your earbuds whether you are listening to something or just tuning out. Turn the other cheek, keep a low profile, keep your thoughts to yourself...these all might work. But they might not. Just remember as we walk up to the dinner table that nothing is forever, including the meal. Try to have a moment, try to bask in the light of the tree. Or try to deal in the wonder of the absurdity of it, that you ain't going to get along with everyone. My brother Mitch calls it the "Asshole Rule." That is, no matter who you are, no matter how much of a saint you actually might consider yourself, when you walk in the room, one person in there is going to think you are an asshole. What are you going to do? That's life. What do they say, "Butter wouldn't melt...?

Even with our best intentions, sometimes things get out of hand anyway. The general rule has to be 'be true to your heart,' and if your intentions are pure and not spiteful, you at least know you didn't mean to hurt anyone. The golden rule helps too. Does anyone even remember what that is anymore? Do unto others...? Ah, but we have a fine example of the conundrum rendered in song. Paul Thorn nails it down right and tidy with a bit of homespun philosophy to put it in perspective. It is a tune off Paul's most recent album, Pimps and Preachers, which we recorded on the Music Fog bus this past May at the Cherokee Creek Music Festival just north of Llano, TX. "I Don't Like Half the Folks I Love." Ahem, and Amen.

- Jessie Scott