Published by
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December 7, 2009
First up, the Christmas music:
- Several new additions from Inner Splendor Media: First up, two lovely, haunting renditions of traditional Christmas favorites, delivered with a Celtic twist: Silent Night and O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Then, an instrumental version of the same O Come, O Come Emmanuel from the same album (In The Spirit Of Peace) and a solo piano version of The Twelve Days Of Christmas performed by Dizzy Reed (keyboardist from Guns N’ Roses), from the album The Magic & Wonder of Christmas.
- James Madison Thomas returns with another tune from the Eighties, also sung by Joe Fish. It’s called One Little Child.
The songs mentioned above are now available for free download at FeelsLikeChristmas.com
Two more tunes from the aforementioned Inner Splendor are also now available on another Christmas music site created by a friend of ours: ChristmasMPFree.com
And now for some fine (non-Christmasy) instrumental music downloads:
- When I hear music described as minimalist or ambient, I usually run the other way. Too often, this music consists of weak musical ideas repeated ad infinitum. So I didn’t expect much when I switched on Ludovico Einaudi’s music. But I was more than pleasantly surprised! Minimalist it may be, but the basic musical ideas are just lovely, and the creative arrangements really bring it to life. Enjoy three songs from his Nightbook album: Indaco, Lady Labyrinth and Reverie.
- I loved the description of Michael Bellar and the AS-IS Ensemble as “a highly excitable, improvisationally eclectic, alt-jazz group”. That really does give you a clue of what you’re in for. As with most jazz entities, the musicianship is top-notch, but the arrangements are tighter, more energetic and more accessible than most of the jazz I run across these days…almost as if they are on a mission, and are determined to take you along. From their album Turned On Turned Up, they’re sharing two pieces: All Things Rabbit and Fur Turban.
- The Jason Parker Quartet calls their music “modern traditional jazz” and they are offering up this fresh take the jazz sound with the song Bashert from their album No More, No Less.
- Saxophonist Charley Langer brings a sweet touch on the song Gray Skies, from his album Never The Same. And don’t miss the very tasty guitar solo starting @3:50.
- Speaking of guitar, Larry Kinder of Larken Productions has a new album of his acoustic guitar creations called Castaway. He’s brought us the title cut to share with you.
- Ann Sweeten creates some beautiful piano music…something in the space between new age and romantic piano. From her album Just This Side Of Spring, you can lose yourself in the Light From A Narrow Window.
- And finally, Ray Jozwiak has a creative, eclectic piano style he refers to as “gonzo piano”. From the album For The Ride, he’s sharing two songs: Meteors and Mother Chi.
All these instrumental pieces are available right now on GreatInstrumentalDownloads.com
More to come in other musical genres in the near future. En-Joy! 
Published by
admin on
December 2, 2009
Larken Productions features the music of Larry Kinder and Ken Ruano. New this Christmas, they’ve crafted an album of holiday music called Just Another Christmas. They’ve brought us 3 songs to share with you: Just Another Christmas, O Come All Ye Faithful and a Silent Night/O Holy Night medley. For each CD sold, they’ll be donating a dollar to Freedom Alliance, a scholarship fund for the children of fallen military heroes.
Linda Seeley returns again this year with more of her lovely solo piano music, this time with 3 songs from her album A Christmas Celebration: Carol Of The Bells, The First Noel and an O Come, O Come Emmanuel/It Came Upon A Midnight Clear medley.
Remember 1985? It was the era of We Are The World and Do They Know It’s Christmas?. Big anthemic songs designed to focus public attention on human need. An indie band out of Western Pennsylvania called The Rummagers decided to do their part, with a song called Christmas Present (Christmas Past). The songwriter and driving force behind the song, Kevin Bensink, has reached back 25 years into the past and brought it to the present for us to share with you.
Billy Gorilly is all about music for kids…especially music with an educational emphasis. But he’s brought us a boogie-woogie instrumental treatment of Jingle Bells. And…what we’ve learned from that is…we like it!
Kate And After is an indie band founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2008 though the majority of the band has been playing together for several years prior. They’ve written and recorded a new song for the Christmas season called Snow Angel, and they’ve chosen our site as one of the places to showcase it.
333maxwell is not a secret agent fighting KAOS…but rather a flesh-and-blood human being fending off musical boredom. He’s written and recorded a toe-tapper of new song for the season which he calls “a light-hearted poke at the state of our times, yet wishing everyone to have a good day and be thankful for what they have”. It’s called The Last Christmas Song (Hard Times for Santa).
All this great free Christmas music can be downloaded right now from one GREAT site: FeelsLikeChristmas.com
Published by
admin on
November 28, 2009
Richard Souther is an immensely gifted (and Grammy-nominated) composer and arranger of instrumental music. From solo piano and synths to electronica, he pretty much does it all, and we’ve been fans of his for a very long time. This year, he’s released a remarkable new album merging electronica with ancient instruments called Tesla’s Christmas…the proceeds from which will be donated to his two favorite charities: The Rescue Mission of Salt Lake City and No More Homeless Pets in Utah. Richard has brought us Coventry Carol from the album to share with you.
The Nadas hail from Iowa and have been together for 15 years. They’re sharing Here Comes Christmas this year.
Christmas In New York was written by Mark Mangold of the NYC-based band The Radiant and songwriter Aida Brandes. This cheery holiday tune is performed by Mangold, Brandes and singer/songwriter Lyza Wilson.
Janyse is a Canadian singer and voiceover artist. She’s released an entire album of Christmas music called The Magic of Christmas. You’ll enjoy her lovely performance of the song Blessed Is This Holy Night.
F&M has been described as “a gently sardonic, dark and hopelessly clever art-folk band that began as a 48 hour experiment in recording during a fireworks festival”. This duo from Edmonton is offering up Christmas Alleluia for us to share with you.
The Kathy Fleischmann Band is comprised of four seasoned singer/songwriter/musicians from New York. They chose to record Christmas Train because they wanted to write a holiday song that wasn’t bright and cheery since many people, for any number of personal reasons, have a really hard time getting through the holiday season.
Songwriter James Madison Thomas wroted and recorded a song back in the Eighties with help from singer Joe Fish. Emerging from the recesses of his songwriting vault, James has dusted off this delightful tune and is presenting it here this year. It’s called One Starry Night (The Manger Scene).
Wormburner offers up a somewhat edgier approach with The Bells Of St. Ignatius, a happy-sounding paean to the holiday with a bit of a painful underlying agenda.
Douglas Campbell returns this year with It’s That Time Of Year Again.
All those songs are available right now for free download at FeelsLikeChristmas.com
And don’t forget another fine Christmas site featuring music, stories, MIDI, music scores and more: ChristmasMPFree.com