16 - Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year

An expansion of our Christmas and New Year episode of a few years back with extra tracks and more all around cheer. Links are to tracks' records in the Lomax Digital Archive. Those without them are either not Lomax recordings, or not yet included in the LDA. (If you'd like to assist in digitization/cataloging efforts to preserve and make available some of the early Lomax collections currently offline, please consider making a donation at culturalequity.org/donate, or drop us a line!) Happy Winter solstice and assorted holidays to everybody.

1. Villagers of Lagartera, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain: Ronda de Nochebuena, Christmas Eve 1952.

2. Merritt Boddie and the Marigolds Band: Christmas Machete / Noel, Gingerland, Nevis, July 1962. 

3. Georgia Sea Island Singers: Yonder Come Day, Central Park, NYC, July 1965.

4. Sophie Loman Wing and group: All Night Long, St. Simons Island, Georgia, June 1935.

5. Norman Edmonds and the Old-Timers: Breaking Up Christmas, Hillsville, Virginia, August 1959.

6. Kelly Pace and group: Holy Babe, Cumins State Farm, near Gould, Arkansas, May 1939.

7. Vera Ward Hall: No Room At the Inn (song & story) / Last Month of the Year (song), Livingston, Alabama, October 1959. 

8. Phil Tanner: The Gower Wassail, Columbia 372-M, 1937.

9. Jean Ritchie: Wassail song, NYC, March 1949. 

10. 1959 United Sacred Harp Musical Association: Sherburne (#186), Fyffe, Alabama, September 1959

11. Alice Gibbs and friends: Today, Today Is Christmas Day, St. Eustatius, January 1967.

12. “Special group” from the 1959 United Sacred Harp Musical Association: Christmas Anthem (#225)

13. Shirley and Dolly Collins: The Moon Shines Bright, from “For As Many As Will,” Topic Records, 1978.

14. Villagers of Hío, Aragon: Buenas Entradas de Reyes, Hío, Galicia, November 1952

15. Ottavio Dogali, Giuseppe Napoli, and Giuseppe Ascani: Alla Pastorale, Cinquefrondi, Reggio Calabria, August 1, 1954. 

16. Iaconelli and Arcari: La Novena di Natale, Columbia 14490, NYC, September 1929. 

17. Edward King: Le Jour De L'an (New Year's Day), Baraga, Michigan, October 1938.

18: Georgia Sea Island Singers with Ed Young, Hobart Smith, and Nat Rahmings: Yonder Come Day, St. Simons Island, April 1960. 

19 and beyond: “Sing Christmas and the Turn of the Year,” BBC Radio, 1957. For artists and titles see