Some Good Christmas Music

I have found myself wanting to listen to Christmas music a lot this year. I'm sure I will have grown tired of it by the time Christmas gets here, but not yet. One of the albums I've been listening to a good bit is Silent Night by Red Mountain Church's band. While the band is made of member's of that church, the vocalist is from my church, Shades Mountain Independent Church. I bought the album on iTunes but it is also available for sale as a CD or a download on the Red Mountain Music site. I highly recommend it. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but I just wanted to share with you some music that I've really enjoyed. Most of my other Christmas music is several years old so it has been nice to add something fresh and new to the collection.

Pandora Christmas

As I write this, I'm listening to Christmas music on Pandora. It turns out to be a very good way to listen to a good variety of Christmas music you don't own by artists you may or may not have been exposed to. I'm listening to a station called Folk Holidays. There are a number of Christmas or holiday stations. This one has a lot of acoustic guitar instrumentals but also has music with vocals. Right now James Taylor is singing "Go Tell It on the Mountain".

If you're not familiar with the way Pandora works, you can pick one of the predefined stations or simply pick an artist or song that you like. If you pick an artist or a song, it will build a station around that artist or song, playing songs that it thinks you will like. These songs are similar to what you originally picked based on a large number of properties about those songs. As it plays the songs you can give each one a thumbs-up or thumbs-down and it will learn more precisely what you like and what you don't. It's actually quite amazing and is a great way to discover artists you aren't familiar with.

The only bad thing about Pandora is that you have to listen to it on your computer...or on an iPhone.

Big Mountain Idol

Last night Laura and I and the kids went to Big Mountain Coffee in Helena to see Big Mountain Idol, a local version of American Idol. One of the four remaining contestants was Megan Clark, the daughter of some friends of ours. Not that I am biased but I thought Megan was the most impressive. She sang a song that she wrote herself and her mellow, coffee-house style was a joy to listen to. She has some real talent. You can read about the contest on the No Sleep in Helena blog. Megan and Randall Nichols (who was also quite good) were the two remaining finalists after the night was over. Next Friday night they both sing at the Buck Creek Festival to determine who wins Big Mountain Idol.