Trey with the Scorchio Quintet.

Posted via email from Ham Sandwich

Trey with the Scorchio Quintet.

Posted via email from Ham Sandwich

Posted via email from Ham Sandwich

Posted via email from Ham Sandwich

Every year since 1997 I’ve put together the Zabierek Christmas Mix. The first incarnations were on cassette, then we graduated to CD, then DVD, now we have all sorts of nifty resources online to house a mix. The world changes fast, and we change with it. So every year the medium advances, but the thesis remains the same: sum up the year through the frame of Christmas. 

And it’s not only that; I include songs from my past and my present – and some of them are merely on there because they were important songs for me that year, and have little or nothing to do with Christmas but say something about where I’m at in that moment, that year. And sometimes it’s just a melody that fits with the other tunes. 

I love that: sometimes it’s just a song that meant something during a trying or joyous time in my life. It gives a song a frame of reference for its place in my life, and holds it above that lowly designation as a mere recording and propels it into a place of honor in my memory. 

I have a special place in my minds’ eye that holds Christmas for me, that connects me to the person I was when Christmas meant snow and Santa and my brothers and parents; it connects me to the struggles just to pay for presents some years; it connects me to seeing my kids open their gifts on Christmas morning; connects me to all those who have passed from my life; connects me to the beauty and the grace of the human condition in an idealized reverie; it refreshes the joy and freedom and innocence and pure unadulterated (pun intended) fun of childhood encased in a crystal in my mind.

But that’s not everything you’re going to hear in the mixes – that’s just where the Christmas Season sits in my psyche. This year we’ve had some good fun with things, while remaining mindful of the struggle: stay humble. What I mix together is drawn more from realism and a need to provide some drama: songs of trouble and strife, songs of heartache and remorse, songs of melancholy and blues: in addition to telling the real truth about what happens to me every year, these songs provide a backdrop of reality that allows those songs of redemption and hope and Christmas cheer to bring you from those dark places – those blues – and lift you up to something I hope feels like what I feel at Christmas time.

 

That’s the intent: the hope. I have lots of hope. I hope some of it rubs off on you. Even just one song, one line, one melody, for one moment.

From me and mine to you and yours, one and all: Merry Christmas.

~Paul

 

To download a zip file (236.3 MB) of the mix, click here: http://tiny.cc/zxmas2010

To stream it from 8Tracks.com, go here: http://8tracks.com/skitoman/zabierek-christmas-mix-2010

Notes: Due to constraints of the Posterous system, I’ve broken up the mix into two posts. All songs are downloadable individually from Posterous.

 

Complete Track Listing:

1. Christmas / The Who 4:34

2. Dream About Flying / Alexi Murdoch 4:50

3. Old Enough / Rickie Lee Jones 4:21

4. Imagine (feat. Pink, Seal, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono No. … 7:18

5. O Holy Night / Indigo Girls 4:18

6. I And Love And You / The Avett Brothers 5:01

7. Ezekiel Saw The Wheel / The Dixie Hummingbirds 1:33

8. A Cradle In Bethlehem / Nat King Cole 3:25

9. The Transgress – Oneirism op.1 – 08 Bagneux Motel / Th… 4:26

10. You Don’t Have Nothing / The Dixie Hummingbirds 2:26

11. Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing / Preservation Hall Jazz Band… 4:18

12. Family / Bill Frisell 5:22

13. Nobody’s Fault But Mine / The Blind Boys Of Alabama 2:55

14. Repo Man / Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs 6:07

15. Walkin in a Winter Wonderland 3:23

16. Don’t Give Up (feat. Pink, John Legend) / Herbie Hancock 7:27

17. Casimir Pulaski Day / Sufjan Stevens 5:54

18. Hard Times Come Again No More / Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O’Con… 3:44

19. Old Rugged Cross / Preservation Hall Jazz Band 2:54

20. Elephant Power (feat. Bhagavan Das) / MC Yogi 3:24

21. Corpus Christi Carol / Jeff Beck 2:40

22. Sun Will Set / Zoe Keating 7:56

23. Fast Train / Solomon Burke 5:43

24. Linus and Lucy / Bela Fleck & The Flecktones 2:56

25. The Times They Are A-Changin’ (feat. The Chieftans, Tou… 8:05

 

(part I of II)

 

 

This ain’t the end… look at the post previous to this one ================>>  !

 

Posted via email from Ham Sandwich