Tune in to KRTS every day this week for special holiday programming. Here’s what we’ve got on the schedule for today:
11 AM to 1 PM, A Folk Alley Christmas -Folky Christmas tunes, from the thousand year old song Holly and the Ivy to the 1960's Mr Grinch. Selections from one John Fahey's groundbreaking 1975 Christmas album to one by youngster Sufjan Stevens. A Folk Alley recording of Celtic Band Grada performing a rip-roaring fiddle version of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree to a lovely version of O Tannenbaum on zithers.
3 PM, Navidad y Cancion - The Latin American Music Center and WFIU Public radio at Indiana University invite you to listen to this Spanish-language program that draws a sketch of the history and culture of Latin American through its Christmas songs. This program features colonial villancicos, protest songs, and dance music.
7 PM, A Cowboy Christmas from the Western Folklife Center - A Cowboy Christmas celebrates the holiday with memories, music, and poetry of people who live and work in the isolation of America's outback. Some of the stories and songs are family traditions passed down through the generations while others are new works inspired by Christmas on the lonely range. This program features poets Baxter Black, Waddie Mitchell, and Native American singer and comedian Vincent Craig.
8 PM, Juke in the Back’s R&B Christmas – This show is loaded with the greatest R&B Christmas records from the late 1940s and 1950s. It’s the yuletide soul that came before rock n’ roll. From the all-time classics by Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters and The Orioles to some rarer Christmas plattahs from Amos Milburn, JB Summers and The Five Keys.
9 PM, All Songs Considered Christmas - Host Bob Boilen, producer Robin Hilton, NPR Music editor Stephen Thompson, and guest Barrie Hardymon of Talk of the Nation share some of the tunes that get them in the mood for warm cookies, hot cocoa, and even Santa Claus.