Playlist of the Week (2018/52)

Playlist of the Week No 52, 2018 Winter Wanderer, curated by Barry McLoughlin

You’ve probably still got a way to go with last week’s Alternative Christmas playlist, but here’s another choice for your Christmas listening, and it’s very classy.

Our POTW this week is the lovely Winter Wanderer playlist, compiled by Barry McLoughlin, whose Acoustic Treasures playlist I featured all the way back in August. This set of songs is in much the same folky singer-songwriter vein, with a fair sprinkling of songs about Christmas, snow and the winter season.

I imagine you’re more organised than me and had the Christmas presents wrapped months ago and you’re pretty much all set to go. (I always manage to leave something to the last minute).  Hopefully you have some time off over Christmas, for time with family and time to reflect on the actual meaning of the season as well as enjoying the trappings and a glass of something comforting.

So it’s a very happy Christmas from me… I’ll be bringing you some more playlists in due course, but would love to know what you’ve thought of the series so far and where you’d like it to go next year.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/51)

Playlist of the Week No 51, 2018: Stoneygate's Alternative ChristmasYou can’t get to this point in the year in a series like this without having a Christmas playlist. It’s becoming a tradition of mine to put Christmas music on whilst I wrap the presents, mainly to try to persuade myself it is that time of year and I need to get a move on otherwise I’ll run out of time.

I enjoy some of the golden oldies, but they do get, well, old. So, a couple of years back or three, I started to compile a YouTube playlist of various lesser known Christmas songs, the ones that you don’t hear over and over again in the shops all the way from about September. It became more than a little obsessive and the list got extremely long, because just about everyone has done a Christmas song.

So this week’s POTW is a bit of a cheat, but it’s my collection of some more obscure Christmas songs, some secular, some sacred, some just plain daft and some serious. It’s got a wide variety of styles, from punk to an African childrens’ choir. There are a whopping 320+ songs included, so it will keep you busy for hours on end whether you’re hanging up the decorations, making the mince pies or preparing the Christmas dinner.  The mood of the songs is mainly grouped together, so if you want more variety, hit the shuffle button.