SOUL SURMISE

MY FAVOURITE 20 CHRISTMAS ALBUMS (or so)

With only twelve days to go it is time for some Christmas songs. Here are a favourite 20 albums for me (22 actually). Enjoy!

 

       1. OVER THE RHINE - ORANGES IN THE SNOW

           OVER THE RHINE - SNOW ANGELS

 

       2.  LOW - JUST LIKE  CHRISTMAS

 

       3. A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR

 

       4. SUFJAN STEVENS - SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS & SILVER & GOLD

 

       5. KATE RUSBY - LIGHT YEARS

 

        6. JANE SIBBERY - CHILD

 

       7. THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA - GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

 

       8. CARA DILLON - UPON A WINTER'S NIGHT

 

       9. BRUCE COCKBURN - CHRISTMAS

 

      10. THE MCGARRIGLE CHRISTMAS HOUR - KATE & ANNA    MCGARRIGLE

 

      11. HORSLIPS - DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY

 

      12. LAURA DAIGLE - BEHOLD (THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION)

 

      13. DIANA KRALL - CHRISTMAS SONGS

 

      14. BRIAN HOUSTON - JOY TO THE WORLD

 

      15. BRIAN WILSON - ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

 

      16. BRIGHT EYES - A CHRISTMAS ALBUM

 

      17. SARAH MCLACHLAN - WINTERSONG

 

      18. TORI AMOS - MIDWINTER GRACES

 

      19. YVONNE LYON - SONGS FOR CHRISTMAS

 

      20. MOYA BRENNAN - AN IRISH CHRISTMAS

 

 

 

 

PEACE WILL COME - MY DEACON BLUE CHRISTMAS MIX 2025

Songs for a spiritually healthy Christmas?

Ricky Ross has a bit of a thing for winter songs, full of snow. He could also be the Christian Christmas Song Laureate. Time and time again that baby appears in his songs.

Here's my 2024 Mix of Deacon Blue Christmas songs, adding the beautiful and poignant prayer  for our time, Peace Will Come and from this year's acoustic record All Over The World. I cannot help but hear the angels singing those two songs for shepherds. 

 

CIRCUS LIGHTS (acoustic)

You want to display your charms
On this bright night
You want to display your charms
Over these circus Christmas lights

 

CHRISTMAS AND GLASGOW

“They could hear choirs, those heavenly choirs 
Choirs of angels, those heavenly choirs...”

 

YOU’LL KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS

“If there’s a star in the sky

If the air is filled the mystery

If there’s a babe in the Church with a choir”

 

BETHLEHEM BEGINS

And nothing's clear I guess a miracle's the only thing
That's ever going to work here
We stayed awake one starry night
Just to watch the sky turn and change and aim...
...
You got to go back, gotta go back, gotta go back in time
To Bethlehem
To begin again

 

STARSTRUCK

“Mother’s still feeling sore

Daddy’s looking sheepish

A little unsure”

 

CALVARY (Ricky Ross)

“A Baby comes, folks don't sleep
Those shepherds keep you up later than you meant to be
One child's grows and people notice
he's breaking chains
and making poor folks' lives so heavenly 
(the way it's meant to be)”

 

HOLY NIGHT (Ricky Ross)

“Holy, holy night
Three tired travellers
Move till morning
One drives, two hold fast
To gifts and bags
And memories
Of holy, holy nights”

 

BETHLEHEM’S GATE (piano version)

“The world groans and strains
For the hope of a time
Like a prayer that
Is wished and willed
To exist”

 

PEACE WILL COME (acoustic)

Peace will come
Just in time to save
Everyone
If they're old or
If they're young
All we know is that
Peace will come
All we know is that
Peace will come

 

THE BELIEVERS

The Believers
Know that it's going to get better
You better
Believe it
Cause no one here will ever forget you
Not let you
We're believers
Believers

 

ALL OVER THE WORLD (Acoustic)

All over this land
People are waiting
To enter the world
Like a new born baby
All over the world
Where nothing's been learned
The flags are changing
So let freedom unfurl
New flags need waving
Let freedom unfurl

 

CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME)

“(Christmas)
The church bells in town
(Christmas)
All ringing in song
(Christmas)
Full of happy sounds
(Christmas)
Baby please come home”

 

MY CHRISTMAS BENEDICTION (2025)

Fr Martin and I were asked to share the Benediction at the Pro Bono Choir, Candlelit Candles At Christmas that was happening in Fitzroy. I thought I would write a Christmas one. 

 

May we all be blessed this Christmas 

By the Father who gave his only son

By the son who gave himself in humility

And by the Spirit who gives us insight into this truth

We pray in hope

For peace and love and justice

All over the world

AMEN

 

I did add in my Welcome that for those in law (Pro Bono Choir is a choir from the Law Society) Christmas was interesting. He who came with a case against... would eventually take their sentence upon himself. Oh the Good News of Christmas!

LUCINDA WILLIAMS SINGS THE BEATLES FROM ABBEY ROAD

Lucinda Williams’ Lu’s Jukebox finds its 7th filling, this time with the songs of The Beatles. Not only that but, to make it more secularly sacred, it has been recorded in Abbey Road. Apparently it is the first time an album of Beatles songs have been recorded there since The Beatles. 

Where Williams’ Texan drawl was ideal for her Dylan record and almost perfect for her interpretation of Tom Petty songs, I wasn’t sure about how she would do with the Fab Four. A first listen to Can’t Buy Me Love and the jury was out.

However, the danger of disaster has been averted by a canny choice of songs. This collection of 12 leans heavily on late Beatles. Indeed, one third are from the last Beatles’ record released Let It Be as if Williams was making her own personal case that it is a better record than many critics suggest. A quarter are from The White album. There are no She Loves Yous here! 

Ms Williams has made her name on bluesy guitar riffs and a voice designed for the shadows. Don’t Let Me Down and Yer Blues are almost written for her, the latter as heavy as Lennon once dreamed it. The Beatles Rooftop strut of I’ve Got A Feeling fits. The excellent guitar playing from Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford hits its peak on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. 

The guitar playing throughout is virtuoso stuff, so tasteful on Harrison’s other contribution, Something and in the piano-less Let It Be which for me transformed from a personal prayer about his band breaking up to McCartney peace chanting as well as his mate John:

 

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree

There will be an answer, let it be

For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, let it be

 

It might be the two more insecure and less covered songs that ring truest. Rain with Siobhan Kennedy’s vocals at their most scrumptious and the depressing drawl of I’m So Tired. Very Lucinda Williams.

Where Lucinda struggles slightly is in the flexibility of her voice. It’s deep resonance does however compensate and Can’t Buy Me Love and I’m Looking Through You become more familiar on repeated listens even if I wish she’d covered Come Together, Revolution and Hey Bulldog instead. 

A satisfying addition.

VAN MORRISON - FULL FORCE GALE

“And no matter where I roam
I will find my way back home
I will always return to the Lord

In the gentle evening breeze
By the whispering shady trees
I will find my sanctuary in the Lord

I was headed for a fall
Then I saw the writing on the wall
Like a full force gale, I was lifted up again
I was lifted up again by the Lord”

        From Full Force Gale by Van Morrison

As the Storm Darragh has us cancelling everything for the next 24 hours, I couldn’t help be drawn to this Van Morrison hymn. Released originally on Van’s Into The Music record, Elvis Costello and the Voice Squad’sversion on the Van Morrison tribute album No Prima Donna heightened the spirituality of the piece. 

It was that version that was used to make it into a choir introit to my installation service in Fitzroy in November 2009. 

Full Force Gale a simple song of trust and dependency. It is a song of belief that God will draw us back and lift us up in the image of the Spirit as a full force gale. The strength of the Spirit blowing through our souls will bring life.

The Old Testament Hebrew word ruah and the New Testament Greek word pneuma mean wind but are used for the Holy Spirit. The image of the Holy Spirit is of a wind that blows through, sometimes gentle and refreshing, other times like a hurricane or full force gale.

The image of the full force gale in the life of a follower of Jesus that I love most is found in John chapter 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. In verse 8 we read, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 

Now, first of all, let us note that the wind that blows here is not the Holy Spirit but the one born of the Spirit. As we fear the power of Darragh, hopefully from the safety of our homes, let us ask if the image we have of followers of Jesus is one of such power and energy and unpredictable force. If not, the Church needs to ask, why not?

If I go back to the sentiment of Van Morrison's song then my prayer is that those of us who feel that our lives are a little lost and directionless might find the full force gale of the Spirit itself lifting us up and returning us home. 

“And no matter where I roam
I will find my way back home
I will always return to the Lord

In the gentle evening breeze
By the whispering shady trees
I will find my sanctuary in the Lord

I was headed for a fall
Then I saw the writing on the wall
Like a full force gale, I was lifted up again
I was lifted up again by the Lord”

        From Full Force Gale by Van Morrison

As the Storm Darragh has us cancelling everything for the next 24 hours, I couldn’t help be drawn to this Van Morrison hymn. Released originally on Van’s Into The Music record, Elvis Costello and the Voice Squad’sversion on the Van Morrison tribute album No Prima Donna heightened the spirituality of the piece. 

It was that version that was used to make it into a choir introit to my installation service in Fitzroy in November 2009. 

Full Force Gale a simple song of trust and dependency. It is a song of belief that God will draw us back and lift us up in the image of the Spirit as a full force gale. The strength of the Spirit blowing through our souls will bring life.

The Old Testament Hebrew word ruah and the New Testament Greek word pneuma mean wind but are used for the Holy Spirit. The image of the Holy Spirit is of a wind that blows through, sometimes gentle and refreshing, other times like a hurricane or full force gale.

The image of the full force gale in the life of a follower of Jesus that I love most is found in John chapter 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. In verse 8 we read, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 

Now, first of all, let us note that the wind that blows here is not the Holy Spirit but the one born of the Spirit. As we fear the power of Darragh, hopefully from the safety of our homes, let us ask if the image we have of followers of Jesus is one of such power and energy and unpredictable force. If not, the Church needs to ask, why not?

If I go back to the sentiment of Van Morrison's song then my prayer is that those of us who feel that our lives are a little lost and directionless might find the full force gale of the Spirit itself lifting us up and returning us home.