CHRISTMAS SONGS! They start playing too soon and there are only actually, like, four of them (think about it) and they’re all terrible. Until eight years ago, these claims were unassailably true. Unquestionably true. Boringly true, even. But now, there are great Christmas songs thanks to a VW dealership in Oklahoma and I’m angry at everyone reading this (especially you) for not telling me about this sooner.
Fowler Volkswagen of Norman, Oklahoma (just south of Oklahoma City) has been working with Blackwatch Studio to produce Christmas albums for the last eight years. The songs are all performed (and oftentimes written) by local, Oklahoma talent and the songs are, like, actually really good.
The project started way back when Jonathan Fowler, now President of Fowler VW, was just the General Manager. Fowler was looking for a way to promote the dealership and also happened to be a passionate fan of the local music scene.
“His marketing team came alongside and they came up with the idea to create a free vinyl record,” Kristen Vails, Fowler Automotive’s Director of Community Outreach tells us. “Blackwatch is the talented team who handles the selection, production, and creative behind the record each year, and now we at Fowler just get to make it happen by funding the project and distributing the records.”
Through the years, acts like Desi and Cody have produced the very good (and also very Patsy Cline-esque) “It Just Ain’t Christmas Without You.” Munch has given us the very dreamy “Kissmas.” And Boondice has a really retro techno cover of “Ave Maria” (performance of? When is a cover no longer a cover?).
These songs, all, are very good. But one song rises above that, into the realm of greatness. Of once in a lifetime genius. And that song is “Lights, Camera, Christmas.” Words and accolades will inevitably fail to do its genius justice, so just listen instead:
And this year, we get another nine songs to warm the cockles of our hearts! The songs come to us from great OK artists: Sports, Beau Jennings, Chair Model, Duke Luther, Swim Fan, Space Face, Hot Cider, Day Drinker, and James McAllister.
Want more good news? You got it! The album is free on Bandcamp. Want even more good news?! Sure thing! There’s a free vinyl LP available at the dealership! Even more gooder news? You’re asking for a lot, but whatever, fine. 100% OF DONATIONS GO TO THE NORMAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS ELEMENTARY MUSIC PROGRAM. They’re already planning for the next generation of independent Christmas music creators!
It’s good news on top of good news on top of even more good news and that’s something there’s been precious little of this year and I think we should all show Fowler VW a little more appreciation because they worked hard to give us this.
If you’re as surprised as I was to find out that Oklahoma not only has a vibrant music scene but a really good one, too, (sorry, Oklahoma) you clearly haven’t been reading Livability.com, which ranked Tulsa as the ninth best music city in America. Who knew? And now Blackwatch Studio wants to make Oklahoma the independent Christmas music capital of the world, which is adorable and wholesome and more states should follow its lead.
This year’s album will be handed out for free on black Friday and the songs, again, run the gamut of styles.
“I thought it would be awesome to do an 80s-feeling Christmas ballad,” Taylor Johnson, a member of the trio Chair Model, told the Norman Transcript. “The tubular bells and sleigh bells were enough to set the whole thing off for me.”
But again there will be some country on the album, too.
“I wrote this as if I knew Dwight Yoakam might sing it one day,” Beau Jennings told the paper. “There’s a kind of lonesome haunted cowboy spirit to Christmas that for some reason I always feel but that I don’t always hear in other songs. I was kind of trying to extract that feeling. There’s that feeling of, ‘I know there’s some magic to Christmas cause I’ve felt it before, but its sure gone now so I gotta go look for it again.’”
But you know what isn’t gone yet? This album. Because the vinyl pressings are being handed out–for free!!–tomorrow. And if you miss it, like we will because of the stupid thousands of miles between us and Oklahoma, it will be available on Blackwatch’s Bandcamp page, just like all of its other albums!
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