Showing posts with label Don't Save It All For Christmas Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don't Save It All For Christmas Day. Show all posts

Thursday, December 24, 2015

It wouldn't be Christmas without... Jill Johnson, "Away in a manger"; Yohanna, "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"; Point of Grace, "When Love Came Down"








Sunday, December 22, 2013

These are a few of my favorite things... favorite Christmas songs from some of my favorite singers: Amy Grant, Jill Johnson, Malena Ernman, Yohanna and Point of Grace





Amazing, amazing Amy Grant!
She sounded utterly fantastic and angelic at her Christmas concert at the then-MCI Center
in downtown Washington, D.C. in December of 1999, when she was in town as part of her national tour promoting her CD and third Christmas album, A Christmas to Remember, which featured the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, who was also there in Washington. 

That's only one of my two favorite Christmas albums, and one I took with me on my trip to snowy Stockholm in mid-January, which I played frequently in my room at the 4trappor B&B in Södermalm and then the next week in my hotel room at the wonderfully-convenient Omena Hotel Stockholm in Norrmalm, just a block or so and around the corner from the August Strindberg Intima Theatre, http://www.strindbergsintimateater.se/ -which unfortunately did not have shows while I was there.
I think I played Amy's CD everyday I was there.






Also part of the action at the concert was the sweet and powerful sounds of Points of Grace -and super-talented Michael W. Smith- my first time ever seeing them live, after hearing them for so many years on CDs.
It was heavenly!

The members of POG had gone to the same college in Arkansas as my best friend, 
Shannon, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, and one of my favorite all-time photos of her was actually a shot of them at a table signing CDs down in Woodbridge, VA, with Shannon flashing that mega-watt smile of hers that always wowed people.

Anyway, that's how it sounded to me.

Judge for yourself...






Point of Grace - When Love Came Down, from their 1999 CD, A Christmas Story, one of my two favorite Christmas albums, the other being Amy's.

When I finally Saw POG in 1999 in D.C. with Amy Grant's Christmas tour, with that orchestra sound behind them, it was BEYOND magical :) !

This is when the group was composed of four very talented women: Shelley Breen, Denise Jones, Terry Jones and Heather Payne.





















Something to inspire you:

HGTV Video: Amy Grant's Motor Home: The country music star's tour bus features a private lounge, two TVs and 10 bunks.
http://www.frontdoor.com/celebrity/amy-grants-motor-home-video

and something to remind you that Once Upon A Time, the American TV networks weren't afraid of allowing a religious subtext in a Christmas TV show, like they are now:


The Andy Griffith Show, S1E11, The Christmas Story, Originally aired on CBS-TV on December 19, 1960. Uploaded December 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/TpKn5ceZaQ4

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas cheer straight from the heart of Scandinavia: Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"; Jill Johnson -"O Holy Night", "Christmas With You", "Away In A Manger"




Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" - 
TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009) in 
HD. Stockholm, Sweden. December 15, 2009





Jill Johnson - "O Holy Night" at Jullotta På Liseberg, Göteborg, Sweden. December 8, 2011



Jill Johnson - "Christmas With You" on TV4's Bingolotto, Stockholm, Sweden, December 23, 2011. 

Because I've gotten behind in posting here about the terrific St. Lucia telecast on SVT, I'm going to go ahead and post one of the songs that Jill sang so well recently at Gothenburg Cathedral.
Teaser Alert: The Lucia telecast was sublime again!  



Jill Johnson - "Away In a Manger" from SVT's St. Lucia/Luciamorgon telecast of December 13, 2011 


Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir a.k.a. Yohanna

Jill Johnson

Damian at SwedishStereo, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/ has a great compilation of new and traditional Christmas songs from recent TV shows and performances at his post today, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-weekend-on-swedish-tv.html
I encourage you to check it out.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Wow! Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (HD)

To start the New Year off right, in a positive mood, I'm going to a new favorite of mine this
past year, with Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, a.k.a. Yohanna.

I wrote in this space many, many months ago, much as I had earlier -and justifiably so- for Molly Sandén and Esmée Denters
Hennes enorma talang kunde knappast vara
mer uppenbar!
Her enormous talent could hardly be more obvious!



I was more accurate about that than anything else I wrote here all year.


For your perusal, below, along with the teaser, from just two weeks ago on Dec. 15th in Stockholm, for TV3's Dec. 23rd and 25th broadcast of her amazing performance at their "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"




If you've heretofore neglected to take my sage advice to heart, do yourself a favor and start
the new year off right and take a listen to Yohanna's amazing voice for yourself at

http://www.youtube.com/user/yohannamusic
and
http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and
http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic


You can watch the entire video of the broadcast, by turns beautiful and thoughtful, and just under
59 minutes, at: http://www.tv3.se/play/224911

Once there, click Fullskärm for full screen and best viewing.

The audio is superb.


I should mention as a bonus delight that the second song played here is Yohanna singing
the song she sang in Moscow at Eurovision and captured second place with, Is It True.
I hardly need tell you at this point that she's amazing here, as per usual.
But she is.

I realize that many, if not most of you, won't know whom everyone singing and speaking
is, per se, but trust me, it's well-worth seeing for yourself, and shows what you can put on
television if you genuinely have the desire to put quality first.

It beats the hell out of any original holiday programming that you saw on American TV
networks over the past two weeks -as if there was any!

Don't hold your breath thinking that COMCAST is going to do anything half this quality if
they get the govt. okay to buy NBC-TV.

And besides, what's the point of my having a blog if I can't share with you here, something
that I personally find of great value and pleasure?




Gott Nytt År
!