Amanda Shires, Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon, and Julian Koster

This week, we have a few guests again as Christmas nears. Americana
artist Amanda Shires is on hand to talk about For Christmas,
and the way it reflects some of the less common impulses behind
Christmas music. The husband and wife team of Rod and Rose—country
singer Rodney Atkins and Rose Falcon—talk about why they recorded
“Winter Wonderland,” and how their conflicting writing styles got
them to a new song for this holiday season. Finally, indie
multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster drops by to talk about his role
in the 2008 album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime. 
  We’ll have more with all three in 2022.   In the news
this week, host Alex Rawls contributed a story on the influence of
Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown
Christmas to The New Orleans Advocate. The story includes
quotes from George Winston, Steven Drozd, Kristin Chenoweth, Joey
Burns of Calexico, Mega Ran, and Jen Gunderman of The Ornaments,
all drawn from episodes of this podcast.    If you’re
maxing out on the Christmas music you have, let us help. At
Spotify, you can listen to our 24-hour “Twelve Songs of Christmas
Radio.” Just click Shuffle and you get the Christmas radio
experience minus the repetition. Or, you can email
Alex@myspiltmilk.com to get an mp3 of our 90-minute holiday
mix.    If you haven't already done so, please do what
you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. You can
find us at Apple Podcasts, Google
Play, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify.