Yep. Plenty more. Let's start with a young lady trying to make a difference. Kate Diaz is a 13 year old from Illinois who, as it happens, writes and sings and plays a little guitar. She's pretty good, too. Beats the hell out of Beiber, as far as I'm concerned. She's got a sometime gig at a local restaurant in Buffalo Grove. And, last year, to raise money for the National Childhood Cancer Foundation's Cure Search For Children's Cancer, she raffled off her guitar and collected up her tips from the restaurant.
This year, hoping to do even more, Kate recorded an original song, "Christmas Smiles". So, this year, in addition to her tips, Kate will donate all her proceeds from downloads of this single made on iTunes and Amazon MP3 between Thanksgiving and December 25. Obviously, the more downloads Kate sells, the more money will go to finding a cure for children's cancer. Additionally, there will be a free charity concert held at Potbelly's in Buffalo Grove, IL. (the restaurant where Kate sings) on December 18th, with the restaurant donating to the cause 25% of all dinner sales between 5 and 9 PM that night.
It helps that it's a pretty good song, but I'd have bought a download regardless. How can you not? Download the song through Amazon MP3 or iTunes. To learn more, visit Kate's web site. And, although the download version is a full band and professionally produced, here's a video of Kate performing the song solo and unplugged.
This year, hoping to do even more, Kate recorded an original song, "Christmas Smiles". So, this year, in addition to her tips, Kate will donate all her proceeds from downloads of this single made on iTunes and Amazon MP3 between Thanksgiving and December 25. Obviously, the more downloads Kate sells, the more money will go to finding a cure for children's cancer. Additionally, there will be a free charity concert held at Potbelly's in Buffalo Grove, IL. (the restaurant where Kate sings) on December 18th, with the restaurant donating to the cause 25% of all dinner sales between 5 and 9 PM that night.
It helps that it's a pretty good song, but I'd have bought a download regardless. How can you not? Download the song through Amazon MP3 or iTunes. To learn more, visit Kate's web site. And, although the download version is a full band and professionally produced, here's a video of Kate performing the song solo and unplugged.
Xander Rawlins considers himself a soldier first and a musician second. But it's his ability to make music that kept up the spirits of his British Army Platoon as they faced the Taliban in Afghanistan. As a musician, Rawlins writes what he knows and, as a soldier, he knows the sadness of separation from loved ones at Christmas time. "1000 Miles Apart" will be released December 13th, with proceeds going to Combat Stress and ABF The Soldiers' Charity, a British fund that goes to assist in treating veteran's mental health issues. The single will be available in this country on Amazon MP3 and should also be available on iTunes.
Not a single, exactly--not officially anyway--but El DeBarge's latest album, "Second Chance" contains a few Christmas songs that are ready made for the holiday market. First with his family and then on his own, El DeBarge had a nice little chart run in the 80s, with his most memorable effort likely being 1985's Top 10 track "Rhythm Of The Night" (#1 R&B). El DeBarge continued making R&B hits through the 90s, though Pop success has been elusive. "Second Chance" contains a straight forward cover of "Silent Night" and a pair of holiday originals, "Christmas Without You" and "Heart Full Of Love". The 2-disc "Second Chance" was released November 30 and can be found on Amazon.
Pop singer Jason Mraz pulled a sneaky one when no one was looking. Over the summer, he recorded "Winter Wonderland" in his typical Mraz style. But, instead of releasing it as a stand-alone single, the song was tacked onto the digital version of "A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 7" on iTunes. Just to keep things confusing, iTunes maintained the listing for the original version, the one without Mraz, even though both versions carry the same album price. At least the song is available for a la carte purchase.
Buckcherry was never really much more than a cult band, or at least that's how I remember them. The hard rock band had a couple of good albums, one really good music video (which I can't even remember at this late date), toured with Lenny Kravitz and then split up. They've never been the same band since they reformed, again in my opinion. This single isn't terrible, it's pretty good in fact--a nice little blues-rock tune that makes me long for Black Crowes at their peak--but it's not especially special either. And that's been the band's problem from the outset. Again, just my opinion. At least "Christmas Is Here" has the most memorable cover art of the Christmas singles this year. If it were a picture sleeve 7", I'd buy it for that. Find it on Amazon and iTunes.
If you're in need of an American Idol fix, well, too bad. Michael Sarver couldn't convince his label to release the Christmas album he'd recorded, so he put it out himself. Lee DeWyze, Season 9 winner (really?), apparently cut a single version of "O Holy Night", but no one wants to hear it. He hasn't even put it up on his own site (meet the next Taylor Hicks). Bo Bice, meanwhile, gave away "A Very Merry Christmas" last year. This year, that song and "Little Drummer Boy" are for sale through his web site only (check the Bandbox player, lower right). Tune in next year for the Sanjaya debacle (which wouldn't be a bad band name, actually).
Finally, for this round, we come to an exceedingly charming and somewhat different project altogether. Thumped.com is an on-line music community in Ireland. An off-hand remark got heads a-buzzing and the community decided to demonstrate that music could be written and recorded through on-line collaboration. Board members each wrote a line having seen only the preceding line. Somehow, a song was born. "Christmastime In Dublin Town" is already a minor hit in Ireland and the UK. But the song and video are infectious enough that this thing could possibly spread world wide. Portions of the money raised from the download sales (a physical single is planned as well) will be donated to a Wet Hostel in Dublin. Pick this one up on iTunes (don't see it on Amazon yet), or just enjoy the video. And visit the group's Facebook page for more info on the single.
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