Advent Calendar Day 9

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If I look at my music collection, even from the early days, I’m always struck by how much of it is what you would call ‘female singer-songwriter music,’ so it seemed a good idea to devote at least one of my Advent Calendar posts to them. One of these will probably be familiar to you – the artist, even if not the song – whereas the other is probably going to be new to most of you. I hope so, as one of the joys for me in doing this is sharing music I like to a new audience. Both of these have been in my selections for previous years, but I’m working on the assumption that no one will remember that!

My first song today is by one of the best singer-songwriters of the past 50+ years:

In case you didn’t know, that is a track from what I still think is the best album Joni Mitchell has ever made – Blue, which was released in 1971. This was Joni’s second successive top ten album here, reaching #3, and it got as far as #15 in the US and #9 in her native Canada. This is such a beautiful song, and that video of Snoopy and friends is a perfect fit for it: it brings something to my eye whenever I watch it.

As I said, I doubt that many of you will know of today’s second performer. A singer-songwriter in her own right, she has also made what I think is the best version of a seasonal favourite and, again, the video is a perfect fit:

Brynn Andre released an album and a few EPs between 2009 and 2012, but then went rather silent. She got married and developed a couple of freelance careers, as a copywriter and a life coach, which you can find under her married name of Brynn Johnson or the company name – Swandive –  if you are in need of either service! I had rather assumed that she had left the music business completely, but then she popped up in a collaboration in 2018 and dipped her own toe in the water again in 2019 with a single called Pools (see what I did there?). Her social media accounts have been equally quiet, though she did thank me on Facebook when I commented how much I enjoyed Pools, but I’m still hopeful that she may one day make a return to music. On her company website there’s a questionnaire to which she answers ‘If I could do one thing for the rest of my life….’ with ‘songwriting.’ Fingers crossed!

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s more relaxed choices. Leaving you for today, as always, with a little something to (I hope) make you smile:

See you tomorrow 🙂

29 thoughts on “Advent Calendar Day 9”

  1. Hi Clive
    Brynn was new to me and I can see why you like her voice
    And I knew Joni but not that song –
    In fact – don’t know many of her songs (but there is an Yvette one, right?)
    And the video with snoopy and Joni singing and then reading your thoughts about how much you like it was really beautiful
    Reminds me that this is the kind of stuff that keeps us in tune – songs that speak to us deeply
    🎶🎶🎶
    Okay – be back later to catch up a little more and hope you have a great weekend

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  4. The Peanuts video totally matches Joni Mitchell’s song. I wrote this comment before I watched the second video. All I can say is Wow! Let it Snow is one of my favorite holiday tunes, and this video is amazing!

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    • A great match, well suited to each other. Glad you liked Brynn’s voice too – yes, it was nice to get a reply. It seems to be a feature of female singers that they reply – I’ve had quite a few responses to comments. It helps to be nice to them, I guess…

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      • You could well be right. Straight off the top of my head I could think of three others who have responded – and clearly them, not just someone running their page. Or maybe I just like music by nice people?

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      • You got a response from Gangstagrass, who tagged us both on Twitter. Didn’t respond when I tweeted them back though. I think we’re right to think only women reply 😂

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      • I remember Gangstagrass responding, and being curious what you thought of their music. I’m surprised they did not respond to your tweet.

        Another band I heard from is Mamadear; I don’t know if you were following me back then, but here is the post I did about them: https://jborden.com/2019/09/30/music-monday-country-music-trio-mamadear-you-gottahear/
        I’d be curious what you think of their music. The first video, the acoustic one while sitting on a couch, is one of my favorite songs…

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      • I guess they were still a bit miffed that I wasn’t too complimentary in my first comment. But I did subscribe to their YouTube channel!

        I wasn’t following you back then, so hadn’t seen that post before, nor had I heard of the band. Nice, catchy stuff, and she has a great voice. I’ll look them up on Apple Music.

        Funnily enough, one of my favourite bands has a song with the same title as that first one. It’s a bit different: see what you make of this: https://youtu.be/_jEZl8wzuY4

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      • She does have a great voice; to me it’s right up there with Sarah from WOTE.

        Ah, yes. Oysterband. You had written a post featuring them before, and I loved the song you included (Spirit of Dust). And the song Steal Away is another winner. I really like his voice.

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      • A good comparison. I’ve added all of their songs to my Apple Music library.

        Spirit of Dust is probably my favourite of the Oysters’ but I’ve been a fan for 30 years so it’s a bit hard to choose! That is on the same album as Steal Away – the most recent they have released apart from a best of. They sound just as good live as on record, and John Jones’ voice kind of wraps you up in their slower songs. You remember the Bellowhead one that you liked – New York Girls? The Oysters recorded that on an early album. The video is on YouTube – a bit grainy but they clearly enjoyed themselves making it!

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      • I don’t know why Mamadear has not gotten more publicity. Hopefully they have a breakthrough at some point.

        that was a great video by the oysters – they seemed like they were having a lot of fun. Is that a Bellowhead tune, or just a popular song that a lot of bands play?

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      • Hopefully they will, they’re good enough and have supported some big names so should get noticed.

        Glad you enjoyed the video. The song is a traditional sea shanty and there are many recordings. The three I know best are Steeleye Span (with Peter Sellers on ukulele) from 1975, Oysterband in 1989 and Bellowhead in 2010.

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