Thanksgiving

Folk radio show celebrates Thanksgiving in song

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The Kingston Coffee House WRIU 90.3 FM

OPEN

  • Fairport Convention “Now Be Thankful” Full House, 1970
  • Louden Wainwright III “Thanksgiving” Career Moves, 1993

Psalm 136 MESS AROUND

John Candy in "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles"
John Candy
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter “Thanksgiving Song” Come Darkness, Come Light 2008
  • Brigid Mae Power “I’m Grateful”
  • Ballake Sissoko & Piers Faccini “Special Rider Blues” Our Calling, 2025
  • Mahalia Jackson “I’m Grateful”
  • The Avett Brothers “I Thank God” Move Your Heart, 2021
  • Bela Fleck & Chris Thile “Psalm 136” My Bluegrass Heart, 2021
  • Monks of Senegal “We Praise You Invisible Father”
  • IMH Moloka’ai “Ho’onani O Ka Makua Mau”
  • Ray Charles “Mess Around” (RIP John Candy)
Brigid Mae Power
Brigid Mae Power

A FRENCH HARVEST

  • Jane Birkin” Harvest Moon” (N Young) Jane Birkin, 2006
  • Lukas Nelson & Sierra Ferrell “Unknown Legend” (N Young)

COME ON HOME

  • Vince Guaraldi “Theme” from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973
  • Bob Dylan “Turkey Chase” from the film Pat Garret & Bill the Kid, 1973
  • John Prine “Summer’s End” The Tree of Forgiveness. 2018

OK, WITH ONIONS

  • Ivor Cutler “Wheely Down” (R Thompson) The World is a Wonderful Place
  • Karine Polwart “I Burn But I Am Not Consumed” Laws In Motion, 2019
  • Jesse Welles “No Kings” 2025

TABLES, CHAIRS & MORE LOVE

Andrew Bird
  • Avett Brothers “Murder In the City” The Second Gleam, 2008
  • Connie Converse “Ash Grove”
  • The Brothers Four “Trouble” from the film Happy, Happy
  • Andrew Bird “Tables and Chairs” The Mysterious Production of Eggs, 2005
  • Ólöf Arnolds “Heimurinn Nuna” Spira, 2025
  • Tim O’Brien “More Love” (J Hartford) A Tribute To John Hartford – Live From Mountain Stage. 
  • Jake Xerxes Fussell & James Elkington “Callie Rose” from the film Rebuilding, 2025

STOP YOUR TEARS

  • Arlo Guthrie “1913 Massacre” (W Guthrie) Hobo’s Lullaby, 1972
  • Laura Marling “The Valley”)” Semper Femina, 2017
  • Muireann Bradley “These Days” (J Browne) Rose Songs, 2025
  • Aldous Harding “Stop Your Tears” Aldous Harding, 2014

HONEST AND ORDINARY

  • Sam Robbins “Rosie” So Much I Still Don’t See, 2025
  • Ordinary Elephant “Harriet” Honest, 2025
  • Jesse Welles “The Poor”

PSALM 118, NORWEGIANS & THE BIG GUNS

  • Ancient Jewish Air – “Hodu l’AdonaI KI Tov” (Psalm 136)
  • Highasakite “Heavenly Father” (Justin Vernon) 2018
  • The Lucky Four “So Glad I Got Good Religion” from the film Happy, Happy
  • Jenny Lewis “The Big Guns” Rabbit Fur Coat, 2006

CLOSE

  • Barbara Dare & the Chambers Brothers “Go Tell It On the Mountain”
  • The Band “The Night They Drove Ol Dixie Down” The Last Waltz

The Wild Blue Turkey That Blew My Mind

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TurkeyAppreciating the avian diversity that’s there to astound us—if only we look.

By Jessica Leber

There are only two species of turkey in the world, and we’re all familiar with one: the Wild Turkey. A magnificent bird first domesticated by the Aztecs and later again by Native Americans, its farm-bred form will fill our Thanksgiving plates this November, while wild flocks continue their decades-long recovery from overhunting and habitat loss across the eastern United States.

Let’s first take a minute to appreciate the Wild Turkey’s comeback, or perhaps even savor its sweet revenge as the birds apparently terrorize growing swaths of suburbia.

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God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

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By Jon Wilks

“The merry time of Christmas is drawing on a-pace…”, and so I’m delighted to share with you this Birmingham-related recording of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” [Roud 394], taken from my forthcoming album, “Up The Cut”. You can listen to (and download) the track via my Bandcamp page now, and via various streaming platforms from December 1st.

Pre-save “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” on Spotify by clicking here. You will be notified via the Spotify app when it becomes available.

I found this broadside version of the well-known carol on the Broadside Ballads website. Printed by D. Wrighton at 86 Snow Hill, Birmingham, sometime between 1812-30, it contains lyrics I don’t recognise from my school days. Throwing down Satan wasn’t a major part of Yuletide festivities in 1980s Solihull, as far as I recall.

Sure, it’s a bit cheesy to do a Christmas song, but I feel it’s something of a Midlands tradition. If Slade can do it, then I’ll have a bash, too. This one’s for Noddy. Oi, oi!

Huge thanks to Andi Lee of Kosi Studios, who has helped me to mix and master this track, and the remainder of the tracks on “Up The Cut”. It’s hard to listen to your own music even once, let alone a hundred times over, so I’m very grateful to Andi for his help (and to Tom Moore for his help in demoing the track to begin with). Thanks also to Jon Nice for the lovely linocut cover.

Here’s to having as peaceful and restful a Christmas as 2020 will allow. Good tidings of the season to each and every one of you.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Lyrics

God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our saviour
Was born on Christmas Day
To save our souls from Satan’s thrall
Which long have gone astray
This brings tidings of comfort and joy

 

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