The dueling Christmas albums of 2005 have a clear winner in my book.
Yesterday, I received in the mail my annual Christmas package from my friend Rob in Indiana (Indiana wants me, Lord I can’t go back there…). As always, it was overflowing with Christmas CDs and goodies to brighten my day and pre-occupy my ears for weeks.
I’ve known Rob for several years, and he’s become a great friend. We met when he emailed me because of the Christmas info I had on the website. He’s a Christmas music collector and aficionado, and his knowledge has always been better than mine on the subject, though I’m no slouch. When we first started talking, my collection was larger than his, but he has since gone into overdrive and far outpaced me. I won’t talk numbers because by the time I write them, they’ll be wrong. He surely must add to his pile daily. Mine is hardly stagnant, but I don’t pretend to be able to compete.
So, every year, we exchange Christmas parcels. We spend the months leading up to Christmas making copies and buying extra albums or DVDs or general Christmas stuff, and shipping it across the border to the delight and amusement of the other, and to the benefit of both of our audiences (It’s pricey buying all this stuff, and really time consuming to download). Rob also makes a Christmas CD for friends and family. In fact he sent out 113 copies this year. Astounding, because I know the effort and cost associated with that. We get each other on that level, and not many people can. (I should say, we’ve gotten to be good friends as well, hard not to with Rob, he’s a great guy with a great family, and he’s so open and generous, if you got to know him, you’d want to be his friend too). Since I moved to the web and put everything online, I imagine I’m up there in numbers as well of listeners, although my stats aren’t working on the web so I have no idea how many people are listening to the podcasts (Anyone, anyone?). But I wanted to say was this:
His album is so much better than mine this year.
Sure it’s a mood thing too, you’re in a mood for one thing one day and something else the next, but his album fits what I’m looking for. There’ definitely a few tunes in there I’ll be snagging for next years mixes (oh and before you get all uppity, we both do it. I was flattered to find at least two of my earlier tracks used on Rob’s album this year. Can’t help it, a good tune is a good tune, regardless of where you find it).
When we first exchanged albums, we’d both already been doing this for a while. We had out own styles, we had our own ideas of we wanted ours to be. Frankly, the first year we exchanged albums, I thought his was really good, but I liked my style better, for me anyway – for me and my audience. But in the last couple of years, his albums have really gotten very good and are definitely better than mine this year. I’m feeling bad about mine now that I heard his, because I guess I kind of phoned it in this year. With work and worrying about the technical aspects of putting the podcasts together, the resultant material isn’t nearly as strong as his (or as strong as it could be), and it makes me feel a bit guilty. Sure, I can coast every once in a while, I’ve given out so many Christmas CDs to friends that they never need to get another Christmas album ever, but there can always be new and better songs, better mixes… Well, maybe not always better – It’s hard to top Christmas Turkeys 2 or 4 or Christmas wishes 4 or 9, but sometimes there can be great things to add to the mix. I wish I’d taken my effort and made his CDs into podcasts instead, it would have been the better of both worlds.
But, that’s why they sell different calendars each year. Always a new crack at it, new chances to do new things, better things, works I’m happier with. And I of course will continue to offer my services to Rob as he does to me (he was tremendously helpful on several aspects of the Giveaway invitation of 2005, where he supplied all the voiceovers). We talk every year about collaborations, and someday it will happen. Both of our audiences stand to gain from it, and no doubt bring us both new audiences as well.
(I wish Rob had a website or downloadable files, but in lieu of that, if you’re looking for Christmas music, check out my podcasts: www.jeffco.ca/christmas. His may be better than mine this year, but mine are still worth a listen…)