John Wesley Harding Talks Christmas & Dag Juhlin Loves It

Some cool yule of the day for you: John Wesley Harding’s Talking Christmas Goodwill Blues from his 1989 EP, God Made Me Do It.  If it’s not already on your holiday playlist, you can grab it here, here, or here.

I suggest plunking down the 5 or so bucks in one place or another for the full EP.  Wes provides a version of Like a Prayer that is too good to be missed, and too good not to be shouted out next time you see him live and he’s taking requests.  Sure, everyone in the audience who hasn’t been down with JWH for two decades will stare at you like you’re an ass for shouting out random Madonna songs, but only until he throws it down.

Yes, that WAS me at Schubas that one night about 8 years ago.  (Think I have a bootleg tape of that show somewhere…) That was the same night I also shouted out a seemingly random request of The Who’s Goin’ Mobile to the opening axe, Poi Dog’s Dag Juhlin, right before he rocked it out for us, windmill and all.  (Man, I REALLY need to find that tape.)

Ooh!  Speaking of Dag, he also a great lil Christmas track now that I think of it.  It was a part of XRT’s Local Anesthetic’s Holiday Spectacular last year, and I liked it so much, I reached out to Dag directly to ask about its availability (I know I get obsessed.  You think I don’t know that?  I do.)  Genuinely great guy that he is, Dag sent it to me.  I just dropped him a line asking if it’s out there anywhere at the moment.  Will let you know.

Merry Christmas!

JWH, Talking Christmas Goodwill Blues

Dag Juhlin, I Love Christmastime

While we’re speaking of Dag, I’d be remiss in not mentioning him as a man to follow on Twitter.  Check out what JWH has to say about Dag’s pastime in Magnet, and watch them do a live read of Dag’s “coverage” of SXSW here.