Melissa Carper -- A Very Carper Christmas
Carla Frankenbach whisks us away on a winter wonderland tour of Melissa Carper's A Very Carper Christmas, a holiday album that emphasizes warmth and sincerity over glamorous camp.
I’m a hardcore Christmas enthusiast. I start decorating November 1st, Thanksgiving be damned, and I spend all year looking forward to the holiday season. But even I am having trouble leaning into the Christmas spirit this year. The heightened economic and sociopolitical chaos weighs heavy, and recent headlines suggest many will be scraping together a smaller holiday this year. All that to say, Melissa Carper’s grounded, cozy Christmas album A Very Carper Christmas couldn’t come at a better time. The musician nicknamed “HillBillie Holiday” teamed up with old bandmate Gina Gallina to craft an album that makes you feel like you’re gathered around the fire next to them as they play it.
Carper resists the easy escapism of the typical holiday fare and makes a much more interesting album inside the details of more realistic celebrations. Some Christmas songs may spin tales about treks through snowy forests to cut down a tree, but Carper keeps it real and kicks off the album with "Plug in the Tree," an ode to the trusty artificial tree in the attic, whose “Christmas cheer is automatic.”
A song like "Dumpster Divin’ on Christmas Eve" makes a holiday magic out of fishing discarded cheeseballs and damaged toys out of the trash. In "Made With Love" and "It’s Not Hard to Write a Christmas Card," Carper extolls the virtues of hand made gifts and thoughtful messages, “something you can’t find in the shopping mall chains.” My personal favorite is "Just One Stocking," a melancholic Dylanesque musing on a lonely Christmas spent at a Waffle House. Her finely rendered details put you right in the booth with her, eyeing a fellow patron spending the holiday alone.
With a wide range of musical styles throughout, there is something for everyone, from traditional bluegrass to jazz, to a jaunty Cajun number about a Christmas in New Orleans, her first spent away from her hometown of North Platte, Nebraska. "I Want A Dog For Christmas" and "Cats in the Christmas Tree" even caters to both dog and cat people, a rare feat!
Whether your holiday includes extravagance or not, in A Very Carper Christmas Melissa Carper reminds us of the joy and whimsy that can still be found no matter how weighted a holiday season may feel, or how many presents are under the tree.
Melissa Carper – WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TIKTOK | BANDCAMP | SPOTIFY