stone soul christmas playlist

If you're anything like me, you're probably fed up with all of the treacly department store and easy listening Christmas music you've been hearing for the past month or longer. Actually, according to the graph below, it seems most of us have been listening to the same tried-and-true Christmas songs for 50 years or more.

I think it's high time we change that played-out record. Don't you?

With that thought in mind, I put together the 'Stone Soul Christmas' playlist featuring 26 tracks of soulful, funky, and bluesy Christmas songs. Have a listen:

This music selection is ideal for:

Those who love Christmas music, but want to add a little more spice to their holiday music selection.

This musical selection pairs perfectly with:

Wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve, cooking dinner on Christmas day, sipping hot toddies, snuggling by the fire, and getting down under the mistletoe.

holiday cheers,

k

photo: christmas cd cover by happy_serendipity, on Flickr

music to cook to: C.O.L.O.U.R.S. mixtape by Fonzworth Bentley

Summer is officially over, but here in Georgia we’re still in that weird phase between summer and true fall that I call ‘second summer’. We’ll continue to see temperatures in the 70s and 80s during the day (without the stifling humidity, thank god), and we’ll really only notice it’s fall when the sun sets and temps reach a more autumnal range of 50s and 60s.

As always, I tend to find metaphors for life in nature. As I approach my mid-thirties, I kind of feel like I and all of my peers are entering into our own ‘second summers’. We still have the youthful exuberance and silliness of our 20s, we still like to party and dance like we used to as younguns but, thankfully we’ve traded the stifling atmosphere of the club for the more comfy atmosphere of house parties and private venue shindigs. Our priorities have shifted from student loans and changing majors to mortgage loans and major changes in career, marital, and social status. And though we may still like to booty-shake and drop it like it’s hot, we know better than to do so in public, for fear that someone from the office or the PTA might see.

While cleaning out some files from my digital library this week, I happened upon an obscure and almost-forgotten track I’d saved a couple of years ago. The light party track, “Everybody”, was an unexpected yet effective collaboration among Fonzworth Bentley, Andre 3000, Kanye West, and Sa-Ra Creative Partners. And as you can tell from the video, these guys had a lot of fun working together on it.

As it turns out, “Everybody” is just 1 selection from a 17-track mixtape entitled, “Fonzworth Bentley Presents C.O.L.O.U.R.S. by Derek Watkins”. The mixtape features Fonzworth’s musical collaborations with several heavy hitters, like U.G.K., Faith Evans, Lil’ Wayne and Anthony Hamilton – all artists who came into their own in the 90s. The mixtape obviously never received a lot of press or any airplay; I hadn’t even heard the entire playlist until this week. But as I listened, I realized that the C.O.L.O.U.R.S. mixtape was the perfect ‘second summer’ soundtrack, especially for us Georgia born and bred folk. Once you have a listen, I think you’ll agree that it conjures up all the good times and the party-days of southern summers past, and would make a worthwhile addition to your next house party or an appropriate backdrop for your next “remember when we used to…” conversation.

This musical selection is ideal for:

Georgia representers, A-town stunnas, anybody who ever yelled ‘yeek’ at the club or the talent show, those who partied and/or studied in the AUC in the 90s, and everybody who knew Fonzworth Bentley when he was a Morehouse student named Derek Watkins,

This musical selection pairs perfectly with:

A late afternoon weekend barbecue featuring turkey burgers, veggie skewers and portobello mushroom caps instead of the pork ribs, mystery-meat hot dogs, and beef burgers we downed without consequence when we were younger. Serve with a nice pinot noir or craft beer – not the Icehouse and Arbor Mist that were more appropriate for our as-yet-unexpanded drinking palates and budgets. Okay, okay. You can bring back the old school hunch-punch if you want, but just this once. ;-)

Stream the C.O.L.O.U.R.S.  mixtape for free

Download free tracks from the C.O.L.O.U.R.S. mixtape

Purchase the mixtape on

cheers y’all,

k

i'm listening to: jill scott - the light of the sun

Buy on | Buy on Amazon | Listen (Grooveshark)

Album: The Light of the Sun (Deluxe)

Sounds Like: The official 2011 soundtrack of the 'grown ass woman'

Makes Me Wanna: laugh, dance, sing, cry, and stage a one woman lip-synch show in my living room

Filed Under: r&b, new / progressive soul

Favorite Tracks: Le Boom Vent Suite, So Gone (What My Mind Says), Shame

I am currently obsessed with this CD. Once again, our girl Jill has found a way to put words to the silent songs I sing about love, life, relationships and black womanhood. How does she do it? I don't know. Don't really care. Just glad that she does, and glad that she does it so well. I think you will be to. Cop. Now.

cheers,

k

music for independence day – a collection of freedom songs

Is it just me? Even though Independence Day has come and gone, I can still sense a distinct feel of freedom in the air. Several of my acquaintances are making bold choices, breaking with normal patterns of behavior, becoming a little more daring, a little more liberated, and a lot more in touch with the little voice inside that often urges us: Just do it. Just be you. Tell your story. Dance your dance. Sing your song. For this past 4th of July holiday, I compiled a personal collection of songs about freedom and independence that I thought captured the spirit of the holiday while not necessarily being all about American patriotism. I decided to call it the ‘End Dependence Day’ playlist.

I hope you enjoy this selection of 20+ tracks that convey the importance of freedom of mind, body, heart, and spirit. More than that, I hope that in some small way, this playlist might inspire you to: make a fool of yourself for a good cause, to tell fear to go take a long walk off a short bridge, or to flip yourself the finger in the mirror – partly to symbolize defiance of your own unrealistic expectations, but mostly to see how badass you look doing it.

End Dependence Day Playlist on Grooveshark   End Dependence Day Playlist on iTunes cheers, k

Photo: Welcome to Independence by taberandrew