Christmas albums still carry some stigma among fans of artists with higher profiles. It can be difficult, firstly, to overcome the expectation that it is either a money grab or a sop to sentimentality, and secondly, to come up with an original take on seasonal music, even with the best intentions. If the artist deigns to go on a full-fledged Christmas music tour, suspicions may become even stronger. What, other than opportunism, could be the reason for such devotion to the season?
So God bless random singer-songwriters like Ben Folds who sees Christmas as a way to write the songs he usually writes, not only for a new album, but also for an actual concert. His recently concluded Tis the Season tour was a real Christmas star, shining a light on the right way for this kind of thing, as was the slyly titled 2024 album Sleigher, consisting of mostly original material. Folds brings a satisfying quality to the concert holistic approach to holiday music, give or take a couple of “hos.”
Even before Folds recorded “Sleigher,” there was plenty of compelling evidence that he was up to the task. The thing is, he's already written and recorded a number of songs that reference Christmas or the holidays either explicitly or casually – previous tunes that, when combined with the “Sleigher” material, easily folded into a complete set, before moving on to any non-seasonal songs thrown in as bonus tracks for the encore. The most notable of these, as any fan knows, is his late '90s hit “Brick,” a ballad about how he took his girlfriend to have an abortion on December 26th. Once you've written it as your first “Christmas song,” you've set a subtle external parameter for how far you're willing to push the genre, whatever it may be.
At one of two sold-out shows at the new Los Angeles club. Cafe Blue Notewhere he was one of the few non-jazz artists recorded to date in the club's young life, Folds and his band naturally performed “Brick” along with several other pre-existing holiday songs that tended toward that outer edge, such as the novelty songs “Bizarre Christmas Incident” and the immodestly titled “Bitch Went Nutz.” But Christmas subversion isn't really his thing, at least not his current job. And Sleigher, despite its irreverent title, leans more towards the center, with serious songs that aren't afraid to at least shy away from feeling, if not indulge in it, even if that feeling is loneliness. Overall, as filming progressed, Folds managed to play Christmas in a comedic style, but more often than not he came up with something more serious, even going so far as to unapologetically spotlight Mel Tormé and Vince Guaraldi.
From the outset, he explained why he believes this season is a significant platform for original songs.
“I like a good rhyme, and that’s why I probably got around to writing a whole Christmas album, as well as a few other songs in the past,” he told the Blue Note audience. “He had Christmas songs in his catalog and a lot of songs that mentioned him,” and I think the reason is because once a year he becomes so pervasive. This is such a hooligan of the holiday – it takes over everything. This is a celebration that is too big to fail. And it's the same shit every year. It’s the same colors, the same sights, sounds, songs, everything… the same advertising… And it’s a gift.”
He would have to explain it further, and he did.
“Because when everything remains the same and seems like a continuation of yesterday, which was in 2024, and the day before was Christmas 2023, the only thing that has changed is you. And I think that's why I got interested in this topic. You can be at dinner on Christmas Day and realize that just two days ago on Christmas Day there were a couple of people here who are no longer here. And then you sit and talk to nephews who we weren't even here, I think, a couple of days ago, and now they're bald and telling you they're bankrupt, so having that as a marker does it. rhyme. That's what rhymes are for. It is at the end of a phrase or verse that they sound the same. It seems like it should be the same, but it's a little different; you actually learned something from the last 10 syllables.”
Ben Folds at Blue Note
Major Caldwell IV
With that, he moved on to “Christmas Time Rhyme,” which he explained was originally supposed to be the title track of his holiday album last year before “I thought of 'Sleigher' and thought, 'Man, I have to use that.' This is better.” And it also puts aside that poetry to get down to business: “Precious moments like these, they mean the world to me.
/ Look, you're all fucking freaks, but we're family / So we do our best to be in one place, even if it's just for a day.”
Along with the more familiar chestnuts on covers that also peppered his set, Folds introduced his audience to “You Don't Be a Santa Claus (When Christmas Comes Are),” a fairly obscure old song dating back to at least 1955, when the Mills Brothers recorded it. (Faulds said it was written during the Great Depression.) “I thought it might be relevant today because it's about how you can think about helping someone on days other than Christmas, and it was a controversial statement at the time, as it is now, about helping someone else.”
Closer to home, he realized what it was like to be truly alone at Christmas – or at least outside of the companionship of a pet – with his original “Maurice”, written in Nashville, in “one of those suburban areas where everything looks the same, which isn't that inspiring.” And all the neighbors had the same Christmas decorations in their yard – an inflatable Santa about two stories high and an inflatable reindeer next door; Almost every house on the street had the same thing in the front yard. Maurice fucking hated deer. He told them so many inappropriate things in their deer language… Our yard was next to I-40, which also goes out here.
The funniest songs of the past had their own stories. The Bitch Gone Crazy is about a young conservative lawyer on the rise who asks a liberal barista out as a date to his office Christmas party, but she ends up getting into a heated political argument with his right-wing colleagues. “The Bizarre Christmas Incident” was written as his first misguided attempt at creating the end credits theme for How the Grinch Stole Christmas; he regaled the Blue Note audience with a tale of how horrified the music executive was when he turned it in: “Ben Folds, it's a damn kids' movie. I'm not showing it to Ron Howard!” He then followed this concert with a much more suitable song, which he presented over the next 24 hours, which was successfully included in the film “Lonely Christmas Eve”.
The most plaintive was the song he co-wrote with Nick Hornby, “Picture Window,” about the famous writer and his wife spending New Year's Eve with their chronically ill son in a London hospital room. Chorus: “Do you know what hope is? / Hope is a bastard, hope is a liar, a deceiver and a tease / Hope is coming to you / Kicks her in the ass / There’s no place for her on days like this.” The holiday season doesn't get any more sobering than this, despite the minimal drinking at Blue Note.
What do you do after this full gamut of holiday food other than sing “The Christmas Carol”? Along with this are encores of non-seasonal chestnuts from his own catalogue, such as “Philosophy” from his more energetic Ben Folds era, before returning to Charlie Brown with “Christmas Time Is Here” by duet partner Lindsay Craft to send the audience off on a chill note on a note of buzzing calm.
Folds remains one of our most reliable songwriters, so it's no surprise that his Christmas material would be as solid as the rest, and that he, unlike most of his contemporaries, recognizes that the mass audience's hunger for seasonal songs is worth satisfying. Because, at a minimum, it makes up a twelfth of our life, give or take. He has a song called “Sleepwalking Through Christmas”, but to his credit he doesn't come up with this thing in his sleep. We hope for “Sleigh 2” and an eternal touring season.
