The blizzard that just hit New Jersey was a day late, but it wasn’t a dollar short, that’s for sure. As friends in the South rejoiced at snow on Christmas Day, we on the Shore had to wait until the day after to get ours…and it walloped us good!

I spent that shimmery Sunday in the backyard studio, watching the snow fall and recording a little soundtrack for it. As the day and evening progressed, so did the intensity of the storm, a blizzard now. Waking Monday morning to a day full of shoveling, I wasn’t able to get back into the studio until today, so high were the snow dunes across our patio. The town is still a wreck from the downpour, but the sky is clear and the sweater KC knitted for me is warm.

I hope you have the chance to listen to this song as you watch snow falling outside your window. If not, I hope you’ll close your eyes and imagine it that way, for that is its sole intent. Is it really true that no two snowflakes are alike?

Happy New Year to you, and may your days be merry and bright!

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I love snow. Probably because, growing up in the Deep South, there wasn’t a lot of it around. Oh sure, we managed a flurry most years, but accumulation was a rare and meager thing: one inch and the whole town shut down. White Christmas? I didn’t know what that song was about until I was a teenager, since having snow on Christmas Day was never even a remote consideration.

Living in New Jersey these past nine years has allowed me to get to know snow better, and I still love it. Yes, it comes on big and brawny sometimes, and shoveling it is a royal pain, but as long as it’s cold outside it might as well be pretty, says I. And it is, at least until it gets mucked up along the roadways with all the dirt and grime of life and travel. Ah, but we must take the black with the white. Always.

Here’s a view out my window when I was recording yesterday:

And that brings us to this month’s song. Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in July 1945 (in Hollywood of all places), it’s always been one of my favorites of the Holiday Season. But that’s kind of a shame really, that it’s so closely associated with Christmas…there’s no mention of that joyously celebrated day anywhere in the song, its authors were Jewish, and it was written in the middle of the Summer in Hollywood, CA for Pete’s Sake!

As lauded as the these two songsmiths are, I know that I’m not the only person to think the opening couplet should have been written slightly differently, and I took the liberty to do just that. You’re welcome.

So – while I present this version as a Christmas song, even though the tone is more somber than festive – remember that it’s okay to sing it whenever snow may appear throughout the year. Even if you’re noshing Gefilte fish by a pool under the bloody red sun of phantastic L.A.

Happy Holidays to you!

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LATEST NEWS

These songs are now available as a Podcast on iTunes. Check it out here:



Also, you can download each past years’ tunes in separate tidy packages for ultimate Marble Tea convenience here.

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It just occurred to me that this is two months in a row where the songs dealt with wishing. Hhmmm, how ’bout that then? We could talk all night about wishing and dreaming (and hoping and praying, and anything else Burt and Dionne might warn you against), but there are other matters to address now so let’s save those explorations for another fireside, shall we?

First let me tell you quickly about this song. True, there’s a free acoustic version available as part of the Slave to the Tuna EP. This more electric rendition first appeared on the out-of-print 2001: A Case of the Tea CD, but I’m offering up here the cleaned up version that Jeff Booth so graciously set his knobs to. Considering the state of my timing and singing, I think he pulled it far out of the mire!

Second, I’m stent-free baby, so how ’bout we get a little snow on the Shore, eh?

I WISH IT WOULD SNOW

She said,
“I wish it would snow all winter long
Because I need something fun to tickle my little tongue.
Oh, flurries are fine: dusting my face and glitter my hair,
But they’re infrequent, just like my lovers,
And I’d rather just stay in bed….”

She said,
“I wish I could do whatever it is that you do.”
Well, this forced him to laugh and re-evaluate everything.
“No, don’t wear my shoes: I’m always tripping and stumbling about.
And even though they look like they fit
Well, they’re really far too big….”

I never understood selective generosity
And why does the shame of the past
Govern my thoughts like a fog?

She said,
“I’m waiting for you down by the dock,
And I’m tempted to throw myself in to see what Shelley saw.”
Are kind words enough for someone whose head may burst into flames?
And in her diary the words are all true
But it never seems the same:

I never understood selective generosity
And why does the shame of the past
Govern my thoughts like a fog?

RECENT ENJOYMENTS
Book: Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Music: A-Z by Colin Newman
Film: The Science of Sleep

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