Saturday, March 21, 2020

Christmas In The Time Of Covid19, Part 1

If you're like me, you're probably sitting around right now, doing whatever it is you usually do on a Saturday, but thinking about how your life is changing or has already changed from the threat of Covid 19. It's not necessarily a dangerous disease to most of the people of the world, but the fact that it's new and nobody has any immunity to it is somewhat worrisome.  And there are members of the population for whom it might be deadly, and because of that we are trying to prevent it's spread, or at least slow it down to manageable levels.  For that reason, large parts of the work force have been furloughed, many businesses have been shut down, and somehow no one can buy any toilet paper. It's not just the United states, but the entire world (save for Antarctica, have they had any cases there yet?) that is fighting this thing.  I recently started seeing a few news reports about people trying to boost their spirits in these trying times by putting up their Christmas lights.  Not just inside, but outside as well, for all the world to see.  Maybe they're onto something.  Something small that we can all do, just to make things a little brighter in what could rapidly spiral into dark times.  So far, I have not been personally affected by a lot of the turmoil that others have seen.  I still have a job, I can still pay my bills.  The grocery store next door to me is fully stocked with all the food I think I could ever need. My 401k has taken a huge hit, but retirement is still far enough off that I'm not too concerned. (I lived through both 9/11 and the 2008 market crash, so I know that things go up and down.) The biggest effect on me so far has been the closure of restaurant dining rooms. While I can still get Steak N Shake, their takeout is not nearly the same as the diner experience. I thought that maybe I could do a little bit on my own to bring some Christmas spirit back into our daily lives, so I'm going to share out some Christmas music with you, like I normally do in December and July.  It's not going to be much, but a thing or two here and there, just to keep spirits up and help you realize that even though it may be darker now, things will get better.

A couple of hours ago, I grabbed a shellac 78 RPM record off the shelf and put it down on the turntable. These things take forever to properly record and restore, but I think it's worth the trouble sometimes, and this is a good one that I really doubt you've ever heard before. Tennessee was a label from the early 50's that never really saw much success. Biggest name I saw in their discography was Del Wood, who went on to make quite a few honky tonk organ albums for RCA later into the fifties and early sixties.  I couldn't find much about The Dinning Bros., so if you know something, please feel free to share.  On this record, they sound a whole lot like The Mills Brothers.  For your off-season listening pleasure, this is The Dinning Bros.-Give Me You For Christmas b/w Winter Wonderland (Tennessee 10" 78 RPM 807, Mono, 1951).

MEGA

11 comments:

  1. Been off work since Monday afternoon. Public libraries close when the schools do, so I've been listening to music and watching DVDs so far. Not much cleaning out of the closets and kitchen cabinets has started yet as I said to myself I need to do. Enjoying your posts and all the hard work that I don't have a clue how to do.

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  2. Happy to see you back, Ernie! Stay healthy and well.

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  3. Great idea, Ernie! Wish I could motivate myself to post something.

    I wonder if these brothers were related to the Dinning Sisters who recorded for Capitol. Or maybe they were trying to capitalize on the name.

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  4. A special little bonus from the same label, sourced from archive.org, and reformatted a little bit by me:

    https://mega.nz/#!lB8nkILD!p6B7r-PYVipkCXzN83PW_wUx-ja8_pxz9sAQuYZLkrY

    Buster, if there was any connection, I couldn't find it. When I picked up the disc this morning, I thought it was the Dinning Sisters, but that impression didn't last long. :)

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  5. A bonus! I love bonuses. I just can't figure out why those "honky-tonk" piano players all chose to play the worst sounding uprights they could find. It must have been part of the honky-tonk union rules, along with the mandatory bowler hats and sleeve garters. (Del Wood, being a woman, was excepted from the latter two rules.)

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  6. Thank you so very much, Ernie! Our store is still open but we're working with a skeleton crew (among other challenges) and it's been insane this last week. I made a comment yesterday that it feels like Christmas season but instead of presents at the end you might get a virus or lose your income. You have no idea how happy it made me seeing this today. Now it really is Christmas! You are the best. Hope you are staying well!

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  7. Thank you, Ernie. We have suspended travel. Zoom meetings, WebExes and conference calls have replaced face to face meetings...so I've been playing Christmas music for the past week. I look forward to listening to these later today.

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  8. The Dinning Brothers were a white vocal group. They were a fairly generic pop vocal group who backed whatever popular singer was around or passing through, as well as performing on their own. They signed with Tennessee in November 1951. One of their members was Billy Vaughn. At a Dinning Brothers nightclub performance, Vaughn heard and liked a young vocal trio called The Hilltoppers and agreed to write a song for them. Dot Records was impressed with the demo for "Tryin" and agreed to sign the group, provided Vaughn came along. "Tryin" and the follow-up "PS I Love You" were substantial hits and, within a year, Billy Vaughn was Dot Records' musical director. He later became a band leader in his own right.

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  9. Wow, thanks for the info Stubby. So I guess there is a link to The Dinning Sisters, via Ace Dinning...

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  10. Holy Christmas! (See what I did there?) You started this on my birthday! NICE!!!

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