CiJ Years Past-Day 5

Time to recap some old CiJ shares that are still active in the archive. Never in the 20 year history of this blog have I had more goodies available in the archives than I do right now. So grab it while you can if it interests you at all. Who knows when things could go south and it all disappears. Stranger things have happened.

2024

2023

2022 (Repost of an old best-of from 2007)

2021  (Repost of an old best-of from 2008)

2020 and 2020 and 2020 (Two shares and a Nutcracker!)

2019 and 2019 (Two shares!)

Sometimes I amaze myself at how much I've shared out over the years. 

CiJ 2025-Day 5

Well, now that the big holiday in the month is out of the way, we can settle down into a nice rhythm. Work for a few days, get a couple days off. Nice. There's something to be said for a nice predictable rhythm. By now you've no doubt noticed that I'm sharing lots of tracks from these sampler albums. These records were sent to grade school music teachers in the '80s and '90s in hopes of selling sheet music. If you can give a quick listen to the great arrangement they're selling, you might be more likely to pay good money for the sheet music. I shared out tracks from a bunch of similar records a few years ago, and when I saw a bunch more recently, I picked 'em up. Often they only feature a short sample of a performance, but some of them are full versions. Just think of them as interesting filler. :)

1. The Columbus Boychoir-Directed By Donald Hanson-Angels And Shepherds (The Columbus Boychoir Performs Zoltán Kodály, 1975)
2. Northern Illinois University Wind Ensemble-Stephen Squires, Conductor-Joyful Sounds Of The Season (A Christmas Celebration) (Alfred Concert Band Music (1988), 1988)
3. Professor Max Hiendlmayr-Bach: Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desire (The Bells Of St. Mary's And Other Organ Selections, 1970)
4. The English Chamber Orchestra And Choir-Hallelujah Chorus (The Music Book K-8, 1983)
5. Jim Borden-Es Wird Scho Glei Dumpa (Jim Borden Sings Folk Songs-Christmas Carols, 1964)
6. Hal Leonard Concert Band-A Christmas Overture (Hal Leonard Concert Band 1990 Easy Edition, 1990)
7. Jenson Publications And Purifoy Publishing-Come See The Baby (Choral Celebration Vol. VI, 1984)

MEGA (FLAC)

CiJ Years Past-Day 4

You're all outside watching the fireworks and I'm here at home slaving away over a hot keyboard posting links to old Christmas in July Shares. See how much I love my visitors? Anyhow, here are links to some of the older Christmas in July shares from this day in years' past.

2024

2023

2022

2021 (Nothing. Looks like I shared everything out in 2020 and 2019, see below)

2020, 2020 and a Nutcracker!

2019 & 2019 (two a day, what was I thinking?)

 Download and enjoy! If you haven't heard 'em before, they're now to you! 

CiJ 2025-Day 4

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends! Hope you got the day off today like I did. Nice not to have to go to work once in a while. I've got another nice set of tunes for you today. I wanted to share with you a little story about how close I came to not having a Christmas in July this year. Up until May, I didn't have enough stuff in the pile to even bother sharing it. Then I stopped by a book store in Largo (for the locals, it's Book Rescuers in Largo) and spent about three hours digging through a giant pile of $1 records and suddenly we were back in business. More than half the music I'm sharing this July came from records I bought that day. Lot of them were the school band samplers that you're seeing so many of every day, but there were lots of other records in the stack as well, so I knew after that day I'd be able to have a successful Christmas in July. Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time.

1. Niles Township High School East-Girls Glee-Richard Rusch, Director-Carol Of The Bells (Winter Music Festival, 1967)
2. Northern Illinois University Wind Ensemble-A Carol Festival (Alfred's Concert Band '84, 1984)
3. Texas Lutheran College Choir-Paul Engelstad, Director-Carol Of The Drum (Sacred Music At Texas Lutheran College)
4. The Hi-Lo's With Frank Comstock And His Orchestra-Button Up Your Overcoat (The Hi-Lo's, I Presume, 1955)
5. Kenneth Bloomquist Conducting The Michigan State University Wind Ensemble-A Christmas Ballet (Significant New Literature For Concert Band-The Best Of '79, 1978)
6. Jenson Publications-A Norwegian Christmas (Overture) (Superior New Works For Concert Band-Vol. IX, 1981)
7. Hal Leonard Concert Band-Frosty The Snow Man (Hal Leonard Concert Band 1990 Easy Edition, 1990)

MEGA (FLAC)

CiJ Years Past-Day 3

Time for a daily recap of ye olde Christmas in July posts. Hope you're enjoying these old shares right along with the new ones. There're lots of goodies in the archives if you don't mind digging.

2024 

2023

2022

2021 (Another best-of, this time from 2007. Seems like only yesterday...)

2020, 2020 and 2020 (Two shares and a bonus Nutcracker on this day back then.)

2019 and 2019 (How did I keep up the pace in 2019 with two shares a day? I think I already had many of my shares recorded and I was headed to Italy at the beginning of August. I like to challenge myself.)

Go get 'em! 

CiJ 2025-Day 3

Day three, moving right along. Another great batch of songs with two really good tracks worth highlighting. The first is from the LP shown above, a great Christmas narration by Walter Brennan that wasn't featured on his Christmas LP. I was quite surprised when this showed up at a Habitat for Humanity Restore recently. This just goes to show there are still good Christmas tracks to find out there if you keep your eyes open and you sift through a lot of dreck. Second track I want to bring your attention to is Diahann Carroll singing a wintry track on a kiddie LP from Golden Records under the fancy name Disque d'Or. Golden put out a lot of records for the kiddies, but I imagine they wanted this one to get a little more traction in the adult market. And frankly, it's pretty good, but I could do without all the kids on the track. And Milton DeLugg is pretty great in everything he does, though there's nothing wacky about this track. I'll also mention the Singing Tower record is a local piece from a large carillon about two hours away from me. It's a beautiful site at the top of a small Florida hill that's been there about 100 years now. Well worth a visit if you're even in the area.  Hope you're enjoying the shares, we're only about ten percent of the way through the season, so a long way to go!

1. Anton Brees-O Sanctissima (A Spiritual Message From The Singing Tower)
2. Diahann Carroll With Bonnie, Jeffrey, Stephanie, Darla, Stephen, Wendy, Jackie, Allison And Francine-Arranged And Conducted By Milton DeLugg-Button Up Your Overcoat ("A" You're Adorable-Love Songs With Children, 1965)
3. Northern Illinois University Wind Ensemble-Stephen Squires, Conductor-Christmas Wish (Alfred Young Concert Band Music (1988), 1988)
4. Walter Brennan With Orchestra And Chorus Conducted By Joe Leahy-A Star In The East (A World Of Miracles, 1962)
5. The Naasko Singers-Christmas At Home (An Evening With Song, 1975)
6. Jenson Publications And Purifoy Publishing-Unto Us A Child Is Born! (Choral Celebration Vol. VI, 1984)
7. Hal Leonard Concert Band-The Coventry Carol (Hal Leonard Concert Band 1990 Easy Edition, 1990)

MEGA (FLAC)

CiJ Years Past-Day 2

Once again, I'm gonna point you to a bunch of old Christmas in July shares that are still active in the archive. Not sure how many total songs you'll get if you grab everything that's available, but I'm sure it's a lot. Some years are more productive than others, but I don't think you've had to go without during July in a long time.

2024

2023

2022 (Not an actual new share but a re-post of the original best-of Christmas In July 2006. I didn't have a lot of new stuff to share that year, and I didn't have anything ready to go at the beginning of the month, so I had to improvise a bit to fill the days.)

2021 (No share on the 2nd that year, the sharing coffers were especially dry, I think I did every other day or something.)

2020

2019 (Did I really do two a day this year? Looks like it...)

And that's as far back as the good shares go, I'm afraid. Everything older than that is officially off-the-table. Though I do find new copies of old shares fairly frequently and make new rips, so you're not missing as much as you might think. 

 

CiJ 2025-Day 2

And just like that, we're two days into the Christmas in July fun! Thanks to everyone who showed up yesterday for day one. I'm sure folks will keep trickling in all month but there's a special place in my heart for the folks who've been waiting for this to begin and chime in on day one. So thanks for that! As I'm sure you noticed by now, I've made a small change to the sharity package. I was able to take a few minutes per album and snap a quick photo of it before I filed it away never to be seen again. Previously I didn't share an image with the file because I knew it would take too long to scan and stitch things together. This year I figured a quick crooked snapshot with my phone was good enough. So just ignore the deficiencies in the pictures and enjoy the fact that they exist. Some of these old records are going to be hard to find out there on the WWW, so this may be the only image available. So what have I got for you today? I think the best thing in the pile is a short winter-themed song by no less a name than Carl Sandburg! You'll have to download the whole pile for that one little song, but it's worth your trouble, trust me. I think it's a safe bet that none of your friends have ever heard Carl Sandburg sing!

 1. Clear Springs Chorus, Directed By Miss Shari Steffen, Accompanist: Mrs. Patricia Paul-Holiday Blessing (Clear Springs Chorus Sings)
2. Bob Vernon-Go Tell It On The Mountain (The Inspiration Of Bob Vernon, 1967)
3. Choir Of St. Andrew's Collegiate Church, Steyning, West Sussex, Music Director: Neil A. Page-Hodie Christus Natus Est (I Was Glad, 1985)
4. Ithaca College Band-Walter Beeler, Director-Greensleeves (Flying High)
5. Carl Sandburg-In De Vinter Time (Flat Rock Ballads, 1959)
6. Jenson Publications-Rudolph In Wonderland (Superior New Works For Concert Band-Vol. XVII Easy Edition, 1985)
7. Hal Leonard Concert Band-Around The World At Christmas Time (Hal Leonard Concert Band 1990 Easy Edition, 1990)

MEGA (FLAC)

CiJ Years Past-Day 1

One of the things I want to do this year is point you towards all the old Christmas in July celebrations that still have good downloads. For many years, the Christmas in July downloads would all disappear after a few months of inactivity, never to return. But for the past few years, I've been using (and paying for) MEGA to host the downloads, and they've persisted from season to season. So if you're new to the blog or maybe you lost your files in a computer crash, many of the old downloads are still out there. I'll link to the shares on today's date down below, and I'll try to make a similar post each day of the month so you can go and collect a lot more Christmas music.

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020 and 2020 (I think I shared a Nutcracker a day this year! Well, maybe not every day, but many days...)

2019 and 2019 (Believe it or not, I did two shares a day in 2019. I had a lot of goodies!)

CiJ 2025-Day 1

Good morning! Welcome back to the blog! When was the last time I posted anything? Middle of January it looks like. That's a long time, I hope I've still got fans who remember to stop by. This is the time of the year when I share out Christmas songs from non-Christmas records. Like many folks did, I had a Bing Crosby greatest hits record at one time, I remember White Christmas was on there, and it really stood out when it would play, mostly because it wasn't the right time of the year for such music. Since then, I've learned that Christmas music is always appropriate because you should try to keep Christmas in your heart. (OK, that story is mostly apocryphal, but it helps to illustrate the concept of what I try to do around here in July. If I didn't admit to the story being made up, you wouldn't have known...) Anyhow, I've got seven songs for you today that I recorded from slabs of vinyl that were not intended for listening to during the Christmas season. I've got lots to tell you about this post and the others, but I need to save some of my stories for the other 30 days following this one. I don't want to run out of anecdotes (or music) before the end of the month, so I'll try to keep my comments short and sweet here on the first day. Suffice it to say, we're lucky to be getting a Christmas in July this year, pickin's have been slim.

1. Bette Stalnecker With The Keyboard Artistry Of John Bos And The Bob Cline Singers-Away In The Manger (Christmas/Spirit)
2. The National Gallery-Boy With Toys (The National Gallery Performing Musical Interpretations Of The Paintings Of Paul Klee, 1968)
3. Jenson Publications-Christmas Spectacular! (Sound Ideas For Concert Band Vol V, 1979)
4. Bill Kenny Of The Ink Spots With The Song Spinners Choir And Orchestra Directed By Leonard Joy-Ave Maria (Precious Memories, 1958)
5. Northern Illinois University Wind Ensemble-Stephen Squires, Conductor-A Yuletide Showcase (Alfred Concert Band Music (1988), 1988)
6. The Naasko Singers-It Came Upon The Midnight Clear (An Evening With Song, 1975)
7. Jenson Publications And Purifoy Publishing-Christmas Lullaby (Choral Celebration Vol. VI, 1984)

MEGA (FLAC)