It may be 2024, but I've still got a few Christmas records up my sleeve. This artist is someone I see a lot of in the bins at the thrift stores, but I've never listened to her music before this season. It's a lot better than I expected so I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The internet tells us that she's an American, but comes from a Norwegian background and had here first hits in Sweden in the very early Seventies. Sometimes you just gotta wonder how these things come together. And this is not her first Christmas album, she appears to have had another one a few years earlier that was released only in Scandinavia. Anybody got that one, would be nice to hear it. Not sure if any of that one is reprised here, but maybe. This is
Evie-
Come On, Ring Those Bells (Word WST-8770, Stereo, 1977). And as a completely unrelated aside, did I mention I got a fancy electric car this year? Yep, I'm riding on electrons now. Haven't bought gas in over six months and it's nice. Saves me a ton of money. (And the title of this post, EV-1, just happens to be the name of the first electric car produced by General Motors back in the day. It was a bit ahead of the curve and didn't have the battery tech to actually work well, but it was a good proof of concept.)
1. Come On, Ring Those Bells
2. Away In A Manger
3. Medley: No Room; Have You Any Room For Jesus
4. Mary's Boy Child
5. Silent Night
6. O Holy Night
7. What Child Is This?
8. Some Children See Him
9. One Small Child
10. A Thousand Candles
MEGA
I digitized "Mirror" some time ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2a04fwkfdmnqambd9dhg2/Mirror.zip?rlkey=8biekxw8fb0f6uippveoi67xh&dl=0
Thanks, but I'm not sure I'm too excited about her non-Christmas music. :)
DeleteThis artist paved the way for future Christian female singers like Sandi Patty and Twila Paris. She was huge in the late-'70's and early-'80's, then she scaled back her recording to raise a family. In the '90's, she became a mentor of sorts to Rebecca St. James, the sister of Joel and Luke Smallbone of FOR KING & COUNTRY, who has put out some great Christmas music in recent years.
DeleteOf her two Christmas albums, I think this one is her most popular. The title track is an established CCM Christmas favorite and is still sung at my chuch every Christmas season.
DeleteGot my copy of this album from the same person who gave me all of her Christian albums in October of 1992. She had quite a few Evie albums in here collection. The best ones to sample that are non-seasonal are Gentle Moments and Never the Same. A few of the cuts have a slightly edgier musical flavor to them, yet for the most part, it is Easy Listening Christian Pop. I actually found a Word promo 45 copy of the title cut and "A Thousand Candles" for a dollar at an out-of-town record store this past September 1st. It got played a few times on my turntable this season.
DeleteYou must be quite the Evie fan! :)
DeleteBeing raised in a Christian household does has it's advantages!
DeleteI found this album at a thrift store a few years back - it's really great! I contacted Evie via her website and got a signed copy of one of her other albums. Nice one!
ReplyDeleteI see it a fair bit at thrift stores, I think it was quite popular in it's day. Cool that she signed something for you!
DeleteMy sister-in-law bought Evie's records new at a Christian Book store in Georgia years ago.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to share this with her then. And stay tuned this evening. ;)
DeleteShe broke her ankle getting ready for Christmas dinner and has surgery Friday. I'll mention it to my brother the techie.
DeleteOooh, sorry to hear that. Hope she recovers quickly.
DeleteEvie is a long-time resident of the thrift-store bins, but I've never been tempted to find out what she sounds like.
ReplyDeleteHow do you charge that fancy electric vehicle of yours?
Yes, I see a lot of her stuff, but never listened to it. It's not too bad. I enjoyed a song here and there.
DeleteThe car plugs into the wall, just like a blender. I finally got a larger outlet installed a couple months ago, now it plugs in like the dryer. And there are a few places in town we go and we can plug in and charge for free while we eat or shop. Save a bit of money that way, keep the electric bill down. :)
Unrelated to this post but, has anyone noticed in the last few days the MEGA decrypting has become EXTREMELY slow? It was NOT like this for much of the season, and it's NOT my internet or device (I always clear large cache/cookies and delete unneccessary history, so)
ReplyDeleteMEGA is just a big black box to me, files go in, files come out. So even if there is an issue, I can't do anything about it, sorry.
DeleteI kind of grew up with Evie's music. "Come On, Ring Those Bells" was one of her first songs, I learned. I absolutely love it :) My sister was in her first year, of Bible College, when she found out about Evie, in 1984. She came home at Christmas, '84... and I've been hooked on Evie's music since. Probably helps that I have both Norwegian and Swedish ancestry in me :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ernie... Evie did technically put out a 3rd Christmas album, in 1987... entitled "Christmas Memories" and in it, she included 4 new songs, which one of my favourites is "Move me closer (A shepherd's prayer)"
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/4724300-Evie-Christmas-Memories
DeleteI also found out that Evie did at least two Christmas Albums, in Swedish, and looks like at least one in Norwegian :)
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/6098423-Evie-Jul-Med-Evie is 1974
DeleteI guess I have a lot further to go to get them all than I thought... :(
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/4362967-Evie-Julens-Klockor-Ring is 1978
ReplyDelete