Christmas Series: Day 9 - Sara Groves, MercyMe, Sandi Patty
Christmas is only 5 days away (exciting isn’t it?) and I noticed I’m a couple of days behind on the Christmas series. The problem was, I forgot that I don’t post on Sunday when I was figuring out my timings, leaving me with two extra days. The only way I could think of to remedy the problem was to double post, so I hope no one will mind if I post twice as much free Christmas music as normal. 
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FreeCCM.com, the official free music website of Ino Records, has got some nice free mp3s this month. The big one they’re promoting is Sara Grove’s “Toy Packaging”, a soft melodic song about how frustrating it is to get toys out of the packaging. It’s quite lighthearted (there are some pretty funny sound effects later in the song), and all around good.
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The other two songs are MercyMe’s “Joseph’s Lullabye”, a Christmas song written from Joseph’s perspective, and Sandi Patty’s “O Holy Night”. Enjoy!
Christmas Series: Day 8 - Go Fish & Adam McInnis
Two free festive Christmas downloads today - one from Go Fish, and the other from Adam McInnis.
ChristianMusicPlanet.com and CCMMagazine.com has quite a few Christmas downloads up this year (don’t worry, I’ll get to them) but I wanted to do review as many individual songs as I can. If I run out of time I’ll just start posting links, but hopefully I can get a few more songs done.
Go Fish is one of the artists featured on ChristianMusicPlanet.com, with their song “It’s About The Cross” from Go Fish’s Christmas CD Snow
Adam McInnis is a newer Christian artist on He’s got his Christmas song “Home” up on CCMMagazine.com. The songs is acoustic, nearly acapella, and sad. Even though for you generally hear about the holidays as a festive, happy time, it’s a good reminder thatChristmas can be painful for some people.
-Go Fish “It’s About The Cross” on ChristianMusicPlanet.com-
Christmas Series: Day 7 - MikesChair
“Mikeschair is christian rock.”
Thus begins the description of MikesChair on their Purevolume page. They are a little know Christian rock band with a strange name on Curb Records. They also have a free Christmas song they recorded a couple of years ago up on their Purevolume.
The song is their version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, and you can download the mp3 absolutely free. 
Christmas Series: Day 6 - Various Electronica Artists
For those interesting in that delightful comglomerate of synthesizers and drums that is electronica, today’s post is for you. There’s a sweet Christmas sampler up on Creuk Radio’s website called Happy Birthday Jesus. The tracklist:
- Mayfairgrin - “Silent Night”
- Aaron Cavanaugh - “My Christmas Song”
- Hours - “Jingle Bells (Remix)”
- Forgottyn - “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
- Rivir - “What Child Is This?”
- Dark Sun and Dunkirk - “Welt So Kalt”
- The Transmitterz - “Broken Toy on Christmas”
- Aguidara f. Delta S and Tranquil Chaos - “Let It Snow”
- Thine Eternal Light - “Song for the Hobos (Christmas in New Orleans)”
- 8 Bit Frequency - “Behold A Child”
- Rivir - “What Child Is This? (Organic Mix)”
All of the artists are independant, and I’ll admit some are definitely better then others, but all around, it’s a fairly good sampler. I particularly like both version of “What Child Is This?” by Rivir. To download, go click on the “comp” tab and scroll down. Enjoy!
Song Combat: Christmas Edition
[Song Combat]
Pocket Full Of Rocks - “Angels We Have Heard On High”
vs.
Josh Wilson - “Angels We Have Heard On High”
For the first time ever, I’m going to do a Song Combat with two different version of the same song. I’m going to pit Pocket Full of Rocks version of “Angels We Have Heard On High” against Josh Wilson’s version of the same some, let you vote on which artist’d rather see featured on The Free Christian Music Blog.
Josh Wilson is a contemporary Christian artist who had a strong debut this year. I would compare him stylistically to Matthew West and Steven Curtis Chapman. Also, his debut album, Trying to Fit the Ocean In A Cup, was awarded pop album of the year by Gospel Music Channel. There’s a good selection of his songs you can listen to on his MySpace.
On the other hand, Pocket Full of Rocks have been around for 13 years, the last three of which they spent on Word/Myrrh Records. They’re definitely a praise & worship band, similar to Casting Crowns, or Philips, Craig, and Dean. For a sample of their music, check out this YouTube video.
Oh, and in case your wondering “what on earth is this Song Combat thing?”, here’s a slightly modify description of it I borrowed from the very first one:
“In this battle-royal, you decide the winner. At the end of 72 hours, which ever song get the most votes in the poll on the right, wins. The winning song will receive the honor of being featured as a download here. The loser, alas, will be buried deep in my bookmarks, until I decide to let it see light of day once more. (*Cue scary music*)”
Any questions? I’ll answer ‘em. Voting starts right now! Go, go, GO!
Short Update on Various Matters of Importance
Before I get in to today’s post, I want to say a quick thank-you to everyone who send in links yesterday & today. By my count today, I should have more then enough to finish reach Christmas day. Thanks!
Second, as some of you may have noticed, James has been otherwise occupied this month, and hasn’t been able to do much posting. I haven’t heard when he’ll be back, but I’m guessing it’ll be sometime after Christmas.
Also, speaking of James, I’ve been experiment some with Wordpress, and I think I’ve figured out a way to add the author’s name to the small area underneath every post. It only shows up under individual posts for me, but for some reason, it works on all of them for James. I don’t get it. Anyway, it should make it a bit easier to tell who wrote what.
I think that’s it, this station will now resume normal programming.
Christmas Series: Day 5 - Aaron Shust (And Chris Sligh!)
For the last three years, Aaron Shust has released a new Christmas song every year. First it was “O Come O Come Emmanuel”, then, last year, “Silent Night”.
That rings us to this year. This time around, Aaron recorded “God Has Come To Earth”, and put it up for download on his MySpace blog. Not only does it have epic album art, but it’s a pretty good song as well. I was just reading the story behind it on his blog and it looks like he borrowed the chorus of “God Has Come To Earth” from a old hymn by Martin Luther… pretty fascination stuff.
Whoa! This just in! Aaron Shust and Chris Sligh have a split Christmas EP up for free download. All three Aaron Shust Christmas songs, and “Have Your Self A Merry Little Christmas” by Chris Sligh. And it’s free.
-“God Has Come To Earth” on Aaron Shust’s MySpace Blog-
Or the combo package…
-3 Aaron Shust + 1 Chris Sligh Christmas Songs-
Also, I really need some help in finding some more free Christmas downloads. There just doesn’t seem to be as many this year as there was last year, and I need all the help I can get. Thanks!
Christmas Series: Day 4 - Gaither Vocal Band
iTicket’s has got two downloads up this week. Surprisingly, only one of them is a Christmas download, by the Gaither Vocal Band.
Now, I know the Gaither Vocal Band isn’t exactly what you’d consider “cool” any more, but they did happen to be quite important to the history of Christian music. Might be worth downloading and listening to. To quote my Mom, “it might be good for you”. (I’ve heard that several times when I offered my opinion on southern gospel. )
Rounding out the selection this week is Stephanie Smith, who has here song “Over It” available from her CD Not Afraid. “Over It” is the closest to punk I’ve ever heard Stephanie Smith go. Sounds almost like a song from Stellar Kart.
Christmas Series: Day 3 - Until June
Until June has uploaded a brand new Christmas song to their merch store website. The song is called “Always Christmas”, and according to the site, the guys in Until June recorded it in their living room with some of their friends.
The song is a sad song about being alone on Christmas, rendered in Until June’s typical style. Enjoy!
Christmas Series: Day 2 - Joy Williams
Free Christmas music today from Joy Williams. She’s just released her version of an old French carol called “Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” on her ReverbNation profile. I’d never heard the carol before today, but it’s a pretty nice old song. Joy recorded it with just a piano and her voice, creating a simple, relaxing, Christmas song.
To download the song, visit her ReverbNation and, after locating the song at the top of the player, click the button with the small arrow point down. Enjoy!
