Here's an eclectic hot toddy of wintry tunes to keep things cozy and tweaked on a late December evening. We tried to cover every genre of holiday tune from sexy fireside blues to klezmer ramble to spacey meditation and even a carol for ye pagans!

available now from

or stream on

or for free now on SoundCloud

OR STRIP OFF THAT BALACLAVA AND LISTEN BELOW :

Peek

don't peek into that one...and don’t shake it... you know what’s in it anyway...and, even if you don’t, you know...it’s better to let it be a surprise...let it grow wings in your mind...imagine that one...to have the balls to stalk you in your dreams...the ticking the ticking the ticking the ticking inside ensures you it’s not all it’s wrapped up to be...you know the fancy wrapping...it could hold sticks, could hold coal...could be the cure to all that ails you...maybe I’m in there in a big feathery cape...maybe you’re in there waiting to escape...night is coming soon...before the moon rises again...before I’m finished growing these wings...before you finish opening the rest...when you are left...you are left with that one...under the tall trees...you are left with that one...on the frozen ground...

don’t peek into that one...and don’t shake it...don’t loosen the ribbons you yourself have tied around it...it is the present of the future...with each other...don’t peek into that one

maybe I’m in there scared of what you'll say...maybe you’re in there wasting away...the night is coming soon...before the moon rises again...before I’m finished growing these wings...before you finish opening the rest...when you are left...you are left with that one...under the tall trees...you are left with that one...on the frozen ground...you are left with that one...it is the present of the future...

don’t peek into that one...and don’t shake it.

Recorded at Brick Hill Studio in Orleans, MA. Produced by Jon Evans and Charismatic Megaphonics. Aaron Mayo, guitar. Jon Evans, bass. Andrew Fietek, drums/percussion. Humberto Cordero, piano/vocals.

Stopping by Woods

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Recorded at Brick Hill Studio in Orleans, MA. Produced by Jon Evans and Charismatic Megaphonics. Carla Kihlstedt, violin. Clayton March, clarinet. Aaron Mayo, guitar. Jon Evans, bass/electric guitar solo. Andrew Fietek, drums/percussion. Humberto Cordero, piano/vocals.

I Need Your Skin

I smell cloves in the wine tonight...I smell you in my bed...I smell yesterday's cool fallen rain : when I kiss your head...I feel the weather creeping into me...the autumn closing in...I feel a love for your warm body baby...I need your skin

the trees are looking in on me...lying here with you...their leaves still green with envy...but they're blue down to their roots...they see the stormy nights of winter time...the ever-bending wind...they see me loving your warm body...baby, I need your skin

the world is tilting backwards...he's putting up his feet...the nights are working overtime...to kill off all the heat...but furnace or no furnace...December can't compete with the fire in your eyes when you turn them on me...and the fire in your arms when they consume me

When the ground it gets like concrete...the river's gonna freeze...I need a little gentle friction...in my extremities...I need to show you I appreciate...but where do I begin?...to show my love for your warm body...I need your skin

Recorded at Brick Hill Studio in Orleans, MA. Produced by Jon Evans and Charismatic Megaphonics. Emily Wade Adams, vocals. Humberto Cordero, piano/vocals. Aaron Mayo, guitar. Jon Evans, bass/percussion. Andrew Fietek, drums.

Persephone

One must have a mind of winter to feel the spring

One must have a mind that wanders to begin to think

and when I return I promise not to promise not to go away again...

no...

One must have a mind for leaving

to begin to see the snow.

I’ll be there when the wind turns from chill to warm

I’ll be there when the storm turns from wild to calm

and I’ll be there when the leaves turn their faces to the sun

I’ll be there, I’ll be there,

and then I’ll be gone.

One must find the time to listen to the wind up in the trees

I must find what I’ve been missing to know what I need

and, when I return, I’ll show you that it’s all right there

yes, that’s all there is...

that’s all...

then, you may find it hard believing

there is nothing there at all.

Recorded at Brick Hill Studio in Orleans, MA. Produced by Jon Evans and Charismatic Megaphonics. Humberto Cordero, piano/vocals/scraping. Jon Evans, lap steel/bass.

Open Up the Sky

here is the street...why are the old men crying?...can we bring the children out and create a holiday?...a rebirth of the year...a cleansing of our clumsy times...see this suit is so soiled with all this tripping in the cinders, slipping down the stairways...can we bring all the children out and create a holiday?

open up the sky...let another one of those new years come dancing on in.

here is the old man crying for something he can't remember...here is the pampered child...crying for something wet and uncomfortable...here are the mothers holding up the babies...smiling, dancing, twirling and swaying...pure joy in movement...wading among the small waves.

children finding the street (surprise) underneath their feet...feeling the walls dancing close and warm...slowly...seeing the stairs and gutters pulling themselves out of the air...and flinging their passages into the flood...into the singing

and a new year sifting down off the cornices...collecting at the corners...to talk and laugh and kick at the pavement...

and still the children are running...running out into the street...creating, generating the miracle of life...and the old men are still crying...but now dancing and grabbing at the sky...they're opening up the sky...letting the new year...

open up the sky...let another one of those new years come dancing on in.

Recorded at Rob Ignazio's Emerald Club in Porter Square. Produced by Jonathan Donaldson & Humberto Cordero. Humberto Cordero, accordion/vocals. Jonathan Donaldson, bass/guitar/cowbell, Steve Mayone, guitar, drums.

Peek (Deluxe)

This version of Peek was recorded early this century.

The beginning quotes Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming (Praetorius), A Child's Christmas in Wales, and Si Me Dan Pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican holiday tune about indigestion.

don’t peek into that one...and don’t shake it...don’t loosen the ribbons you yourself have tied around it...it is the present of the future...with each other...don’t peek into that one

don’t peek into that one...and don’t shake it.

detail from Hiroshige's New Year's Foxfires at the Changing Tree — detail from Hiroshige's *New Year's Foxfires at the Changing Tree*

Recorded at Rob Ignazio's Emerald Club in Porter Square. Produced by Rob Ignazio and Humberto Cordero. Humberto Cordero, accordion/vocals. Jonathan Donaldson, bass/guitar, Steve Clements, drums.

O, Come All Ye Druids

O, COME ALL YE DRUIDS, VEGANS, AND FREE-LOVERS!

O, COME YE, O COME YE TO STONEHENGE!

COME AND BE NAKED, SMEAR YOURSELF WITH SACRED MUD!

O, COME AND DANCE THE SOLSTICE!

PAGANS ALL!

SINGE ALL YOUR FINGERS, HOLD ONTO YOUR TORCHES!

SINGE BOTH YOUR EYEBROWS OFF, THEY’LL GROW BACK, YOU’LL SEE!

IT’S ALL FOR GAEA! SHE’S THE GREATEST PARTIER!

O, COME AND DANCE THE SOLSTICE!

PAGANS ALL!

A NEW YEAR IS COMING, ALL IS IN ALIGNMENT!

IT’S FREEZING, IT’S FREEZING OUT BUT OUR CARS ARE NEAR!

WE LEFT THEM RUNNING (YES, THEY RUN ON VEGGIE OIL)!

O, COME AND DANCE THE SOLSTICE!

PAGANS ALL!

Thanks to Linda McElroy, Adrianna Marino, Andrew Fietek, Kari Fietek, Horatio and Heather Cordero for their pagan howlings!

Credits :

This is the poem that inspired Persephone :

The Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.