JD McPherson once told himself he would never make a Christmas album. But something else was bubbling under the surface. "I'm a Christmas fanatic," McPherson says. "I loved it from the first moment I saw it. You know, I might have a thin veneer of cynicism about me, but on the inside, I'm 100 percent Charlie Brown Christmas."

After spending two Christmases in Nashville after relocating his family there from Oklahoma a couple years ago, McPherson reconsidered his earlier resolution. Drawing inspiration from a range of classic Christmas albums — including Nick Lowe's recent classic, Quality Street — McPherson set to work writing 11 original songs that now comprise his latest release, A Christmas Album: Socks. In town to play a show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, McPherson and his bandmates — Doug Corcoran, Ray Jacildo, Jason Smay and Jimmy Sutton — stopped at The Current for a session hosted by Brian Oake and Jill Riley.

"Anything you'd guess I would probably like from the Christmas canon, you would probably be right," McPherson says. "It's going to be all the Bings and the Darlene Loves and all of those things. There's a lot of great music, but that seems to be the sonic imprint for me, is that time period. It just sounds right. It just sounds like the right sonic profile for Christmas music: the '40s, '50s and '60s."

McPherson also shares a secret about those Christmas albums and his own. "Almost every holiday-themed album you hear is recorded in the summertime," he explains. "And in the South where we recorded it, it was a nice, sultry, balmy 90 degrees Fahrenheit with 100 percent humidity, and it's a little bit difficult when your shirt's sticking to you to try to sing about snow and things like that."

But to evoke the seasonal mood, McPherson says he and his bandmates put a 1960s era rotating silver tree in the studio. "We were just having a really good time, and that helped make the circuit complete," he says.

And even though the title track paints a picture of a child disappointed with a holiday gift, McPherson feels otherwise. "I love getting socks for Christmas now," he clarifies. "I ask for them. Have you seen what they're doing with socks these days?"

Listen to the complete studio session using the audio player above.

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Songs Performed

"All The Gifts I Need"
"Bad Kid"
"Socks"
All songs from JD McPherson's 2018 release, A Christmas Album: Socks, available on New West Records.

Hosted by Brian Oake and Jill Riley
Produced by Anna Weggel
Engineered by Michael DeMark
Visuals by Nate Ryan
Web feature by Luke Taylor

External Link

JD McPherson - official site

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