Multiple Mondays - Holiday Update Edition

Hi, everyone. This is an odd edition of Multiple Mondays. I'm going to update a lot of older MM posts with new versions from new artists.

First, let's start with the suggestions from Boy Howdy. He runs Cover Lay Down, the cover blog I'd most like to run if I weren't so dang lazy. In the comments section here last year, he recommended Amy Kuney's (video) take on "River" and Rosie Thomas' cover of "Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song)." They're both wonderful, magical Christmas tracks -- Rosie Thomas does something unexpected and unlikely: she takes a decades-old novelty song and transforms it into something meaningful and, yes, significant.

Remember "(Ghost) Riders In The Sky?" Sure you do. Well, REM want to play you a version called "(Ghost) Reindeer In The Sky."

Then, we'll hear two more versions of Charles Brown's classic "Merry Christmas Baby." First, Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore growls his way through a bluesy 1971 take on it. Then, Sweden's Krystoffer Ragnstam knocks the song out of the park. If 1971 were a lot weirder, and you lived in a college town, this is the type of blues-pop fusion you could've heard in that alternate universe.

As always, I recommend the zipfile, but you can cherrypick if you insist.

Zipfile

1. Amy Kuney - River 1 2
2. Rosie Thomas - Christmas Don't Be Late 1 2
3. REM - Ghost Reindeer In The Sky 1 2
4. Rudy Ray Moore - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2
5. Krystoffer Ragnstam - Merry Christmas, Baby 1 2