Ok so some of you know that I am a little of a nut when it comes to music. I love it! So being the collector of all things that I am, I have been in search of some good Christmas music that is not the same as usual. I have put together a list of some of my favorite Christmas albums for you if you are in the mood for something a little different.

Warning… you will not be hearing this stuff in Wal-Mart! Oh and the links will take you to these albums on iTunes if you want to buy them for yourself or gift them to another oddball like me.

• Over the Rhine - Darkest Night of the Year
  This is my favorite if you dont know Over the Rhine you are missing out
• Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
  5 Disc Christmas Series
• Los Straitjackets - Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets
  surf band plays Christmas classics
• The Blue Hawaiians - Christmas On Big Island
  same deal a little more mellow
• Dwight Yoakam - Come on Christmas
  Christmas honkey tonk style
• Louis Armstrong - The Christmas Collection
  a little jazz flavor… who doesnt love Louis Armstrong?

or as my boss says “a creative”… I came across an excellent article written by one of my favorite singer songwriters Christine Kane. I am posting part of it here, with her permission, because I cant believe how it sums things up. She has captured the essence of what it is like to be creative and how the process works. I feel like it accurately describes the way I am creative too…

Canine Creativity Class

When I found my dog, she’d been badly abused. I was walking on a gravel road, and she was watching me from a mound of dirt in an old churchyard where she’d been dumped.

She started to follow me.

Each time I turned around, she’d stop dead in her tracks.

When I tried to walk towards her, she’d tuck her tail under her butt and slink away from me.

But when I just continued along my way, she followed me. She eventually got closer and closer. Ultimately she followed me home.

This is how I experience Creativity.

If I try to turn around and catch it, it turns away. Living Creative is not about willing it or grabbing it. In fact, Creativity rarely takes to announcements like, “Today I’m gonna be Creative! I’m gonna write a novel!”

It’s a process. It’s a way of being. And though it can’t be forced, it can be cultivated and allowed. It thrives when you’re already open, and your mind is receptive and quiet. There’s almost a joyful laziness to it.

I really like the last two paragraphs. I never really thought about it but while I am doing my job as a photographer Creativity is something I cant think about or it doesn’t happen. I will start trying to copy things I have seen other do or purposely incorporate things I have done in the past that worked. Ultimately it kills my creativity and the images suffer. It is the times when I am very calm and flowing, thinking about but not analyzing everything, in my shooting that I get the best images. Anyway I thought it was worth sharing. Have a great week!

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I love going to Rhythm N Brews. It is such an intimate venue for artists like Tift, and a few others that I love like Christine Kane and Shawn Mullins. I would love to see a few other there like Brooks Williams, Christopher Williams, and Claire Holley. Those would be GREAT shows!

Anyway this was a really good show. At one point the three that were singing came down off the stage and sang acoustic and unplugged in the middle of the crowd. It was awesome! Here are a few pics. I may post more over on the photoblog over the next week or so. We’ll see.