Christmas comes but once a year and with it comes joy and happiness. Or at least it did until the bankers of the world decided that a recession was needed to sort out the men from the boys. There's nothing like a bit of economic collapse to bring misery to one and all (unless you have a number of non executive directorships, that is).
Christmas songs are generally unrealistic as they are often based on celebrating the festive season in a manner that probably never existed. So, if you are going to do a song about Christmas these days, you had better throw in some darkness just to make it real. That's what Sofia Talvik has done with "Snowy White River". She throws in sleigh bells and Christmas rhymes of course. A song like this needs sugar frosting. As I have come to expect from her, there's more to this song. She takes us down to "… the snowy white river where angels drown" echoing not only the isolation that Christmas brings to so many people but also the death of innocence that has come with decades of commercialisation.
"Snowy White River" is an elegant, moving and beautiful song. Available as a free download from her website.