I would like to take a moment to wish all of you a very happy holiday season! I’ve always loved Christmas and this time of year. This season is filled with great holidays starting with Thanksgiving, moving to Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Christmas, Kwanza, and New Years! Contrary to what they try to tell us on Fox News, it is appropriate to say “Happy Holidays!”

Yesterday I hosted my 27th annual “Christmas Party” on WFDU-FM. (See the playlists page). It is always THE show that I look forward to presenting each year. When I first started doing it in 1980, there were only a handful of recordings that would appeal to folk audiences. It was getting boring hearing Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Barbara Streisand every 10 minutes on the radio. To me, Christmas has always been a folk holiday, so why not give it the folk treatment?

Now, there are dozens of wonderful recordings to choose from, and I am always amazed at the response the show gets. Yesterday I received a phone call from a listener in Maine. Formerly a New Jersey resident, she and her husband now listen in via the internet. I am always moved when I realize that this program has become part of the holiday traditions of others. Having a sense of community is what makes folk music so important to me. Thank you all for listening.

I also played the rare Ed McCurdy recording of “Miracle of the Wheat”. When I found this 45rpm recording several years ago I did not know what to make of it. The holiday song told a story of a modern day miracle in the Dakota’s. A few months after I first played it on the air, I received an e-mail from a person in Cincinnati asking where they could get a copy of the song. A few weeks later I received another e-mail from a different person in the Cincinnati area. A third e-mail arrived, this time from a reporter from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

It turned out that this particular song was a holiday favorite for a local Cincinnati radio station. The song touched the hearts of many people in the area and it was an annual tradition to hear the song. When the DJ retired, the song became a fond memory. Years later, people would try to find copies of the record, but for some reason it became very hard to find. Other radio stations in the area were unsuccesful in attempts to locate a copy. The composer, Ervin Drake, did not have a copy in his files. Ed McCurdy’s family could not find a copy.

So guess who has a copy? Actually, I have two copies – one is scratchy and hard to listen to, but the other is in very good shape. It seems that when I played the song and posted my playlist on the internet, people were able to find me when they did a search on the song. Even today I receive a couple of e-mails each year requesting copies or information on where they can find it.

The story of how a song and a radio program captivated Cincinnati can be read here . I hope that this song will become a tradition once again.

Well, time to get back to opening presents and finishing that egg nog! Again, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I would also like to thank each and every one of you for visiting this website and reading my ramblings. I have great plans for 2007 and I look forward to presenting more news and information for all fans of folk music.

Merry Christmas!

Ron