This past Wednesday, Bill Deville, Derrick Stevens (production manager here at The Current) and I braved it down the street to an area watering hole. Our bartender, Phil, is a listener of The Current, and he said he even caught his fair share of Radio Free Current episodes on Saturdays. Why am I telling you all this? Because, we got on the topic of holiday music — and it reminded me what holiday music can do best. Here’s how:

We’re yapping about holiday music, and the career bartender/music fan Pat Curry swings by our part of the bar as he starts his shift. He said, “Sean, do I have the holiday tune for you!” After an eternity of thumb action on the iPod Touch, he pulled up the Ramones song “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” and played it over the speakers. For a moment, the weekday bar vibe paused; Pat leaned his shoulders back and just let the sound roll over him, and Phil, Derrick, DeVille and I all joined in, enjoying Joey Ramone’s one-of-a-kind voice and the sugary punk-rock schmaltz that makes that song so memorable. For a minute Pat wasn’t doing his side work before the shift started; he wasn’t finding out which taps were still spitting out foam; he was celebrating Christmas his way! And so were we. Cheers to doing holiday music your way and  cheers to Phil and Pat.

So tonight, we’re doing Holiday Music your way. Get your requests in for songs that will rock your holidays. If that’s a song by Elastica that has nothing to do with the Christmas songbook — great! And if that’s something off of the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Charlie Brown Christmas album, we’re down. Let’s spend tonight leaning our shoulders back and letting the holiday sound roll over us. 

Make your request for this week’s Radio Free Current in the comments below.

You can also join me live on The Current’s Facebook page tonight at 6 Central to leave me a request, hit me up on Twitter at @twinkiejiggles (be sure to tag #RadioFreeCurrent) or you can email me at sean@thecurrent.org. During the program (7 to 11 p.m. Central), you can phone the studio line, 651-989-4893, to tell me your request, or use our request form.