We’re Baaack! Green Monkey Records Xmas #12, Volumes 1 & 2
On November 4, 2025, I got an email from Jason Ruben with a song attached, asking if there would be a GMR Xmas album this year. The last one was in 2020. I had been busy with ninety-six releases since then, including my massive undertaking “Olympia: A True Story”. Hmm. It was a little late to be starting such an endeavor, but WTF? I said sure and put out the word to the usual suspects.
Little did I know I would get 34 tracks submitted, a giant pile of music to deal with in a very short time. So much cheeriness that I decided it needed to be split into Vol. 1 & 2, listenable piles of Christmas newness.
As in the past, all the money we collect from this album will go to MusiCares, a great charity which helps musicians in need.
Also worth noting, as you read this, the album can be bought and streamed from greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com. We did this on speed dial and so it will probably still be a couple days before it appears on other streaming service.
Many thanks to Rosie Dyer for her 10th GMR Christmas album cover! And as always, thanks to Howie as always for helping me slam this out.
So here we go.
Volume 1
1. Rusty Jason with Calamity Jason and the Editorial Review – Retail Christmas (Rubin)
Produced by Eric Rubin, engineer: Eric Rubin with Brunet.
Calamity Jason and Rusty
2. The True Olympians – I Don’t Believe In Christmas (Rosalee/Ceazan/Dyer/Parkhurst) At the end of our two drummer “Fruitcake” session (see Vol. 2) we were feeling our oats and knocked this Sonic’s classic out quick. Lisa, Jeff and Tom made up the third “Hanukkah verse”. For this one, Tom and Gene swapped positions on bass and guitar, and Gene ripped it up!
Lisa Ceazan – Vocals; Jeff Parkhurst – Left Drums: Michael Stein – Right Drums; Gene Tveden – Guitars; Joe Cason – Keyboards; Tom Dyer – Bass, Producer/Engineer.
Joe!
3. Across 35th – Do You Wanna Build A Snowman? (Anderson-Lopez /Lopez) (Wonderland Music Company) Recorded October 26, 2025 at Studio 63, Seattle
Produced by Joe Ross. Engineered by Sean Wheatley and Jeff Taylor
Mimi Katz – Vocal; Dylan Welch – Guitar; Logan Stallard – Bass; Lincoln Ross – Drums.
They are working on a new release as we speak.
4. Mike Tye & Rosie Dyer – Christmas Spirit (Tye/Dyer)
Written and performed together. Mike: Guitar, Banjo; Rosie: Banjolele, bells.
This is my niece Rosie’s recorded debut, though she has done the cover art for a zillion GMR releases. Mike has lots of releases!
Mike & Rosie
5. Amy Denio – Sugar Sacks (Denio)
Composed, recorded and mixed by Amy Denio at Spoot Studios in Hansville, Washington. 11/2025
c 2025 Spoot Music, ASCAP
Amy: voice, acoustic guitar, electric bass, alto sax, Ableton programming
Mastered by Steve Turnidge at Ultraviolet Studios, Seattle.
We love Amy!
6. Daven Tillinghast – Angels We Have Heard On High Traditional, arranged and recorded by Daven Tillinghast, featuring Megan Tillinghast
7.Toxic Socket – Jing Jing Lin (Duane Hibbard) Lead guitar: Ed Donnelly; all the other stuff: Duane Hibbard
Mix engineer: Ed Donnelly at Barbers Basement Recording Studios barbersbasement@gmail.com
Duane consults his muse.
8. Richard Peterson – On Christmas Day Richard Peterson – Instruments; George Gleason – Vocals
From The Richard Paterson Orchestra Plays Christmas
Richard has a brand-new album out “Richard Plays the Beatles”. He is still looking for piano gigs. Have any? Let us know!
9. Band Of Jays – When It’s Christmas Juian Volpe is Band of Jays and does every dang thing! Every day!
10. Jim of Seattle – Happy Holidays Arranged and performed by the complete genius we still call Jim of Seattle.
11. Throttle Body m/c – Silent Night Music/Lyrics by Jerry Hammack – Really Real Music, BMI
When Jerry isn’t busy with his massive Beatles Recording Reference Manuals, he fits something in for us!
12. Guidon Bear – IWanna4giveU (Mary Sharp) Olympia’s Guidon Bear. Brilliantly uncommon indie-pop songs from the songwriting brain of Mary Water (Little Red Car Wreck) and the soundscape vision of Pat Maley (Courtney Love, Yoyo Studios).
Guidon Bear at Olympia Porchfest 2025
13. The Freewheelin’ Joe Ross & Ed Portnow – I Wish It Was Christmas
Recorded November 21, 2025 in Ed’s Garage Studio
Produced by Joe Ross and Ed Portnow. Engineered by Ed Portnow
Written by Jeff Kelly (p) Half The World Publishing
Joe Ross: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Harmonica
Ed Portnow: Drums, Electric Guitar, Percussion
Ed and Joe getting jolly!
14. Fur For Fairies – Christmas Dream ‘Christmas Dream’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
Performed by Fur For Fairies .Produced by Fur For Fairies.
Vocals: Susanne; Instruments: Jeff
The last song submitted for the album. I love FFF!
15. Infra Ed – Orange Grinch Infra Ed is Ed Portnow. Hell yes.
16. Chris Lund – Christmas Time
Chris is of course one of Tacoma’s Lund Bros. and sent us this beauty from Arizona. He plays it all!
Mr. Lund
Volume 2
1. The True Olympians – Fruitcake (Dyer) This composition first appeared on The Good, The Bad, and Other Christmas Favorites!, released November 30, 2017 and recorded with Mr. and Mrs. Vanderpool as The Krampus Quartet, with a solo acoustic version released in 2023 on my Xmas Songs For Mom. Now it’s time for the most overblown version yet (two drummers) from the mighty Olympians. For this one, Tom and Gene swapped positions on bass and guitar, and we added a jazz singing group!
Lisa Ceazan – Vocals; Jeff Parkhurst – Left Drums: Michael Stein – Right Drums; Gene Tveden – Guitars; Joe Cason – Keyboards; Tom Dyer – Bass, Mellotron, Producer.
The Olympia Jazz Singers: Sharon Abegg, Yoanna Betsacon, Lynne Geller, Natasha Hays, Kat Hurd, Donna Lotton, Janet McLane, Jenny McMaster, Gretchen Robinson, under the direction of Jessica Blinn, who plays the piano note at the beginning.
The True Olympians gettin’ jolly in at McMenamins’ Spanish Ballroom in Tacoma.
2. Reggie Garrett and Christine Gunn – Personent Hodie (author unknown) The song was included in a Finnish book of songs collected by Jacobus Finno (Jaakko Suomalainen), a Swedish Lutheran cleric. The song book had its origins in the libraries of cathedral song schools.
Reggie Garrett – vocal, guitar; Christine Gunn – cellos.
Their new album is the perfect Christmas gift!
3. Levi Fuller – Merry Christmas (Everything’s Fucked) Levi made us an all-new version of this for 2025, still a bummer!
4. The Squirrels – Joy To The World Rob Morgan was kind enuff to let us have a sweet track off The Squirrels’ Christmas Album, originally released on Popllama Products in 1994.
Rob Morgan – Vocals; Jimmy Thomas – Guitar, Vocals; Joey Kline – Lead Guitar, Vocals; Bruce Laven- Keyboards, Vocals; Kevin Crosby – Bass; James “Cookie” Cookman- Drums. Produced by JT and Rob. Recorded by JT in October 1994 at The Vulcan Philosophy Center, Seattle, WA. From the Poplust album “Digital Snowman”.
Old school.
5. Mark Brunke – Old Christmas Rags – Music: Mark Brunke
Mark is the bold first person I know making music using an AI program. It is called Suno and is essentially his back-up band and recording system. Mark: “Old Christmas Rags” began as a ragtime guitar sketch that I wrote on a Martin D-40, recorded with a cell phone microphone on a Samsung S24. I uploaded and expanded the original topline using Suno’s studio tools, layering lyrics, instruments, and voices before exporting stems into Audacity. From there, I shaped the mix with vintage-style Universal Audio plugins to capture the primary audio signifiers of a 1930s radio broadcast using new creative tools to bring an old-time holiday sound to life. The result is a piece that bridges eras: a modern production built to feel like a rediscovered broadcast from another century. The song itself is inspired by my grandfather, Robert Jollie, who had a small orchestra in the Midwest during the 1920s and 1930s. My grandmother was his piano player, and it was how they met. He used to perform on the radio, calling dances in Yankton, South Dakota, at the dawn of radio broadcasting. My grandfather’s only recordings were done on wire.
Mark luvs you!
6. Kaz Murphy – Where Is Santa?
Music: Kaz Murphy; Lyric: Murphy, Jacqueline Grad, Ben Shaw)
Performed by Kaz Murphy 3 (with Jacqueline Grad/Ben Shaw)
Produced: Kaz Murphy 3. Engineered: Ben Shaw.
Mixed/Mastered: Pat Kearns at Goat Mountain Recording, Landers, CA
Kaz Murphy 3 spreading some joy!
7. Krampus Choir – Krampus Krampus Choir is our old pal Zelda Starfire, with her sister and brother, Clementine Dillon and Gary Buchner.
8. The Hyperdrive Kittens – All I Want Our beloved Tymber of Slam Susanne has sent us some jolly fun from her band in San Francisco, The Hyperdrive Kittens, a DIY, high energy pop-punk burlesque band formed in 1991. These Kittens scratch out a blistering, playful, outrageously good time with fun catchy songs, naughty lil’ attitude and a Burlesque Rocky Horror influenced show that’s all their own. It’s a SHE-powered Punk n Roll Party with 4 females – Jenene Curtis/lead vox, Tymber/drums, Marta Bulaich/guitar and Melne/lead guitar + Robcat/bass making up the gLitter of 5.
Recorded/Mixed: Robert Preston, Get Reel Productions San Francisco
Let’s have some fun, kitties!
9. Von Cube – Christmas Time (Eddins) Another slab ‘o seasonality from da Cube! Ho ho ho!Who dat? Von Cube is a two-man army, comprised of Grady Eddins and Nick Hagen. They are old school Seattle Rock. They started playing together in 1979, well before the grunge. Grady on strings, Nick on skins.
Old enough to know better, but that just don’t matter.
That’s who!
10. The Olson Bros Band – Keepin’ It Jolly
Love me some Olson Bros! Their latest Christmas jolly! Here’s the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx4ijg62Vk0&list=RDRx4ijg62Vk0&start_radio=1
The Bros. – Luke and Isaac
They’ve got an earlier Xmas album, too. https://www.theolsonbrosband.com/
11. Daddy Daughter Date – Jingle Bells
Nephew Ray sez to me his band Cabeza iz no more but his girls are ready to take up the mantle. Recorded live with a phone!
Lydia Dyer, Amilia Dyer, Ray Dyer – singing!
Ray – Amaya – Lydia
12. Tommy Lee Dyer – John Lee Christmas
Ho, ho, ho, ho.
13. Tom Woo – Join Our Hands
Yessir. This came via Rusty Jason.
Mr. Woo: “It was at first just a trifle, then it became a funny tune which Jason made even funnier with his wacky additions. Thanks for including the song!”
14. The Dyer Family Singers – On Thanksgiving
I wrote this song and got everyone at my house to play it or sing it four days ago, on Thanksgiving. We cut the bass, guitar, drum and lead vocal live in one pass. Then we played it back over speakers one time and let everyone sing along. Perfection achieved!
Kat Dyer – Bass, Lead vocal; Ben Dyer – guitar; Justin Bales – hand drum.
Backing Vocals: Ben Dyer, Miyo Tagaki, Kate Dyer, Matt Fox, JoAnn Dyer, Susan Dyer, Vicki Dyer, Baily Fox – Bales, Justin Bales, Ellott Bales and of course Bill Lucas!
The session
15. Dead Air Fresheners – The Worst Noel
Ricardo Wang and crew gettin’ down wit their bad holiday selves.
16. The Elftones – Christmas Is Here Again
Steve Trettevik is one of the longest running Christmas contributors, most with Sherrie. This is his eighth Xmas song – as always a delight.
Steve Trettevik – Vocals and Guitar, Bass, Drums; Sherrie Nordling – Vocal, Keys; TD – Additional Keys. Recorded by Steve. Mixed by Tom.
17. Ben Shaw – The Man With The Beard
Ben plays with Kaz Murphy and sent me this as a little extra bonus thing. I thought it was the perfect “last song” so here it is! On this one I think Ben plays it all.
PS. Ben has played his original Magnatone lap steel guitar thru my ancient Magnatone amp. How many people can say they have done that?
Ben feels his bliss.
That’s it. Tain’t no mo’. See ya next month!
td