Dripping Nostalgia With A Dash of Melancholy

The holidays always bring me to a nostalgic place. I remember Christmases past with my grandparents when I would sit in their front room and listen to them tell me stories from what life was like in the 1940s. I must admit that for all of the faults of that era, that's the one I have romanticized the most. Sometimes I think I was alive during that era somehow...past life maybe...I don't know...

Hearing the music of that era makes the melancholy drip even more and I feel like I'm right back to the sights and smells of my grandparents house. They were the ones that turned me on to Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey...Benny Goodman...Lionel Hampton...Bobby Mercer...and, of course, the Andrews Sisters with "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."

Thankfully, Rhino Records collected many of these ol' chestnuts on two great discs, Songs that Got Us Through World War II, Volumes I and II. Both of these discs are a must for every holiday season. They may not have any seasonal tracks but they just fit anyway. I've been playing them for the past week or so and have honestly welled up a bit as I lost my last grandparent last year. Those memories all come back as soon as I hear that wonderful music.

And I am right back there...