(November 28, 2013) Jackson, Tenn.- Tales of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, children wanting two front teeth, and an ambitious reindeer with an interesting olfactory addition permeate the airwaves during this time of year.
Though the joyful songs play earlier and earlier every year, we’re overlooking one crucial thing: Thanksgiving.
Every year I, along with countless others, pose the question, “Why are there no Thanksgiving Songs?” (And before you ask, I’m not counting Adam Sandler’s Thanksgiving Song)
There seem to be specific and targeted songs for each holiday in the long holiday stretch which runs from Halloween to St. Patricks Day. However, the day of thanks seems to always get overlooked.
For a reason why, I sent a few questions over to musician Sam Raines. He’s been doing music for 7 years now and his new album, “Minutes Left” debuts this weekend.
My first question to him, why do you think there are no specific Thanksgiving songs? He replied, “I am sure there are thousands of Thanksgiving songs. It's just that that's not what people want to hear or are used to hearing, so the songs don't really reach much of an audience.”
“If you think about Christmas's history as a religious holiday, many of the songs came out of the Church, an institution that has, for centuries, found the use of music very important in services and rituals, so it seems natural that the most sacred holiday would be celebrated with a rich assortment of hymns and carols.”
“Thanksgiving, considering the integral role the Native Americans played in our collective understanding of the holiday, is moreso an American tradition and not specifically a Christian one. Also, because it is only about a month before Christmas, and because people insist on diving into the Christmas season earlier and earlier, I am afraid Thanksgiving is starting to be overlooked in some ways.”
“While the celebration at Christmas of good will toward our fellow human beings is an incredibly important concept to cherish and remember, we should not soon forget this notion of gratitude to which Thanksgiving devotes itself.”
He concluded, “In short I would say that the amount of time we dedicate toward remembering Christmas contributes to the wide array of music we hear, and the fact that we seem to be placing less and less importance on this current holiday may have to do with the lack of inspiration to both write and listen to songs about Thanksgiving.”
He’s written music during those seven years. I wanted to know, if he were going to pen a Thanksgiving Song, what would he include in it?
Sam answered, “Thanksgiving could really use a big traditional anthem to get people's attention, I think, so, if the song had words, I would want them to be focused on the origin of the holiday with recognizable Thanksgiving imagery.”
“As far as the instrumentation, I think I would want to merge the style of music played with the Pilgrim's Church, beautiful vocals with harmony, with Native American music. While I do not know how different the music of the Wampanoag tribe was from our general understanding of what Native American music sounds like, I could see the drums and flutes in there. I would hope it would invoke a sense of people of all kinds coming together for the purpose of giving thanks.”
If you want to hear his music live, Sam Raines will be in concert November 30 at Green Frog Coffee Co. in Downtown Jackson starting at 7pm.
His new album titled, “Minutes Left,” debuts at the end of this month. For information on purchasing it, visit his website samraines.com for more details.
