sarahillis's blog

Yes, the new year is upon us with all its trials and triumphs, resolutions and randomness, and we'll be celebrating it in fine Celtic style here on Come by the Hills! We've got songs about whisky and its attendant intrigues, some wassailing songs, a version of John Barleycorn and several versions of Auld Lang Syne. But don't worry, the melody you'll be hearing will not be the one we all know and love, so I don't think I'm jynxing anything by playing it before midnight Eastern.

Merry Christmas!

I hope the holidays are being kind to you. I myself am going back and forth over the next while, seeing family and planning a New Years party for friends and such, so The Sara Hillis Show will be taking a break for a few days. I'll be back on January 2 with a new year of music from our four decades of magic mushroom memories though, so in the meantime, I hope you have a very happy new year and I'll see you in 2018!

The holidays can be very busy, but if you've got some time while you're toasting the season, and perhaps your toes, by the old yule log, why not hang out with me for a Celtic Christmas? We've got music from a lot of great Celtic artists and groups and in the second hour, there's a special treat: a reading by Dylan Thomas himself of his beautiful collection of Christmas memories called "A Child's Christmas in Wales." I always enjoy listening to this story on Christmas Eve, and this year, I thought I'd share it with you.

Yep, if you love Christmas music and love The Carpenters, you'll definitely enjoy Thursday's Sara Hillis Show! It'll be four more sleeps till Christmas by then, and I've decided to crack open this great collection of music and to go through all 31 songs on the two-disk set. (Well, alright. They're not disks here, but you know what I mean.) I have very fond memories of The Carpenters Christmas Portrait album, and we'll be going through it in the first hour of the show.

Yes, we're plunging into the Christmas spirit this week on The Sara Hillis Show with all Christmas music all the time! I'll try to unearth hidden treasures from the Mushroom holiday vault and maybe evenn find a few forgetable fiascos along the way, but I promise that every song will be Christmasy in nature. So, if you're looking for a way to celebrate the fact that the number of sleeps is slowly growing smaller until the day itself, then tune into my show at noon and midnight eastern for the next five days for two hours of holiday tunes from our four decades and beyond!

Don't worry. This episode does not have anything whatever to do with Game of Thrones. However, it does have to do with winter. We're going to hear lots of songs about holly and ivy, snow and frost, and all in honour of the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. It's coming up soon, you know, and we have lots of snow here in Ontario, so we're going to curl up in the warm and hear songs about the cold.

Yes, we've got more Celtic Christmas carols this week. We're slowly increasing the amount of festive music over the next few weeks. Anticipation is the best thing about this season, I find. We've got a Christmas "Celtic Cover" and lots of other great music as well. In other words, it's another three hours of Come by the Hills again on Mushroom FM! So, come and join us on Sunday after Steve and The Early Years, or on Friday following the morning edition of The Smorgasbord!

It's beginning, just beginning mind you, to look a lot like Christmas here on Mushroom FM, so we're just beginning to crack open the Christmas surprises on Come by the Hills. Remember those chocolate Advent calendars you used to get when you were a kid? (Actually, I never got one, but my cousins had them.) Well, I've decided to treat Christmas music a little bit like that this year. You used to only be allowed to open one calendar square per day as Christmas approached so that the excitement could last as long as possible. so this is what I'm doing.

Well alright, so Andrew isn't actually sneaky, but his day kind of crept up on me this year. It's a good thing that I already had some Scottish tunes in the playlist this week, so I can pretend that I had planned for St. Andrew's Day, which is November 30 and a day for Scottish culture everywhere, all along. so yes. We have some Scottish tunes for andrew, a "Celtic Cover" featuring Jethro Tull, and of course our other usual things like "Me Music" and "Fiddlin' Around." You shan't be disappointed if you tune in!

No, there are no squares here, with the possible exception of some of the dance tunes. Come by the Hills is back on Sunday night with three hours of amazing Celtic music for your enjoyment. Everything is firmly in its place, all features back where they belong and a whole bunch of great songs to go with them, and of course I'm here as usual with my folky reminiscences and banter about all things Celtic. I just had someone tell me last week that come by the Hills is now firmly established as part of her Sunday night routine, so why not make it part of yours?