sarahillis's blog

At last, it has come! The final week of voting in the 2024 Mushroom FM Holiday Countdown is here! Remember, votes close at 11:59 PM Eastern time on December 19th, but this weekend would be a great time to head over to our Countdown page and pick ten of your favourite holiday songs and get a seat at one of our virtual tables for the event itself!

Listen to the countdown starting at 9:00 AM Eastern time on December 22nd. That's 2:00 PM in the UK, and 3:00 AM on Monday the 23rd in New Zealand!

It's often at this time of the year when we get reflective and start asking the really big, important questions of life. Why are we here? What's life all about? Is God really real, or is there some doubt? And of course, why the heck should I take some of my valuable time to cast my vote in the Mushroom FM holiday Countdown? Well, if you want to know the answers to the first few questions, I suggest watching Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. (ON second thought, maybe don't do that.) As for the question about the countdown, agonize no more! I've got your answers right here!

Hello! Sara Hillis here to let you know about this week's episode of Come by the Hills, the Folk and Celtic music show on Mushroom FM! I've decided, in honour of the season, to play a few holiday selections live on air. I had a request a month or so ago to play my harp on the show, so I've decided to fulfill that request. I haven't done anything like this since 2020 when everyone was doing virtual concerts, so I hope you'll join me. I will of course have recorded music on the show as well.

First, we'd like to thank those who have already voted in this year's Mushroom FM Holiday Countdown! You're amazing! However, it seems that our vote-validating elves are suffering from a lack of structure and productivity at work. They are taking entirely too many cocoa and candy cane breaks, and may be in danger of quiet quitting, (not to mention getting into the mulled wine and mince pies,) if we're not careful. The good news is that you can help them to fulfill their potential and live their dream. How?

Ah, distinctly I remember,
It was in the bleak December,
When each separate dying ember
Wrought its ghost upon the floor,
Then I heard the sound of singing,
And in the distance, sleigh bells ringing,
And my Mastodon was pinging
With cracker jokes and puns galore.
'Twas the Mushroom Christmas Countdown
Back again for one year more,
Back for twenty-twenty-four.

Hello! Sara Hillis popping in to tell you about this week's episode of Come by the Hills, Mushroom FM's Folk and celtic music show! I'm starting the run-up to Christmas with a few of my favourite festive tunes, I'll have a few summer-related songs to celebrate the changing of the seasons in the southern hemisphere, and of course I'll be talking (a lot) about our annual holiday countdown, which is coming up on December 22nd. I'll tell you how you can participate and I'll even give you a challenge! I hope you'll have fun!

Hark and hallelujah! Mushroom FM's fantastic festal fungal frenzy is back for another year! Yes, it's time once again to cast your vote in our 2024 holiday countdown! Simply pick ten of your favourite songs of the season using our accessible online form. Your choices will then be sent through our fancy-schmancy algorithm for ranking. The higher you rank a song, the more points you give it, and the higher the chance that it could win the coveted top spot! You can either pick from our ever-expanding database or type in the titles yourself.

Hello! Sara Hillis here once again to let you know that I've got a rather eclectic three hours of Folk and celtic music for you this week on Come by the Hills! We'll play the eighteen-minute awesomeness that is Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie in honour of the reluctant heroine of the song, Alice Brock, who died at the age of eighty-three just a week before American Thanksgiving. This is rather poetic, given the plot of the song. But that's not all!

Greetings and salutations! It's Sara Hillis here to let you know what's coming up on this week's very special episode of Come by the Hills, the Folk and Celtic music show on Mushroom FM. This weekend, I am privileged to welcome two of my friends who themselves have connected as friends because of the show. Rebecca and Michelle will be here--live and in person even!--and we'll be chatting and hopefully playing some actual music as well.

Hello! Sara Hillis popping in to let you know about this week's episode of Come by the Hills, the Folk and Celtic music show on Mushroom FM! Starting this week an continuing through the month of November, I'll be celebrating thirty years since my introduction to Celtic music. I can't begin to estimate how many changes in life came my way due to my affinity for this type of music. I've made friends, found lovers, even found my faith because of it. When I found this music in my teens, it was like finding a piece of myself I had never known was missing.