Local record label Grape Juice Records is spreading the holiday cheer with a free compilation, available for download now on their Bandcamp page.

In putting together this week's list, I sat around wondering why nothing was happening. Then I remembered that it's Christmas.Oh. Never mind.

Nora O'Connor joined Andrew Bird on stage for a handful of songs, including a acoustic cover of the Handsome Family's "Don't Be Scared", which literally gave me chills. Some great stuff has been going on at these Gezellegheid shows, and I can only hope that they do in fact become an annual tradition.

With these shows, all bets are off, as Bird frees himself to try out new songs, or to introduce us to older ones which are continuously evolving.

Hey, it's Mike again, you know the friend of Sarah's from way back who occaisionally fulfills her need for a list of albums because she spends 90,000 hours agonizing over her own. (Do I really like this Andrew Bird album more than this other Andew Bird album?) Ha. I keed. So I did this thing last year, and since I mentioned Paper Route, and Gavin (Paper Route's drummer) tweeted a link to the site, I gave Sarah a bunch of traffic, so she owes me, and that's why you get the:

Happy Andrew Bird week! It's pretty obvious to even the casual observer where I'll be Wednesday through Friday. Sorry, warm, cozy apartment, I've got three dates with Mr. Bird.

I was introduced to Sarah Siskind's music for the first time last night, when she opened for Over the Rhine at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I'll write more about her later on, once I write my review for that show, but until then, I want to introduce you to her, in hopes that you'll fall in love with her, too.

A little bit of a slow week for music that catches my eye (and/or ear). There are plenty of shows going on, but these are the ones I'd recommend.