Christmas in Paradise

Mary Gauthier's 2002 alt-country Christmas song set in a town called Paradise. The lyrics form a typical country music first-person narrative, realistic and gritty about the subject - in this case Christmas (so not a chirpy pop song to overspend in the supermarket by). The alternative aspect is that the narrator is giving a homeless person’s perspective of the season ; and that the gritty realism about the material poverty is actually the means by which the festive cheer and love shine through.

Davy stole a Christmas Tree

From K-Mart last night

Red ribbons and silver bells

Angels dressed in white

He tied it to the bridge rail

Where passing cars could see

Did a little dance up there

Looked down and smiled at me

My bed is a lawn chair

Cushions keep it soft

I sleep in the open air

Under the Southern Cross

Next to the golf course

By the Hyatt Hotel

Davy he's a friend of mine

And we get along pretty well

Christmas in paradise

Under the Cow Key Bridge

Where the warm breeze blows so nice

And the landlord forgives

Snowbirds on the golf course

Wear Bermuda shorts and polo shirts

Some play pretty good

Some play so bad it hurts

We pick up their golf balls

That fly over the fence

We shine them up a little bit

Sell them back for fifty cents

Christmas in paradise

Under the Cow Key Bridge

Where the warm breeze blows so nice

And the landlord forgives

I won't lie we just get by

But we'll be eating good tonight

Christmas dinner's at five o'clock

Over at the Church of Light

They don't care who you are

They don't ask what you done

Come on down and bring a friend

There's plenty for everyone

Christmas in paradise

Under the Cow Key Bridge

Where the warm breeze blows so nice

And the landlord forgives

The radio plays Christmas songs

While we get high

And Davy shouts "Merry Christmas, y'all"

To the cars passing by

Davy shouts "Merry Christmas, y'all"

To the cars passing by

Lucinda (EP) by Peacock's Tale Folk Indie Duo

https://peacocks-tale.bandcamp.com/album/lucinda-ep

We were quite close to Lucinda Williams for a while. About ten feet for the duration of her concert at the last-but-one Cambridge Folk Festival before the pandemic in August 2018. This is because Maz is very nippy when it comes to pushing through a crowd to the front. It was a terrific gig (despite a profoundly pissed/off guy on the bus back into Cambridge haranguing everybody it wasn't) but we probably feel closest of all to Lucinda when joining in on her albums (Car Wheels On A Gravel Road; World Without Tears etc) on vocals and dashboard percussion on our way back from the Duck at Stanner in the car.

All The Way To Jackson. Lucinda's original interpretation cleverly hints that maybe she's protesting too much about not missing him. We've gone for a simpler 'yay I'm free of that schmuck' version.

Lake Charles. This elegy reminds us of an old stager we knew at folk clubs, now sadly passed away. We sing it in loving memory of him. We thought about singing 'He had a reason to get back to King's Lynn' but didn't. It might not stop us singing the famous Cash-Carter duet 'as I'm Going To Thrapston.'

Concrete and Barbed Wire. Lucinda's signature take on the self-imprisoning barriers men erect in their relationships with women, much more effective than stone walls (which, as the Cavalier Prisoner of Civil War Richard Lovelace affirmed to his beloved Althea 'do not a prison make'.)