Matt Of All Trades

 Every year for the past I don't know how long now - at least a decade - I've posted Darlene Love's annual TV performance of her classic "Christmas Baby (Please Come Home).   For the past few years, she's done this on the chat fest show, "The View." It isn't happening this year. Yes, Covid got in the way again.  Thankfully and most importantly, Love seems to be A-OK. One of her band members tested positive, so the entire band was quarantined.  In a video i nterview last Friday with The View, Love says she feels fine. She said she's fully vaccinated, had her booster shot, and also a flu shot.  The band member who tested positive with a probable breakthrough infection was also fully vaccinated, rendering that person a bit less likely to spread the virus.  The quarantine was lifted last weekend, and Love was once again able to give public performances. o You can't stop tradition, so I'm using that video for this year's Darlene Love salut...

My annual Darlene Love Christmas greeting.   A very  different year, Notice the face mask on the drummer. We can still hope for better days ahead, with  Darlene's help Every year for at least a decade now, I've featured Darlene Love's "Christmas Baby (Please Come Home) as a holiday tradition at Christmas.  As she does every year, first for the David Letterman show and now for "The View," Love performed this classic again, much to my delight.  The song is bitterly ironic this year.  We're not supposed to go home for Christmas this year. We don't want to risk spreading Covid to our loved ones during this pandemic.  So I'm sure this song inspires more yearning than usual in 2020.  But it's optimistic in a way, too. It will get brighter in the future, as the cheerful, take-me-to-church melody suggests. I hope everybody is safe and as happy as they can be. Merry Christmas and here's to a much better 2021! Video: As always, click on the YouTube ...