From time to time, I've posted here videos Pete Seeger.  For fans of the legendary folk singer, and for the curious, this video is a real treat.  It's a full 47-minute concert he gave in Sweden in 1968.

Video of Pete Seeger at that time is pretty rare, because he and earlier the group he had performed with, The Weavers, had been blacklisted.  Though the members of the group had successful careers separately, Seeger was the only one who continued with a solo singing career.  It wasn't until the Smothers Brothers invited to appear on their CBS television show in 1967, the year before this concert, that that TV blacklist was broken on a national level.  (He'd made some local appearances, I believe.)

He continued on with a vibrant career, performing into his 90s, including a moving performance of "This Land is Your Land" at the first presidential inauguration of Barack Obama in 2008, at the age of 89.

For those of you who don't speak English very well, but just Swedish, you'll be happy to follow along with the Swedish lyrics superimposed across the screen...

This is lovely.  On the heels of my posting the other day with James Taylor on the Stephen Colbert show, here is the host with Carly Simon.  He gets her to do a duet with him of her popular rendition with Taylor of the song, "Mockingbird."  

Usually things like this are set up beforehand, and they may be here, especially considering the intricacy of the song.  But if that's not the case, it would be for a few reasons.  First, she is famously shy with doing interviews and live performances, and her initial cry of "No!!!" seems pretty real.  And second, afterwards, he acknowledges not having been strong on all the words, which likely wouldn't be the case if it was rehearsed.

Whatever the truth, it's a totally charming performance.  All the more so if it's impromptu with someone so shy at such things.

I’m trying something a little different this year, and we’ll see how it goes.  In the past, I’ve had a Holiday Gift Guide, and published it appropriately for my December column.  The problem with that, I’ve realized, is that that means it usually doesn’t show up until perhaps the first week of December, at the earliest.  That might be perfectly fine for many people, most notably those who look at the calendar a week before Christmas and think, “Oh, perhaps I should start shopping now.”  But for those who don’t like to wait until the last minute, nah, not so much.  And further, because Hanukkah jogs randomly around the calendar, there have been times in the past when the column hasn’t been online until after that holiday has passed.  

So, this year, as I said, a little different.  While I’m not thrilled about having a Holiday Gift Guide in November, I think that that might be best, if only to give folks a chance to begin ruminating.  (Or shopping, since Hanukkah begins next week, December 6.)  And besides, I saw some Holiday Shopping ad as early as September this year, the swine, so I placate myself in that context as being late to the party.

As always, I'm posting a link to the column on its original Writers Guild site, since it's nicely formatted there, and formatting it here is a convoluted process.  (It also sits on the Huffington Post, but for the WGA version, being the original, I include all the graphics and the end TWW Notes.  You can find it here.

And as always, there's a mixed grab bag of goodies this year, including things like the Divoom Voombox Travel, not the tiniest portable speaker I reviewed this year, but very small and portable nonetheless that has among the best sound I've come across for something this size and with the added benefit of being water resistant (though not waterproof), so you can hang it in your shower, among other things.

Okay, this isn't really a Thanksgiving song.  In fact, it's as much a Chirstmas-related number as anything, given that it's from the movie Scrooge, based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  And I've posted it before.  But -- so what?!  The song is about thanking others, so one is granted full dispensation to play something called "Thank You Very Much" on any Thanksgiving.  And it's a fine way to close out the day.

Written by Leslie Bricusse, the number got an Oscar nomination for Best Song.  It's performed here by the wonderful, though little-known to American audiences, Anton Rodgers (who had a standout co-starring role as he charming con man Alfred Jingle in another Dickens-based British musical, my fave and oft-mentioned Pickwick), along with an assist here from Albert Finney.

The scene takes place during the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  No one is able to see Scrooge, therefore, and he's unaware that the people are not cheering him for being such a hearty good fellow, but rather the street food vendor Tom Jenkins who's thankful to Scrooge for something very different.

I've posted a few songs in the past from The Good Old Bad Old Days, the last stage musical by Anthony.Newley and Leslie Bricusse.  The show opened in London's West End, but flopped and never transferred to Broadway.  The score is flawed, though it has several pretty good numbers.  This is a pleasant song, "Thanksgiving Day," so it is not shocking to learn that I think it's appropriate to post today.