Christmas Time's A Comin': A Song History

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"Christmas Time's a-Comin'" is a composed song rather than a traditional one. Its writer, Benjamin Franklin "Tex" Logan, was born in Coahoma, Texas, in 1927,[1][2] and he kept up two careers at once. He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering at Columbia University[2] and moved to northern New Jersey in 1956 to work for Bell Laboratories, where he stayed for most of his working life,[1] yet he also played bluegrass fiddle with Bill Monroe, Mike Seeger and Doc Watson.[2] He wrote the song while he was working with the Lilly Brothers, intending it for Monroe, and later taught it to him.[1]

Currier and Ives lithograph of a snowy farmhouse with a horse-drawn sleigh in the lane

Currier & Ives, American Homestead Winter, lithograph, c. 1868. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.

Logan was meant to play fiddle on Monroe's record, but car trouble kept him away from the Nashville session, and he gave the result his approval over the telephone.[1] Two later accounts place the recording in October 1951, with Gordon Terry taking the fiddle part and producer Owen Bradley adding vibraphone.[3][4] It went on to become a seasonal bluegrass standard,[1] and the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association names Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris among the artists who later recorded it.[3]

The melody itself appears to be older than the song. The Traditional Tune Archive treats Logan's piece as a bluegrass offshoot of "Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over," a north Georgia reel that Fiddlin' John Carson and his Virginia Reelers recorded in 1927, and it suggests that the chorus draws on the second strain of "Mississippi Sawyer."[5] A 2018 post on the blog of the Hillbilly at Harvard radio program, prompted by a listener's observation, makes the same link: Carson's tune carries essentially the same melody, while Logan wrote entirely new words and added a chorus.[6] Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II includes both titles as separate pieces.[7]

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Sources

  1. Bluegrass Today: "Tex Logan remembered".
  2. Smithsonian Folkways: "Smithsonian Folkways Remembers Benjamin 'Tex' Logan (1927–2015)".
  3. Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association: "Christmas Time's a-Coming".
  4. Hillbilly at Harvard: "Tex Logan (1927–2015) — Part II".
  5. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Christmas Time Will Soon be Over".
  6. Hillbilly at Harvard: "Extra! Fiddlin' John Carson Played Tex's 'Christmas Time' in 1927!".
  7. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam II".