New Groundhog Day holiday album out now
A brand new album devoted to the holiday Groundhog Day is now available.
On Groundhog Day, created by Edwin Everhart, an anthropologist and teacher from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came out earlier this week.
The description provided for On Groundhog Day is as follows: “This is a holiday album from a not-too-distant alternate universe where Groundhog Day thrives as an important neighborhood festival. It’s a dream about changing to a new season. It’s a dream of a world where we get together with our neighbors for festivals. That world where we have the time, energy, social connection, and hospitality of spirit we want to have.”
There’s something for everyone on On Groundhog Day, from romantic ballads like The Dancer (“Oh, you, the dancer in the groundhog mask, I’m enchanted, I’m frantic”), to songs of heartbreak, such as Last Year When We Stood Here (where the singer laments a lost love who they spent a previous Groundhog Day with).
Everhart envisions a world where Groundhog Day has a Krampus-like creature named The Mud Painter associated with it, and covers a song by Olivia Devorah Tucker, called The Ballad of Saint Valenhole, who is a kind of patron saint of Groundhog Day/rodents.
Most of the songs on the album are Everhart’s original compositions, but there are also new recordings of existing songs, texts, or poems that are related or relevant to the holiday. A number of performers besides Everhart helped bring the songs to life.
You can find the entire track list for On Groundhog Day below.
- When the Neighbors
- Full Moon Outside My Burrow
- The Ballad of Saint Valenhole
- Of All the Big Rats
- In the Glow
- The Groundhog Remembers
- Old Time Religion
- Deeper in Darkness
- See the Mountains
- Auf, Auf, Du Schläfer
- Der Waldmurmeltier
- Down With the Rosemary and Bays
- Mark Me Not
- The Dancer
- Last Year When We Stood Here
- Who Has Got a Big Furry Hat
- He’s Gettin Painted
- Our Groundhog
- If We Were as Brilliant as Groundhogs
- On Gobbler’s Knob
We’ve been advocating for more Groundhog Day music for years, so we’re delighted that this album exists, and we long for the world envisioned by Everhart, where Groundhog Day is celebrated with the fervor of a holiday like Christmas or Halloween.
You can purchase the On Groundhog Day for as little as $2 on Bandcamp (but you should throw in a few extra dollars if you can).
Tags: groundhog day, groundhog day album, groundhog day holiday album, groundhog day music, groundhog day songs, music, songs