I’m making a goal for season 3 of my music podcast to have blog post attached to it. It will let the listeners learn a little more about the guest, the song, and or the topics. Click here if you haven’t heard the episode yet…

As mentioned, Sarah and I met while part of a clergy pilgrimage group to the Holy Land in February 2023. I feel grateful for getting a chance to make it to Israel when I did. It fit in with Covid travel restrictions behind us and the current war yet to begin. I fell in love with the land in a way I was not expecting. I really felt a kinship to the region of Bethlehem when we visited there. What follows is a pretty casual opinion: Jersusalem was incredible on so many levels, but it is cosmopolitain. I am a midwesterner, a “country mouse,” if you will. Bethlehem (as well as Galilee to the north) had a midwestern feel to it. SAT anaolgy: Jerusalem: California :: Bethlehem: Indiana.

I chose to feature Sarah’s fun version of “The First Nowell” because as I was visiting the sites of the biblical Christmas story, her song was going through my head.

Sarah describes her self as a comic. And by moving to the mountains in Vermont, she has found a home with other Northern comics. The other day I came across The Red Green show on Prime. Red’s show was a big part of my TV viewing when I was 16 years old in the mid 90s. So I watched few episodes recently from the 1991 season. As I saw the homespun, earnest comedy of errors by Red and Crew, it occured to me that Sarah’s “I Can Rutland” premises (like the Ice Cream Facial) are in the same vein as Red’s Handy Man Corner; her slightly self depricating interviews mirror a bit of the conversation Red had with his fictional locals – the hiking episode a bit like Adventures with Bill.

There are differences of gender, generation, nationality, fiction/ reality, of course, but Sarah & Christina’s DIY ethic makes the comedy even more touching, even more believable because it is authentic, spontaneous; any calculation before the camera is rolling is invisible. Sarah’s comedy has a friendly ness in common with other Canadian comics from the late John Candy’s work on old SCTV skits to the cast of Schitt’s Creek.

I mentioned in interview that her comedy makes the traditional content of the hymns accessible to modern ears. When you hear the Christmas carol with a modern meoldy, the lyric sounds different and there is the possibility of hearing them again as for the first time. The same thing can happen when you read it aloud as a poem. Here is the text of the song as found in the Episcopal Church Hymnal 1982, which Sarah mashes with Beiber.

1. The first Nowell the angel did say
was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
in fields where they lay, keeping their sheep,
on a cold winter’s night that was so deep.

2. They looked up and saw a star
shining in the east beyond them far,
and to the earth it gave great light,
and so it continued both day and night. Nowell, nowell…born is the King of Israel.

3. And by the light of that same star
three wise men came from country far;
to seek for a king was their intent,
and to follow the star wherever it went.

4. This star drew nigh to the northwest,
o’er Bethlehem it took its rest,
and there it did both stop and stay
right over the place where Jesus lay. Nowell, nowell…born is the King of Israel.

5. Then entered in those wise men three
full reverently upon their knee,
and offered there in his presence
their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense.

6. Then let us all with one accord
sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
that hath made Heaven and earth of nought,
and with his blood our life hath bought. Nowell, nowell…born is the King of Israel.