STFD has released a new album entitled ‘Thank Folk it’s the Holidays’. How did this all start? Well, every December these okes hosts a Christmas / End of year party at a friend’s home in Noordhoek (in Cape Town). What started out fairly small 4 years ago has grown in to one of the most epic shows that they host and one we look forward to every year.

It’s a family friendly environment, with everyone from babies, to Grannies and Grandpas welcome. They’ve always called it ‘Thank Folk it’s the Holidays’, another play on the word Folk, something you would’ve noticed, they do quite a bit of.

Each year, STFD gets a bunch of bands and solo acts, all artists they’ve worked quite a bit with over the years and they ask them to play their regular sets, with one Christmas song thrown in to the mix for fun. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, it’s not always possible for the bands to focus on arranging a track that they don’t really play through the rest of year. Some however jump on board and embrace it fully. Whenever the bands do this, it gets such a great response, that they’ve started discussing the possibility of one day recording their own Christmas album!

Fast forward a few years! Early 2020 they started the conversation again and thought, this is it, this is the year, let’s do it, and well, we all know what happened after that.

Once lockdown started easing though, around September we decided, if we don’t do it now, it’s just never going to happen, so we rallied the troops and the concept of the 1^st Sit The Folk Down Christmas album, ‘Thank Folk it’s the Holidays’ came to life.

As you can imagine, it was a pretty intense schedule, considering Christmas promo seems to go out earlier every year. They had to ask the specific artists if they’d be keen, present a comprehensive list of songs, get their designer to put together something epic, schedule studio time, get the mixing and mastering done and a whole bunch of other things.

Thankfully, they somehow managed to do this and get everything in as close as we could to the initial dates they had set ourselves.

More info about ‘Thank Folk it’s the Holidays’

Look, they’re all about nostalgia at STFD and Boney M and Michael Bublé are such staples around this time of the year and bring back so many memories of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations with friends and family, but they thought that it’s time for a fun, fresh take on those classic Christmas tunes!

They’re not saying they don’t want Michael Bublé to come out of his cave at all this year, but maybe it’s time to let some of our fantastic local musicians create some new Christmas memories for you!

STFD are really stoked with how the album turned out. Not only did each musician bring their own feel to the song, but there was such a spirit of community, with many of them jumping on each other’s tracks to add additional instruments and whatever else our producer, Jon Shaban, felt it needed.

They’ve got everything from a cappella to Folk, Blues Rock, Country, Punk and even Nomadic Orchestra adding their unique Brass Dance feel to a track.

‘Thank Folk it’s the Holidays’was produced and mixed by Jon Shaban and mastered by Matthew Fink. Special mention to Tendekai Nhete for his assistance in studio as well.

Here’s the track list:

1. Jingle Bell Rock – Stanley Sibande

2. Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Angela Stuurman

3. White Christmas – Dave Starke

4. (It Must’ve Been Ol’) Santa Claus – The Misty Cliffs

5. Last Christmas – Kayleigh Bell

6. Silent Night – Hatchetman

7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Andy Lund

8. Run Rudolph Run – Jacob Swann

9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Nomadic Orchestra

10. Walking in the Air – The Shabs

11. Feliz Navidad – The Betsie Beers

Have a listen to the Album below:

You can stream / download “That Folk It’s The Holidays” on all major music streaming services.

Watch this space for updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.