COMING TO A HOLE NEAR YOU THIS CHRISTMAS
Santa Gopher, a Drought-Tolerant Christmas Song Delivers Joy (and lizard eggs) for the Holidays.
Christmas carols live on forever… the good ones, anyway. Kept alive on store PA systems, on radio, TV and films, in this rapidly changing world of collapsing icons and institutions, the Christmas tunes that play incessantly during the holidays give us peaceful reassurance that not everything will be swept away by the uncertain winds of social change.
With traditional holiday values on the defense, is there any room left for another Christmas carol? One that boldly aims to add a new, unheard-of character to the holiday triumvirate of Rudolf, Frosty and Santa?
Could there be room for… Santa Gopher?
Inspired by the Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated classic, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, particularly the featured ballad as sung by folksinger Burl Ives, Santa Gopher is an acoustic country song set in a distinctly non-traditional Christmas setting–the western American desert.
Created by actor/impressionist Jim Meskimen, (who provides the voice of Colonel Harland Sanders for KFC commercials) Santa Gopher tells the story of a mysterious rodent that has his own tiny sleigh, powered by flying mice, who delivers gifts to creature living in the warrens, burrows and rodent-holes of the barren plains.
He’s furry and cute, and as the accompanying, ultra low-tech music video demonstrates, he’s selfless and charitable (if mainly to other rodents) and, most importantly, the catchy chorus won’t leave your head once you’ve heard it.
The music was penned by Meskimen and his partner in this venture, Academy of Western Artists award winner (Allegretto/Espinoza) recording artist Ian Espinoza, also a talented visual artist. The two worked together to create the homespun holiday artwork for the very home-made music video.
“We wanted this video to be very “ghetto”, like a couple of guys had painted characters on cardboard, hot-glued dowels to the back, wiggled them around to make them move, and finished it over a weekend” said Meskimen, who is no stranger to video virulence. Jim voiced all the singing political characters in the legendary “This Land” for Jibjab Media in 2004, garnering over 80 million views and has several videos with over a million views on his highly subscribed YouTube Channel.
Meskimen sings the lead vocal in a voice that evokes Willie Nelson… that is if Willie ever sang about a benevolent rodent. Who knows? Someday perhaps he will.
A lively ballad, with a contemporary edge, the memorable instrumental track includes Ian Espinoza on guitar and studio regular Paul Eckman on upright bass. Santa Gopher is lighthearted, corny, and very infectious and is sure to become a holiday classic.
Is there room for a new Christmas song that would challenge the reign of Rudolf, Frosty, Santa & Barking Dogs?
Dim that red-nose and put those puppies back in the kennel!
Here comes SANTA GOPHER!