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1. John Doan “Wrapped in White: Visions of Christmas Past”
2. Buck Owens “Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos”
3. Various artists “Santa’s Funk & Soul Christmas Party Vol.1-3”

Bandcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a vibrant virtual community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available on the site that are well worth your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.

“Wrapped in White: Visions of Christmas Past”

Many collections of Christmas music are upbeat and ready to provide pleasantly familiar background noise at your festive holiday party. (See, for example, the other two albums on this page.) But the holidays can also be a time of quiet reflection and/or melancholy. If that’s the vibe you seek, check out this 1995 album by John Doan, which finds the world-class harp guitarist playing seasonal favorites on period-appropriate instruments from the 19th century. Using the parlor guitar, classical banjo, mandolin, toy piano and other Victorian-era tools, Doan not only creates a perfect soundtrack for a mellow evening spent sitting by the fire and staring at the tree, his sparse arrangements strip these songs down to their melodic essence, bringing new perspective to tunes you’ve heard a million times.

“Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos”

Buck Owens is one of the greatest and most influential artists in the history of country music, best known for pioneering the rock ‘n’ roll-influenced “Bakersfield sound” that revolutionized the genre in the 1960s. So when you have an opportunity to listen to Owens sing Christmas songs … well, you take it.

“Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos” features all that is good about Buck and his band: The frontman’s velvety voice, clever turns of phrase and funny country-isms, a rock-solid backbeat, pop-rock instinct and lots of guitars: both the twangy electric kind and the sad, swooping pedal steel kind. Thank you to the excellent archival record label Sundazed Music for reissuing this one — and for putting it on Bandcamp.

“Santa’s Funk & Soul Christmas Party Vol.1-3”

Credit goes to the creators of this three-part compilation, who named it exactly what it is: a collection of funk and/or soul jams that are guaranteed to get your holiday party going. What they don’t mention is that these are 42 lesser-known Christmas songs that nonetheless rule the yule. So instead of, say, Darlene Love and Bing Crosby and Bobby Helms and Mariah Carey, you get Detroit Junior and Binky Griptite and Cleveland Robinson and Short Stuff. Name recognition aside, however, each of these tracks is performed with the seasonal spirit and sweat-drenched enthusiasm you’ve come to expect from your go-to holiday jams. So slip this collection into your regular rotation for a little variety and a whole lot of fun.