Christmas in Fallujah - by Jefferson Pepper

It seems Billy Joel's powerful new ballad shares its title with a song from a Pennsylvania-born artist named Jeffeson Pepper.

Mixing alternative rock, warped bluegrass, punk, folk, Americana and alt country, Jefferson Pepper inhabits an eclectic, rootsy territory all his own. No pretension, just honest, plain-spoken poetry for anyone with enough awareness and good taste to listen.

You can hear Jefferson's song here.

Christmas in Fallujah - worth a listen

Billy Joel has a new song out in time for the holidays: Christmas in Fallujah. It has kind of a haunting Nirvana quality to it, which might be why I like it... Hope you do too.

“Christmas in Fallujah” arrives in the midst of an unpopular war. In a press release on his Web site, Joel says he was inspired to write the song by letters he received from U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but that he felt he was too old to sing it.

Joel chose an unknown 21-yr.-old from Long Island, singer/songwriter Cass Dillon, to give voice to his emotional, anti-war song:

“I didn’t feel I was the person to sing this song,” said the 58-year-old Joel. “I thought it should be somebody young, about a soldier’s age. I wanted to help somebody else’s career. I’ve had plenty of hits. I’ve had plenty of airplay. I’ve had my time in the sun. I think it’s time for somebody else, maybe, to benefit from my own experience.”

The song is available at iTunes now. Proceeds go to Homes For Our Troops.