Another of my favorite holiday gifts is the debut CD from Joanna Newsom. "The Milk-Eyed Mender" is quite breathtaking, but Pitchfork probably provides a good warning for the uninitiated...

Joanna Newsom possesses one of the shrillest, most keening voices you may ever hear, a sort of cawing, screeching, open-mawed banshee affectation that can be oddly endearing, but usually just makes people wish they were deaf. At first.

If you can picture (and stomach) a female, elfin Tom Waits playing harp then you just might be her target audience!!

Watch the video here.