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I didn’t release a Christmas song last year (2015) because the project I started turned out to be a much larger endeaver than I expected. SOOOOO… I’ve decided to release two Christmas songs this year. The project from last year, will will be released shortly.
I hadn’t given much thought about what to record from my Christmas Album track list, when this song asserted itself. I was driving home from hockey very late one night, and was suddenly struck with the overwhelming knowledge that I NEEDED to record it. I’m not sure why exactly… perhaps there is someone out there who needs to hear it. If so, I hope this song finds you where you need to be found this Christmas season, or whenever you’re listening to it.
This recording is very different from the way I usually approach my music projects. There are minimal punch-ins to correct missed notes or odd phrasing issues. I didn’t build in a guide music track to adhere to a particular chosen key (for the record, I think it’s more or less in the key of Fm) or a click track to adhere to rhythm and meter. There are no instruments other than my voice, of which there are total of four vocal tracks.
It is very real, and very imperfect (uncomfortably so for me). For some reason though, it felt to me that to do it any other way on this project would have been fake… insincere.
This song was written during a dark period of Jewish history, during the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. There’s a strong sense of melancholy that permeates it, even with the triumphant chorus of “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel.”
And with the coming of Emmanuel, nothing would ever be the same for anyone.
Merry Christmas everyone, and God bless!