Best of the season
HI all:
Michael West is one of my favorite singers. He has a quality and richness to his voice that is just so real for me that I could listen to him sing the phone book and I'd be enthralled.
I wrote a Christmas song last year for the Sterling awards benefit in December of 2007. The Sterlings are the theatre awards here in Edmonton and they have a fund raiser each year to buy the awards, rent the big theatre at the Mayfield in Edmonton and do the awards up right. Anyway, the lady responsible is someone I've sound designed for in the past. She's a pillar of the theatre community and she asked me to write a Christmas song for the benefit and to come and perform it. I laughed at her and asked her if she ever listened to any of my stuff, I mean I'm a pretty somber writer and Jingle Bells has been written, know what I mean? Anyway, she said try so I did and I ended writing an agnostic existential kind of Christmas song. I called her and told her I tried but that if she didn't like it, I wouldn't force it on her. Turns out she loved it and asked if she could sing it with me as a duet, which we did. It went over gangbusters and I was asked for various folk in the audience to come and sing it at a few other Christmas shows last year. I thought that was the end of it.
However, I played it for Michael West and Freddy Freeman when we were playing the Pride in Milwaukee in June. I had wanted to hear Michael sing it as I felt his voice would be right for it and Freddy would understand what I was reaching for.
Turns out they liked the tune and unbeknownst to me they had been working up an arrangement of it.
They sent it to me and it felt very like the season. If you get a chance to hear it I hope you enjoy it. I think Michael West has posted a link to it on his blog.
Regardless, hugs and all the best from our home to yours for the festive season. I hope you'll take stock of what's important and all that is good in your life and feel bolstered to take on 2009.
cheers.
andy
Michael West is one of my favorite singers. He has a quality and richness to his voice that is just so real for me that I could listen to him sing the phone book and I'd be enthralled.
I wrote a Christmas song last year for the Sterling awards benefit in December of 2007. The Sterlings are the theatre awards here in Edmonton and they have a fund raiser each year to buy the awards, rent the big theatre at the Mayfield in Edmonton and do the awards up right. Anyway, the lady responsible is someone I've sound designed for in the past. She's a pillar of the theatre community and she asked me to write a Christmas song for the benefit and to come and perform it. I laughed at her and asked her if she ever listened to any of my stuff, I mean I'm a pretty somber writer and Jingle Bells has been written, know what I mean? Anyway, she said try so I did and I ended writing an agnostic existential kind of Christmas song. I called her and told her I tried but that if she didn't like it, I wouldn't force it on her. Turns out she loved it and asked if she could sing it with me as a duet, which we did. It went over gangbusters and I was asked for various folk in the audience to come and sing it at a few other Christmas shows last year. I thought that was the end of it.
However, I played it for Michael West and Freddy Freeman when we were playing the Pride in Milwaukee in June. I had wanted to hear Michael sing it as I felt his voice would be right for it and Freddy would understand what I was reaching for.
Turns out they liked the tune and unbeknownst to me they had been working up an arrangement of it.
They sent it to me and it felt very like the season. If you get a chance to hear it I hope you enjoy it. I think Michael West has posted a link to it on his blog.
Regardless, hugs and all the best from our home to yours for the festive season. I hope you'll take stock of what's important and all that is good in your life and feel bolstered to take on 2009.
cheers.
andy