The thirteenth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind  the recording of our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. Let’s put a fork in this blog series and call it lucky 13, shall we? Yes, we shall.

Look. We’re all the way to 13 of these. Christmas was weeks ago. The stores are already full of Valentine’s Day crap. I’m gonna take a cue from the essentially Spartan version of this song and (try to) keep it simple.

Part of the beauty of this version* is that it’s just one person**. Yes, in the Lower Lights, we lean a lot on collaboration and combination and (sorry, Ayn Rand) group dynamics. But sometimes it’s nice to hear one person’s unique take on a song from start to finish, untouched by anyone or anything else.

So, here, we get solely Dylan Schorer, an electric guitar, an amp, maybe a pick, maybe a couple pedals (none of which are looping pedals). The single-minded, singly-played sound of that goes into a mic, which goes through a magical bunch of studio thingies that I would tell you about if only I had any idea at all what they actually did or how they worked (compressors? filters? jigawatts?), and eventually get recorded by Scott.

Simple.

Speaking of Scott, he pointed out something that has become one of my favorite things on the album. Right near the end of the song (around 1:52), Dylan strums out the song’s final chord. As it rings out (at 1:54), he does a little string pull-off (more like a gentle sweep-off) that is precisely the kind of touch that makes Dylan Dylan. It’s not pyrotechnics and showy stuff. It’s subtlety and taste and creativity. That’s Dylan.

And that’s a wrap. A fitting way to end the album. And a nice way to end these blogs. Thanks for reading and, more importantly, for listening. We loved making this record for you and are really excited to share the next chapter this spring.

Oh, and if you want to know more about the song itself, I found a nice resource on “O Little Town of Bethlehem” that says it better and more comprehensively than I ever could. GO HERE.

* I could call it “ours” but, really, it’s Dylan’s. And he was generous enough to let the rest of us slap our name on it.

** A superhuman of a person, but, still, one superhuman of a person.

The twelfth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. It’s like the 12^th day of Christmas. Or something.

Based on the 1864 poem “Christmas Bells” by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow wrote it, while still mourning the horrific accident that resulted in the tragic death of his wife Frances and ruminating on his firstborn Charles’ joining (without Henry’s blessing) of the Union army (and subsequent severe injury, not death as some sources report) in the Civil War.

To give you a better idea of where Longfellow was coming from with the poem, the first Christmas after Frances’ death, he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.”* A year after the incident, he wrote, “I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace.”** In his journal, on Christmas Day 1862, he wrote, “‘A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.” This is very clearly not a weeklong slump or a tough year. This a man struggling with deep and real and relentless feelings of sadness. That we get the last verse is, first, a huge gift to Longfellow himself, having battled through seemingly impenetrably thick bogs and fogs, and somehow coming out into a light that allowed him to pen a peaceful resolution/declaration; and, second, a gift to the rest of us, to know that someone emerged from the darkest of his days with hope.

If nothing else, that is the beauty and crux of this song: hope and its renewal.***

One reason I love this song is its capture of both the sadness that the holidays can seem to bring and the hope that they are intended to bring. There is a tension/pull between the two, just like in real life. Christmastime is not all jingle bells and perfectly packaged presents for everyone. The narrator/singer, at one point, tells us there is no peace on earth. That can certainly be true on both micro and macro levels. Yes, the song resolves and I think it should. There is sadness and despair. But there is also hope, there can be peace.

Maybe that’s why I love the honesty of Ryan Tanner & Brian Hardy (making his official lead vocal debut***)’s singing. They convey the coexistent melancholy and hope, which is no easy task. One of the great things about being in a project with as many musicians as the Lower Lights is that you have your pick of a lot of great folks and can always get the right person for the job. I wouldn’t pick any other two singers. Or Ryan’s piano playing, a sorta bluesy nod to Tom Waits. Or the organ playing****.

More factoids? Go to the last asterisks*****.

What/who you’re hearing

LEAD VOCALS: Ryan Tanner, Brian Hardy
HARMONY VOCAL: Sarah Sample, Dustin Christensen
UPRIGHT PIANO: Ryan Tanner
PEDAL STEEL: Dylan Schorer
UPRIGHT BASS: Ryan Tilby
HAMMOND B3 ORGAN: Paul Jacobsen
CHOIR:  Dominic Moore, Patrick Campbell, Darin LeSueur, Mark Smith, Dustin Christensen, Julie Yardley, Brooke White, Nate Pyfer, Sarah Sample, Jordan The Intern, Debra Fotheringham

* Which, to this day, I wouldn’t say is totally inaccurate. For many, unfortunately, the holidays– which a lot of us may see as joy- and family-filled– are sad and lonely.

** Two things: 1) I love that Longfellow used the word “wrapped” (like a present) in his description, and 2) what insight into the line “there is no peace on earth.”

** I think hope and renewal are also why we put so much emphasis on the birth of any child, much less one who would become Jesus Christ.

*** In the words of Arsenio Hall, “Give it up for Brian!” Extra-officially, it should be noted that Brian’s voice has also taken a verse on the Lower Lights’ version of “There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today” (unreleased, so far) and a prominent vocal part of his former band Atherton’s song “Penny Wants To Dance.” Both of which are great songs and one of which you can certainly hear online.

**** Confession: it’s me. And mostly I was just trying not to mess up the song. A tutorial from Brian helped.

***** Like many of the songs we recorded for Come Let Us Adore Him, this poem has been set to various pieces of music. Originally, the most common (with recordings by Elvis, Johnny Cash, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jimmie Rodgers, and more) was attributed to John Baptiste Calkin. More recently, though, a piece composed by Johnny Marks (who wrote “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and clearly has a grasp on what makes a Christmas song live past its decade) has risen to more prominence, with recordings by Bing Crosby, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Pedro The Lion (the version many of us in the band were most worried about landing too close to), and Sarah McLachlan (whose last name I believe you should not be allowed to misspell if she is in your music collection).

Sci-fi author Ray Bradbury in his 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes called this song “immensely moving, overwhelming, no matter what day or what month it was sung.” I’m pretty sure it all goes downhill for the story’s town of Green Town, IL after that, though. Unlike the song, which ends on a hopeful note.

This song was featured on American Songwriter magazine’s Christmas mix. Pretty cool, right?

ONE MORE BLOG POST. I think I can. I think I can.

The eleventh installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. I don’t know if I’m gonna make it to 13. Lucky 13, take me home…

The first thing you hear, when “Angels We Have Heard On High” starts up, is Dominic percussively strumming a silver resonator guitar. Then Ryan Tanner comes in with some delicate fingerpicked guitar. Then comes the part that, to me, is most surprising.

I don’t know why it’s such a surprise to me because I love both of their voices, but the blend of Dominic and Cherie Call’s voices is unexpectedly perfect. Our producer Scott Wiley must have felt the same way the first people who ever put chocolate and peanut butter, or P-Diddy and Sting, or  syrup and bacon* together. It just works and we all instantly wondered why we hadn’t used that particular combination** before.

Then in come the bass, the fiddle, and the bell brigade. I love the texturey, droney stuff that Shupe plays on the fiddle. It’s not announcing itself or asking for a spotlight, just helping the boat down the river. Next, we get some great rolling banjo and harmonies that ease our vessel through the locks. And pretty soon, there’s the shore.

Can we go again, daddy?

Or at least that’s how I feel.

The song’s lyrics are based on Les Anges dans nos campagnes, a traditional French carol (author unknown) that literally means ”Angels in our countryside.” The French version has since been routinely tweaked and tailored, one common popular version of which was translated into English by a Roman Catholic Bishop named James Chadwick in 1862. There’s also a Scottish Gaelic translation known as Ainglean chuala sinn gu h-ard, which is a more literal translation for the title we have today, “Angels We Have Heard on High”. I said it was literal.

“Angels We Have Heard on High” is most widely sung to the hymn tune ”Gloria”, most memorable for its chorus (which matches up with the first line*** of the song the angels sang, according to the gospel of Luke”:

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! (which is Latin for “Glory to God in the highest,”**** which you surely know is in yet another Christmas carol “Far, Far Away On Judea’s Plains.”)

What/who you’re hearing
LEAD VOCALS: Dominic Moore, Cherie Call
BELLS: Brian Hardy, Scott Wiley, George Brunt, Daren Smith
PERCUSSION: Darin LeSueur
12- STRING ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Ryan Tanner
BANJO: Ryan Tilby
VIOLIN: Ryan Shupe
RESONATOR GUITAR: Dominic Moore
BACKGROUND VOCALS: Dustin Christensen, Debra Fotheringham, Paul Jacobsen

* Paging Sarah Sample.

** Ryan & Debra? Check. Sarah & Ryan? Check. Mindy & Debra? Check. Mark & Brooke? Check. Dominic & Paul? Check. Nate & Ryan? Check. Cherie & Debra & Sarah? Check. Debra & Dustin? Checkity check check .I mean, trust me, we have shuffled the Lower Lights singers deck like an OCD casino dealer.

*** “Then why is it not the first line in this song?” I don’t know. Maybe because this never professed to being the actual song the angels sang. Like Tenacious D (language alert, for anyone who is gonna google the band, it was on MTV without all the curses, I promise) sang, “this is not the greatest song in the world. this is a tribute.” “Angels We Have Heard On High” is just a tribute to the song the angels sang. Not the actual song. As far as I know. Also, because we are this far and you are actually reading this footnote, I have a tangent: why did they never make a Christmas sequel to Angels In The Outfield called Angels We Have Heard On High or Angels We Have Thrown Out At Home or Angels We Have Suicide Squeezed? Just wondering.

**** Not to be confused with the Pig Latin version, the writing of which would probably walk a little irreverence line that I’ll just let you all formulate in your head rather than documenting for posterity.

The tenth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. “Oh, give it up, Paul! It’s not Christmas anymore! It’s not even 2011 anymore!” To which I say, “Fine, read it next December if you want. But I will finish this. I. Will. Finish. This.” Nine down. Four to go. Let’s do this.

A friend of mine tweeted* to me, “I never thought anyone could make me like ‘Silver Bells.’ You guys did it, somehow. Still baffled. It was a miserable idea, fantastically executed.” And I take it as a total compliment. Anytime you can take someone’s paradigm of what a song is and flip it over, it seems like you’re doing something right. Unless the paradigm was that they loved the song and the flip is that you completely ruined it. And, even then, an argument could be made for the artistic merits of contrarianism and/or swimming upstream. Maybe.

This song, to me, encapsulates (and I haven’t looked but I am sure I have said this about some other songs. So be it. It’s not the worst thing in the world that more than a song or two have a sound/feel that sum up the band for me, is it?**) some of the things that make the Lower Lights work– great harmony singing by an ensemble of male/female voices, each with its own unique flavor; fine, subtle playing by a bunch of great musicians (we even imported Sam Cardon, who gave us some great, rolling piano playing); and a folksy spin on a song that’s typically pretty well known and, maybe, beloved. There’s something about Pat’s drumming, especially in the intro, that immediately takes me to a snowy downtown; it’s like the brushes are the snow falling on windows and the sloshing of cars and boots through the streets.

“Silver Bells” is a classic written by Jay Livingston*** and Ray Evans, who also wrote “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)”, for all you Doris Day and Wyclef Jean fans out there. It was originally written– and I am not one to kid about such things– as “Tinkle Bells.”  Evans later said in an interview, “We never thought that tinkle had a double meaning until Jay went home and his wife said, ‘Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle is?’”***

And on that note, let’s get to the players.

What/who you’re hearing
VOCALS: Dustin Christensen, Ryan Tanner, Sarah Sample, Debra Fotheringham
PIANO: Sam Cardon
PEDAL STEEL: Dylan Schorer
DRUMS/PERCUSSION: Pat Campbell
SLEIGH BELLS: Darin LeSueur
BASS: Brian Hardy

* Yes, I also dislike that verb. But it is the best way to say what happened. And, yes, in 10 years, it will probably make this blog post sound severely dated, like saying”Page me” or “Gag me with a pitchfork” or whatever. By then, however, I am assuming that the robots will have taken over and blogs will have gone the way of Max Headroom.

** IS IT?!?!??!

*** Jay’s brother Alan was no slouch either. He is best known for creating Bozo The Clown, as well as for signing no-names like Frank Sinatra and The Beatles to Capitol Records.

*** It is one of many, many slang words that children (and adults, who I would guess are always trying to figure out which term is most practical and least offensive) use for urination.

The ninth* installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him.

I think it’s fair– and perhaps more importantly, accurate– to say that “In The Bleak Midwinter” and “Stars of Glory” are the two songs we’ve gotten the most positive feedback about**. Is it because they are new-ish to people (as opposed to the cultural unavoidability and lifelong repeat listens to a song like, say, “Silent Night”)? Does the word “bleak” just resonate a little too much once the weather turns cold? Do people mistake “Stars of Glory” for a remake of Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory”? Is it the snowflake beauty of the 3-part harmony (this time executed by Debra, Sarah Sample, and Stephanie Mabey)? Is it the rich intersection of Mark Smith’s cello and Ryan Tilby’s bouzouki? Is it Darin’s bell ringing? Debra’s distinctive guitar playing? The masterful Hammond organ playing?

There’s no science to it, of course. Music is art. And art doesn’t have to (or shouldn’t have to) explain itself to focus groups and marketing majors. I will say, because I can and because this blog has practically turned into the soapbox for my rants and ravings, that the song really gets me in the last verse. It turns to talking about gift-giving and how, ultimately, our hearts are our greatest gifts. Which I couldn’t agree with more***.

What/who you’re hearing

LEAD VOCAL: Debra Fotheringham

HARMONY VOCALS: Sarah Sample, Stephanie Mabey

CELLO: Mark Smith

BOUZOUKI: Ryan Tilby

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Debra Fotheringham

BELLS: Brian Hardy, Darin LeSueur

HAMMOND B3 ORGAN: Paul Jacobsen

Interestingly, this is not the first time a Lower Light has recorded this song. Mindy Gledhill recorded a different (melodically too) version a few years ago, which is a decent segue to the fact that this poem has been put to music a few times. The most famous versions were composed by Gustav Holst**** and Harold Edwin Darke*****, though I don’t know which one Mindy did or which one we did and it is the week of Christmas and I am too lazy to look it up. Knock yourself out, though, and feel free to leave the correct answer in the comments. My gut tells me that Mindy sings the Darke version.

* “Ninnne times,” echoes Principal Ed Rooney.

** No, I will not tell you which song gets the most negative feedback. But I will give you a hint: get a life.

*** With the occasional and  notable exception of old Gibson J-45s, depending on the year.

**** VIA WIKIPEDIA: Holst’s setting, “Cranham”, is a hymn tune setting suitable for congregational singing. The hymn is titled after Cranham, Gloucestershire and was written for the English Hymnal of 1906.

***** ALSO VIA WIKIPEDIA: The Darke setting, written in 1909 while he was a student at the Royal College of Music, is more advanced and each verse is treated slightly differently, with solos for soprano and tenor (or a group of sopranos and tenors) and a delicate organ accompaniment. This version is favoured by cathedral choirs, and is the usually heard performed on the radio broadcasts of Nine Lessons and Carols by theKing’s College Choir. Darke served as conductor of the choir during World War II.

The eighth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him.

“Go Tell It On The Mountain” is an African-American spiritual, first compiled in 1907 by John Wesley Work Jr., a Nashvillian teacher and important leader in the movement for the preservation of African-American spirituals*. It had been sung by African-American slaves, dating as far back as 1865. It’s a song that’s been around for 150 years and still sounds as good as the first time it was sung. I assume they’ll be saying the same thing about (enter a rather popular artist that you might not be so fond of here)’s songs in 2160.

The first time I really (not counting grade school choirs) performed** “Go Tell It On The Mountain” was about 5 years ago at A Very Palomino Christmas, an annual party thrown by my friends in the band The Devil Whale (then known as Palomino). They gather their friends in a loft in downtown Salt Lake City and there’s an awful lot of music played, each singer or band taking a turn. I chose “Go Tell It On The Mountain” and have subsequently incorporated it into whatever December show I play each year.

I was pretty happy to get a chance to record it, as the world isn’t exactly pining for a Madison Arm Christmas album*** and I’ve always wanted to have an excuse to record it. It was actually recorded in the sessions for our first album A Hymns Revival (the only song on Come Let Us Adore Him that’s not from this summer’s sessions), then shelved to serve its current purpose. We even played it as in-audience encoreat our first Rooftop**** (and first ever) show. Man, this post is full of firsts (5 so far, for those counting at home).

Dominic’s blazing “then why don’t you” after I sing “he taught me to pray” is one of my personal favorite moments in Lower Lights history. I think a lot of gospel songs get sung in an uber-pious, holy-is-me way (beautiful, too, it should be said). And there is a ton of great music played by great people in just that style. But I always try to remember what Pat Campbell said about his affinity for Hank Williams’ gospel songs– that they were sung from the point of view of somebody who was trying to do right but maybe wasn’t always getting there*****. When I hear Johnny Cash sing about redemption and leaning on faith, I believe him******.

And I have rambled way too much.

What/who you’re hearing

VOCALS: Paul Jacobsen, Dominic Moore

CHOIR: multiple Lower Lights + spouses + hosts of folks who may have been visiting that day

BANJO: Ryan Tilby

UPRIGHT PIANO: Brian Hardy

UPRIGHT BASS: Ryan Tilby

SIDEWAYS ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Paul Jacobsen

* While we’re here, let’s just call attention to that looming elephant in the blog window room thingie: we are basically a bunch of white folks, so it (the world of African-American spirituals) can be tricky territory. We come from a place of pure respect, so hopefully that comes across.

** Not to be confused with the first time I heard the song, which– as I told the folks at our Christmas concert– was on the television show “Little House On The Prairie.” Seriously. Whitebread.

*** No. I am not fishing. No need to post a comment about how much you want to hear me slaughter “Christmas Shoes.” We are more than happy getting to play Christmas songs with the Lower Lights.

**** To me, that rooftop setting couldn’t have been more fitting. It’s a real “shout from the rooftops” type of song. Celebratory. Happy. Bold. Perfectly engineered for mass singalongs. Even confessional (I was a sinner. I was a seeker. I needed help praying). I love this song. It’s not hard to see why I jumped to sing it.

***** Being perfect made it hard for me to sing “when I was a sinner” but I just thought of the rest of the band and that got me into the right headspace. I kid, I kid.

****** Last asterisks, I promise. But I need to be clear: I would never put myself in the company of Johnny Cash’s music. It is 100% aspiration on my part. I’ll be honest: I was (and still am) very nervous about my singing on this one. I put everything I could (and can) into it and then spent every listen thereafter worrying about it. But I will say that the intent is there, whether or not the execution landed on target. Do I overthink things? Well, that might be part of the reason I’m the one who writes these posts.

The seventh installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him.

Let’s give the first word to Dominic Moore, who spearheaded and sang our version of “Silent Night”:

“It’s one of my favorite lullabyes to sing for my daughters. I often sing it alone in the dark, imagining someone else singing it to keep themselves company or to celebrate Christ in solitude, with the angels joining in.”

I think you can hear the essence of all of that in the version we recorded– Dom’s quiet, almost lonely vocal* that, in the end, is buoyed up by our makeshift version of an angel choir joining in.

The descant that Debra & Mindy (whose voices together could certainly be categorized as “angelic” with little debate) beautifully sing over the last verse was brought to the table by Nate Pyfer. To me, it’s an example of the synergistic, collaborative nature of a Lower Lights session. There are very few instances of somebody strongarming their way with a song idea. Dominic starts the song down the river, Ryan rows a bit, Nate rows a bit, and eventually the song finds its shore.

As for the song itself, it was originally a German song entitled “Stille Nacht**,” written in Austria by Father Joseph Mohr (lyrics) and Franz Xaver Gruber (melody). One*** story goes that, when the song was first to be performed, the organ’s bellows had been gnawed away by church mice, rendering them useless. so the song was first performed on the guitar (Bing!). So, at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1818 at the St. Nicholas**** church in Oberndorf, Austria, Mohr played guitar as he and Gruber sang, with a choir coming in on the last verses (Bing, bing! And I would bet a gajillion dollars***** that Dominic didn’t know this little factoid when he was struck with his vision for this song).

And now for some random factoids:

• What is Christmas without Uncle Bing? Like I mentioned with his version of “White Christmas,” Bing Crosby is a Christmas hitmaker. His version of “Silent Night” is one of fewer than 30 singles in history to sell 10 million + copies worldwide.  I wonder if he had two separate bank accounts: Christmas Songs and Everything Else.
• During WWI’s Christmas truce of 1914, the song was sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops. It was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides knew.

What/who you’re hearing:

VOCALS: Dominic Moore, Ryan Tanner

DESCANT: Mindy Gledhill Debra Fotheringham

CHOIR: lots of folks

PIANO: Brian Hardy

BASS: George Brunt

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Dominic Moore

* For my money, there are few vocalists that can convey such a wide range of feeling as Dom. Everything from doom and gloom to tenderness to faithfulness to desperation and on and on and on. He has such a true, honest, real quality to his voice (meaning it doesn’t feel like there’s even a drop of affectation in it).

** I thought this bit from silentnight.web.za was a nice thought: ““Perhaps this is part of the miracle of ‘Silent Night.’ The words flowed from the imagination of a modest curate. The music was composed by a musician who was not known outside his village. There was no celebrity to sing at its world premiere. Yet its powerful message of heavenly peace has crossed all borders and language barriers, conquering the hearts of people everywhere.” Nice, right?

*** Yes, there are multiple strains of stories. Via Wikipedia: Silent Night historian Renate Ebeling-Winkler Berenguer says that the first mention of a broken organ was in a book published in the United States, The Story of Silent Night (1965) by John Travers Moore.

**** Really? St. Nicholas church? Really. I am guessing that the church on Santa Claus Lane was used for overflow.

***** Honestly. Test me. Give me a gajillion dollars and see if I will make this wager. Please. Somebody. Anybody.

****** Are you sick of asterisked footnotes yet?

The sixth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. And so on and so forth, forever and ever, amen.

Dustin Christensen brought “Stars of Glory” to our recording  sessions. Dustin bringing a song is not unusual. You should see his iPod(s), just packed with music of all stripes and plaids and cotton/poly blends. Dustin is an appreciator and curator of great melodies and great songs; for him, there are no guilty pleasures. Why feel guilt? Music is art first, not a popularity contest (sorry, if that hurts some feelings or shatters some illusions). Dustin knows many a great song. This is one of them.

This song– which along with “In The Bleak Midwinter” has proven to be a big fan favorite so far– is a bit of a mystery. And I like that about it. I think in today’s tweeting, realtime status update, reality show, 24-hour gossip, news ticker, blog-it-all world, it’s refreshing to leave a little something to the imagination. To not have every tiny micro-bit of information. To have to wonder a little.*

Here’s what I scraped up:

1. Dustin heard “Stars of Glory” as a kid, being sung by a choir**. He loved the song, searching for a version of it for years before finally stumbling upon one on iTunes that, in his words, “is horrible.”*** So Dustin did what any smart person with a set of golden pipes, super talented musician friends,  and access to a killer studio would do: he recorded it himself.
2. It’s found in the St. Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book. It was written by S. Janowska (of whom I know zilch****) and Frederick Charles Husenbeth (born in 1796) who was, by all reports, an accomplished musician who socialized in musical circles (a good friend was one of the more celebrated violinists of the time), as well as a devoted and consistent writer who “went on writing to the very last.” He was renowned for his kind heart, generosity, and punctuality in returning correspondence (emails? Phone calls? Dr. Husenbeth would abhor me.)

Beyond all that, I got nothing. Just the simplicity of Dustin, Debra, Tilby, and Mark making some beautiful music on a song that I’m glad Dustin dug up.

What/who you’re hearing

VOCALS: Dustin Christensen, Debra Fotheringham

BANJO: Ryan Tilby

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Mark Smith

* And, yes, I recognize the irony in writing about “the beautiful mystery of not telling everything” while writing these blogs with their overinformation and high wordcounts.

** Can confirm neither the roasting of chestnuts on an open fire nor the presence of folks dressed up like Eskimos.

*** Direct quote. Link to version in question was omitted on purpose.

****Googling his/her (see?!?! Not even the gender! So mysterious.) name yielded some results. But, desiring to avoid another case of me assuming too much like I did in 4^th Grade when I assumed the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had a hand in writing “Away In A Manger,” I am going to– to quote Iris Dement– “let the mystery be.”

The fifth installment of TSBTS, et cetera, pa rum pa pum pum, et cetera.

First, let’s clear the air: I had no idea until very recently that some people really dislike “Little Drummer Boy” (originally called “Carol of the Drum”*) Where does the ill will stem from? Overbearing, overdrilling choir directors who demanded pa-rum-pa-pumfection? Natural aversion to drums? The glaring unlikelihood that any new parent would want some kid banging on a drum in the immediate vicinity of their newborn baby’s ears? Maybe there is a particular version of the song that’s particularly grating? Maybe it’s….gasp!…. ours?

I wouldn’t know. I’ve always liked the song, going all the way back to singing it as a kid and later seeing Bing & Bowie duet it** , and even later recording a version of my own (with one of my favorite singers on this planet, Amy Gileadi, taking Bowie’s “Peace On Earth” part) for a lullaby album that our very own Scott Wiley produced.

But, contrary to what all my recent blogging might have you believe, this is not about me. The Lower Lights are about the sum of a bunch of beautiful parts, a collective of talented musicians. And this arrangement of “Little Drummer Boy” (which, I should explain, has gotten quite a bit of positive feedback***, leading to my discovery mentioned in the first paragraph that normally people don’t love the song) is purely the brainchild of Ryan Tilby (baritone acoustic guitar, upright bass, bouzouki) and Ryan Shupe (fiddle, vocals).  The two Ryans took their instruments into the hallway outside of the control room, resurfacing what seemed like a mere few minutes later with this song****. One of the things I really like about it is how rhythmic it gets (it is a song about a drummer) without any big drums (yes, there is percussion, tastefully played by Darin without the usual rat-a-tat-tat), which is a tribute to the bluegrass roots of the Ryans.

What/who you’re hearing:

VOCALS: Ryan Shupe, Becky Jean Williams, Vivian Smith, Debra Fotheringham, Ryan Tanner, Mark Smith, Dustin Christensen, probably more?

VIOLIN: Ryan Shupe

BARITONE ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Ryan Tilby

UPRIGHT BASS: Ryan Tilby

BOUZOUKI: Ryan Tilby (ok, maybe one or two of the three instruments was a rare overdub)

ORGAN: George Brunt

BELLS: Cherie Call, Daren Smith

PERCUSSION: Darin LeSueur

PUMP ORGAN: Brian Hardy

BANJO: Paul Jacobsen

Katherine Kennicott Davis wrote “Little Drummer Boy.” Davis wrote a lot of songs, many of which were intended to be sung by girls’ choirs, which makes Alicia Keys look pretty smart for recording her version as “Little Drummer Girl.” There are a lot of versions out there. For those of you still hating (and still reading too? If you hate it so bad, no need to wallow in its details, right?), may I suggest one of the following;

• Low (beautiful, fuzzy, unfrilly, lots of distorted guitar but not in the metalhead way you’re thinking)
• Vince Guaraldi (from a great jazz pianist and his trio)
• Grace Jones on Pee Wee’s Playhouse (maybe the weirdest thing you will watch today, if you dare. And I feel like I should at least warn you that Grace Jones is wearing a really interesting top. You have been warned.)

* Imagine Carol of the Drum meeting Carol of the Bells for the first time:

DRUM: Pa rum pa pum pum

BELLS: Ding ding ding dong

DRUMS: Pa rum pa..

BELLS: Ding ding a-dong!

** The dialogue is classic (almost as classic as the first meeting between Carol of the Bells and Carol of the Drum). “Right or wrong, I sing it,” says Bing. And Bowie talks about John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.

*** “Wow! I’ve always HATED this song! And I actually like this one!” or “I could never be bothered with this song until I heard The Lower Lights’ version.” And so on. Those of you echoing those sentiments can thank Tilby & Shupe.

**** Another of the miracles of this group is the marked lack of territorialism. Everybody has their own projects and, frankly, any one of the artists could do very well with a Christmas album of their own. But, time after time, we see people come to the table with great ideas– not b-list ideas that they only sort of like, GREAT ideas– that they could easily and understandably reserve for themselves. And they bring them for The Lower Lights. Pretty miraculous, if you ask me.

The fourth installment of TSBTS, wherein we give a little glimpse behind either the song or the recording or both for our new album Come Let Us Adore Him. Blah  blah blah, disclaimer, apology, legal flyspeck.

One of my favorite songs on our first album is “The Lord Is My Shepherd” with its sort of old-time, AM radio sisters’ harmony sound. Picture the little radio station in the middle of southern nowhere in O Brother, Where Art Thou, on a classic radio show like A Prairie Home Companion between ads for Dapper Dan and Powder Milk Biscuits, and then three beautiful singers huddled around an old school microphone, and you’re getting closer to how that song has always felt for me, give or take a steaming cup of Postum. To me, “White Christmas” is a sister track to that, no pun intended. In the same vein as the Everly Brothers, Louvin Brothers, The Andrews Sisters, and– more recently– The Secret Sisters, we have our own little trio(s) of The Lights Sisters.

What/who you’re hearing:

VOCALS: Cherie Call, Sarah Sample, Debra Fotheringham

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: Sarah Sample

It’s a testament to simplicity. Just one great song, three beautiful voices and one acoustic guitar*. It’s proof that you don’t need the frills and bells and whistles and smoke and mirrors and autotune and audio airbrushing of modern production**.

Speaking of great songs, “White Christmas” was written by one of America’s all-time greatest songwriters– Irving Berlin. “White Christmas” alone is a song so big and well-known, you can practically see it from space. In 1999***, NPR named it one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. The RIAA put the song**** at #2 on their Songs of the Century list. And that’s just a speck of its historical notoriety*****.

The song’s origin is disputed, but one popular story says Berlin wrote it while sitting poolside in Arizona in 1940, telling his secretary, “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written– heck I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!” Subjective superlatives aside, the poolside part of the story might help explain why the original song’s intro went like this:

The sun is shining, the grass is green,

The orange and palm trees sway.

There’s never been such a day
in Beverly Hills, L.A.

But it’s December the twenty-fourth,—

And I am longing to be up North

Understandably, most groups (ours included) choose to skip right to the snow. Who else has sung “White Christmas”? Hundreds, maybe thousands, including Ernest Tubb, Barbra Streisand, The Drifters, Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley, The Supremes, The Partridge Family, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Alvin & The Chipmunks.

* That’s Sarah Sample on the guitar. Echoing what I said about Debra’s guitar playing, Sarah is certainly an able and experienced guitar player that we inexplicably underuse. I’ve played with Sarah a hundred times and had no idea she was playing guitar on this until Scott told me.

** Well, it doesn’t hurt to have the great Scott Wiley and his studio June Audio making it sound great with just the right mics in just the right places doing just the right things. But still, at its heart, it’s a pretty simple thing.

*** With all due respect to Prince. And anyone who went overboard in preparation for Y2K.

**** Bing Crosby’s version of the song (best-selling single of all-time), to be specific. Oh, and #1 was Judy Garland’s version of “Over The Rainbow.”  Look, Judy Garland, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish but Ray Charles’ version of “Over The Rainbow” is the best version of all time. Of all time!

***** Yes, I know. FIVE asterisks are too many. But: (via Wikipedia) Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” was broadcast on the radio on April 30, 1975, as a secret, pre-arranged signal precipitating the U.S. evacuation of Saigon. Crazy.