12 Days of Wintertide - Day 12 🎉

Day 12

We have reached the final day of the year and the last day of our 12-part series. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and allowing me to share these glimpses behind the album with you!

With one more song to go, did I plan to end with "Auld Lang Syne"? But of course.

Long before I started working on Wintertide--back when the Christmas album was a future, possible, some-day project, "Auld Lang Syne" was always going to be the final song on said album. I'm certain the first place I heard this song was at the end of It's a Wonderful Life when Harry Bailey gives a toast to his brother, calling him "the richest man in town", and everyone from Bedford Falls (all standing in George Bailey's living room) starts singing. Since then I have loved it.

A Scottish folk song saved and added to by Robert Burns in 1788, being the first to set it down in writing, it's a song that is really only played once a year. Today. Tonight. This song about times long past and the friends and loved ones who have been there step-by-step... is a fitting bookend to the year.
 

"Should old acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should all acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

And surely you will bring your cup
And surely I'll bring mine
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne

We too have run around the slopes
And picked the daisies fine
We have wandered many weary foot
Since auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

We too have paddled in the stream
From morning sun to night
But the seas between us broad have roared
From auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We will take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We'll take a cup o'kindness yet
For auld lang syne
For auld lang syne..."

 

(You can listen to "Auld Lang Syne" right here!)

Happy New Year!
-Brittany Jean

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 11 🎁

Merry Christmas Eve, dear hearts!

Before we get to Day 11, I have something to share with you...
Grant Walker filmed the concert at the Merc Theater!! And it's right here! Enjoy...

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Day 11: Christmas Eve

"The store I’m looking for is closing
Just hoping I can make it in time
Bringing apple cider with cinnamon spice for someone
My thank you for staying, for waiting,
for holding this gift of mine..."

Seeing as it's the 24th, let's talk about "Christmas Eve".

I loved writing this song. It was a song that started with a tiny idea that soon took up every corner of my heart.

I keep a folder of scribbles. Sometimes it's an entire song idea, sometimes just one word that I love, sometimes a phrase, sometimes a journal entry about this or that... I jot down rambling thoughts and silvery words, tucking them away in my notes just in case I can make use of them at some point. Months ago, looking through that folder, I came across two words: "silent night."

I remember why I wrote those two words down--I thought it could be neat to tie a phrase of "Silent Night" into the fabric of one of my songs, but that piece didn't fit the picture for anything I was currently writing for Wintertide.

Until "Christmas Eve"... And this song was all surprises.

Lyrically, it turned out differently than I thought it would. Right from the start, it had a course of its own. It changed directions on me, literally, and suddenly I was rushing to get to a shop on Main Street when I thought this song was going to stay cozily at home, sitting in a big comfy chair by the fire.

Musically, it planted itself in a key and a tuning I wasn't even looking at. Tuning even one string differently can change the voice of the instrument, let alone retuning four or more strings. I haven't played with open tunings very much, but every time I do, I want to write everything that way.

This song even threw our musicians for a loop in the studio with the slow-down moments at the end of each chorus. Recording, it's important that we all stay together--that we're all aware of the beat and exactly where it is. (Unless it's "Christmas in Killarney"... but that's a special case.) Slowing down in the middle of a song isn't as simple in the studio as it is in a live performance. Joel (on the acoustic guitar) suggested he take the slowdowns by himself, so the other musicians could bow out until the tempo picked up again. He looked at all of us rather seriously before we went to our individual booths and told us to pray for him at each of those moments in the song.

"I'm serious. Pray for me, okay?"

(We did. Or, at the very least, my momma and I did. And they smashed it.)

"Christmas Eve" all came together in the last moments. The last moments of writing. The last moments of demo recording. And I am so glad it did. I really can't pick favorites because each one of these songs is a piece of my heart, but... if I had to, this one would be up there. I hope you like this song...

You can listen to "Christmas Eve" and "Silent Night" here!


Alright, I don't know about you, but I'm going to go warm up some apple cider now.

Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and all of mine...

All the love,
Brittany Jean



P.S. Tomorrow morning--Christmas morning--92.7 KNCW will be playing my Wintertide album on their station! Starting at 8:05 AM! If you're within range and happen to be getting breakfast around, get you a piece of coffee cake and tune in! 📻

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 10

The Ghost Ship

"And my eyes caught on a rising pinewood forest
Growing up from the deck of a ghost they called Rouse Simmons..."
 

Many months ago, I was given a book as a very, very early Christmas gift: The Christmas Tree Ship, by Carol Crane, and the story and paintings within those pages unlocked memories I had forgotten. (The book is beautiful by the way and would make a great Christmas present if you need any Christmas present ideas...)

Reading this true story, I suddenly remembered walking into the Steel Beam Theater in St. Charles, Illinois, with my family in 2004 to see a musical called "The Christmas Schooner". The play was wonderful and heartbreaking and lovely...

On a late-November night in 1912, a ship called the Rouse Simmons was carrying thousands of Christmas trees to Chicago. Leaving Thompson Harbor, Michigan, the captain and crew made this voyage every year, trading their normal cargo of lumber for soft evergreens to share a little bit of Christmas with the families watchfully waiting for them at the docks by the Clark Street Bridge. 

They sold trees and garlands for less than a dollar each, but the captain soon became lovingly known as Captain Santa because he would often give the trees away to families, not accepting payment.

The Christmas ship was lost in a terrible, angry storm that icy November. People did claim to see the vessel in the days and weeks that followed, but the Christmas trees that washed up along the shore confirmed a different story. Nonetheless, for awhile... it was a ghost ship. I am certain I too would have preferred to believe the tricks on the eyes to the tragedy.

Captain Herman Schuenemann's wife, Barbara, longed to carry on her husband's tradition, seeing it for what it was--a good-hearted, open-handed Christmas gift that so many looked forward to every year. Holding his memory close and continuing to make the trip he had loved was a way to help the captain's goodwill live on.

Today, 109 years later, the Coast Guard now delivers trees to Chicago for Christmas. 

(In a recent radio interview, I misspoke and said it was the Air Force... I was quite embarrassed to be me. Just the other day, my niece sent me some of her artwork--an illustration of a "Ghost Plane" flying over and dropping off Christmas trees from the sky... It is one of the funniest things I've ever been surprised with.)

The captain and his crew live on. One of my favorite categories of "things to write about" is True Stories. Well, this one grabbed a hold of my heart and wouldn't let go. The more I read about this captain and his crew, the more I believed I knew them. This different time didn't feel so far away, and I wanted to capture my own misty glimpse of the ghost ship... 

And to join Barbara in keeping alive the memory of Captain Santa.

“Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and all of mine...” 

All the love,
Brittany

P.S. You can listen to "The Ghost Ship" here!

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 9

O Holy Night

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…”
 

While still considering which cover songs to include on Wintertide, "O Holy Night" tugged on my sleeve. The words, the original melody, the accompaniment, the dynamics… “O Holy Night” is about as classic as classic can be. There's a reason we still sing this song. There's a reason so many artists have recorded it. There's a reason it still brings tears to my eyes hearing it live--despite having heard it so many times before. If I had to pick a favorite Christmas carol, "O Holy Night" would be it.

However, setting the carol next to everything I had written and already recorded for this album--setting it side by side with the other tracks--made me uneasy. The other songs felt like neighbors, but this one didn't. I didn't know where I would place it in the song list... 

So I had another idea.

For as long as I can remember, Sara Groves’ songs have been good friends of mine. "Painting Pictures of Egypt", "I Saw What I Saw", "Maybe There's a Loving God", "It Might Be Hope", "Floodplain"... She has a song for every season of the heart, and phrases from her songs run through my thoughts all the time.

She has a couple of Christmas albums herself (and I highly recommend them), and on one of these albums, she included her own arrangement of "O Holy Night". At this point, having listened to it so many times and having sung it so many times, I love Sara's version as much as the original.

(I know, right--how can that be?! Well, it's just beautiful.)

While the melody and style may be different, the heart of the song remains the same. That is my favorite thing about new arrangements of hymns and carols...

The words remain the same. The heart remains the same. The thing that changes is the setting of the story, giving it a new voice without really changing very much.
Like a new light on an old, beloved conversation.

Recording Sara Groves' arrangement of "O Holy Night" has given me the chance to share a different version with you, to highlight the work of another artist I love and possibly introduce you to her library, and still include my favorite classic in an unexpected way.

I hope you enjoy this different version!


All the love,
Brittany

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 8

Christmas for Cowboys

"Tall in the saddle, he spends Christmas Day
Driving the cattle over snow covered plains
All of the good gifts given today
His is the sky and the wide open range..."

Back when I was walking the aisles of that great library I once mentioned--the library of Christmas songs--looking for my cover songs to include on Wintertide,
"Christmas for Cowboys" caught my eye. I jotted this title down on my first list of song possibilities, and then the second list, and then the third... This song made it onto every list of potential songs I wanted to record, and it then sailed through my final choices. It made the final cut without hesitation.

I love this song.

I love this painting of a life well-lived in simple yet beautiful moments, trading a "football and eggnog and Christmas parades" Christmas for one spent hard at work on the "wide open range".

Simple beauty.

In "Christmas for Cowboys", it's the blanketed plains and the cattle themselves. A small, toasty campfire and the starry sky overhead. The quiet of the night and the voice of the wind. These are gifts to the cowboy--these are gifts to us, and they are as loving and grand as anything under the Christmas tree. They are enough.

The mountains around my home are lightly dusted over right now, but soon they'll be snow-covered like the cowboy's plains. I always look forward to the snow. The days are getting shorter and darker, but when it snows, the moon has something to reflect on--brightening the dreariness of gray, cold, too-short days. The stars will shine all the brighter, and looking up through the evergreen trees on the mountain, they will indeed be our "Christmas tree lights"...

This Christmas I want to be more on the lookout for these kinds of gifts, stepping away from the noise and removing everything else but the beauty so I can see how deep that beauty goes. If you come across such a gift this season, I would love to hear about it.

"Christmas for Cowboys" was written by Steve Weisberg and first recorded and released by John Denver in 1975. It's a song I've heard every year my entire life. Sometimes I choose to record a cover song purely because I love it, and I do love this song so much; but also keeping a songwriter alive in some small way in the songs they wrote... That is truly an honor.


Until next week...

All the love,
Brittany

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 7

Day 7: That Night

Remember when we stayed up through the night
Waiting for the satin northern lights?
We were too young to know
We’d never see them through a window frame of snow

We lay beneath the tree
In the living room, you and me
Looking through boughs at a thousand colored lights
That was our aurora that night...

When I was little, there were a few years where we got our Christmas tree at the very last second--on Christmas Eve. While I love the idea of getting a tree early and enjoying it for the days and weeks leading up to December 25th, there is something very sweet about a Christmas Eve tree. Finding a tree farm that is still open, everyone bundling up to go (because the whole family has to go, right?), finding and voting on the best tree (or at least a Charlie Brown tree that needs a home), the rushing about to find the boxes of ornaments in the attic and the garage, untangling all the lights and decorating with the Christmas music playing just shy of "as loud as possible", and then piling onto the couches to watch one more Christmas movie before bed while the tree shines by the stairs...

Forgive me for waxing a bit nostalgic... but I do love a Christmas Eve tree.

One of those years, after the tree was decorated and sparkling, my family all went to the kitchen to make popcorn and hot chocolate--everyone getting ready to watch either A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life, and I ran upstairs for blankets and pillows. When I came back down, I found my brother laying under the tree.

It struck me as rather funny, and I laughed as I asked him what he was doing.

"Looking at all the lights," he grinned.

He said I should see them, so seven or eight-year-old me dropped the armful of blankets and pillows and laid down to see what he saw. To this day, silly as it may look, this is still one of my favorite Christmas tree things--looking up through the branches at the lights.

While this is the final snapshot and the final moment in the song, this memory from so many years ago was the beginning of "That Night".
The very last lines were the first written.

All the love,
Brittany