12 Days of Wintertide

 

I am delighted to announce that my Christmas album,
Wintertide, is now available to pre-order.

- - Pre-order your copy of Wintertide today! (Orders ship out in November) - -

I loved putting this album together, and during the upcoming weeks, I'd like to invite you behind the songs and behind the scenes of the album to share in the stories.

How 'bout we call it... The 12 Days of Wintertide.

In fact, let's start right here with a conversation about three of the cover songs on the album.

Day 1

Back at the very beginning of all the album planning (over a year ago), I enjoyed stepping into the grand library of Christmas songs--pulling familiar titles and unknowns from the shelves. I know this will be no great shock, but... there are so many great Christmas songs! And I enjoyed the searching. On all my jotted lists of cover song possibilities, these three were always included:

"Song for a Winter's Night" by Gordon Lightfoot
"Wintersong" by Sarah McLachlan and Pierre Marchand
and "Aspenglow" by John Denver

I sing these songs every December, and I listen to them every December. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and I hope to write painterly ballads like these. "Song for a Winter's Night" and "Aspenglow" are among the songs of my childhood, making them good old friends. Written by two of my all-time favorite artists, I can't recall a time I didn't know them. (My Decembers wouldn't be complete without 'em.)

In 2006, I remember when Sarah McLachlan released her Christmas record. Her album was playing in our house on a continuous loop that winter. It was playing during our Saturday morning chores, while we played board games in the living room, while we did the dishes after dinner, while we set up the tree and laid out the stockings... In my thousands of listenings, "Wintersong" is easily my favorite song on her album. It was my favorite then, and it's my favorite still. (And it breaks my heart every time.)

Choosing to include these three on Wintertide was a very easy decision.

They're familiar, favorite Christmas songs of mine, but I also know they'll be brand new to some of you. Which I love. I love hearing "I've never heard that one before!" or "who wrote that?". It is such an honor to introduce my favorites written by my favorites. 


All the love,
Brittany

 

One Year 🎥

 
 

(This video came out one year ago! ... Which is hard for me to believe.)

Sometimes a song haunts me into writing it, and this was one of those. It wouldn't let me go. My first scribbles and lines were heavy and dark. A "dark" that could swallow a person up, and no one would want to hear those early drafts--including the songwriter who wrote them. I just about gave up on it entirely. Because it hurt too much. It was painful looking for the hope in the story I was trying to set down. Then with two words the point of view changed and flipped everything upside right...

I remember watching this video for the first time, seeing the hopefulness (that took so long to embroider into the fabric of the song) before my eyes, and I am so thankful to Grant Walker for it. For his ideas and the vision for this project, for the time and care he took with it, for catching the fireflies... For so many things.
(And I'm very thankful to our star, too, who is the very definition of a darling heart.)

"You are a luminary
Heir to the lamp you carry
Undaunted, you walk around this haunted, war-torn town
And you don’t know how to hate
Darling heart, stay that way
For yours, I know, could melt a heart of stone...."


Happy birthday, video.

-BJ

P.S. By the way, thank you all so much
for your kind comments and notes about “Golden Hour”!  
🌻

Golden Hour

 
 

"If you were a time of year
I’d call you September
When the trees change..."

“Golden Hour” is out now in all the places! 

Surprise! I couldn't wait any longer to release this song. It's such a September song, and as it won't be on the Christmas album... Well, I'm not patient enough to wait on releasing it until who knows when! 

I hope you like it... 🌻

As always, a huge thank you to our fantastic team: Joel Key (acoustic guitar), David Smith (upright bass), and John Nicholson (engineer). Recording days at Hilltop are a little more favorite. Making them a bit like grape snow cones. Thank you for making this sunlit song sound and feel exactly like its name.

-BJ

New Merch!

 
 

All the Love was released one year ago today!

And we’re celebrating the first anniversary of the album with this super soft, light-weight pullover which features hand-embroidered song lyrics (“find me in the flower fields”) and wildflowers on the sleeve!

Happy birthday, fourth album.

(I'm looking forward to singing All the Love songs live this summer!!)

-BJ

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