12 Days of Wintertide - Day 6

The Band & Christmas in Killarney

So let's see, what haven't we talked about yet...

Oh! Oh, boy. The musicians. Allow me to introduce you to a few more of the incredible people who helped me make this album.

Joel Key (all the beautiful guitars), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle and mandolin), David Smith (upright bass), Wayne Killius (percussion), Garth Justice (percussion), Chip Davis (background vocals), Billy Davis (background vocals), and John Nicholson (engineer)--it is always an honor to watch and listen to these guys work. The experience of handing them one of my song demos and watching them become composers right along with me to transform that song into everything you hear...
It never gets old. World-class craftsmen, every one of them.

They all know each other so well that most of the time I'm just trying to keep up with them and decode any shorthand and studio lingo before the music starts.

I've learned so much from working with these artists.

They've also given me so many stories...

Some of my all-time favorite moments in the studio were all the behind-the-scenes of "Christmas in Killarney".

Before recording a song, we always listen to the demo first. The demos are recordings of just me and my guitar, setting down the framework and a place to start. While listening, there's usually discussion about who might take which solos, about the turns, about little changes to chords and counts, about possible melodic themes and the dynamic, heart-of-the-song moments...

When we started listening to the demo for "Christmas in Killarney", suddenly everyone was talking about Irish pubs and what it's like playing in Ireland. (And I, for one, was wishing we could all be magically transported there. I'd love to play in Ireland... Someday.) This song was one where we didn't have to talk about it too much. It's a more familiar Christmas song, but we were also all on the same page from the start.

We wanted to sound like we were playing in a hole-in-the-wall place in Dublin.

The fiddle solo lines, the guitar strumming throughout, the dipping bass notes, the vocal harmonies, the washboard moment, the drums, the second ending...!

(The second ending was my mom's idea. She whispered to me halfway through the recording that everyone should come back in and the song shouldn't end yet. So if you love that second ending as much as I do, let her know. We've gotta give her a whole lotta credit! :) )

When someone asked about adding handclaps, Joel responded with, "Yeah, we could use a little more racket."

Racket.

Never before have I wanted "racket" in a recording, but watching Joel and Wayne add the layered tracks of clapping together--that was a racket. Since everyone purposely avoided sticking too strictly with the beat instrumentally, we didn't want the clapping to be too uniform either. So Wayne kept fake-clapping to throw Joel off the beat and off of wherever Wayne would actually clap. Though of course he knew what he was doing, it was a funny picture--the percussionist not knowing where or how to clap.

And all that "racket" makes the song.


I love these guys, and I am so grateful for and humbled by their beautiful work on Wintertide.


-BJ

Release Day ❄️

Day 5: Album Release

Last year was... stormy. For so many reasons that you already know about.
After losing over forty shows in 2020 and struggling with how to deal with that, I was encouraged to focus on what I could do. So I turned my attention to the Christmas album I've always wanted to create but hadn't had the time for yet. I couldn't control the gigs being canceled left and right, but writing, recording, and building a new album... By the Lord's grace, these things I could do.

I am delighted to announce that my Christmas album, Wintertide, is now available!

I am so excited to share it with you! You can purchase the album on my website, and it is also available on all of the streaming platforms--Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music.... (Just a note on the streaming options, only nine of the fifteen songs will be available on these platforms--all of the originals and two of the covers.) If you do stream the album, it would mean so much to me if you'd share it with someone!

Album Art

Oh, let's talk about the artwork--is it not gorgeous?!

When I asked my sister Angelina if she would be willing to create the album art for Wintertide, I knew whatever she came up with would be beautiful. She is an incredible artist, and I can't tell you how thrilled I was when she said "yes"!

I found a few photos for inspiration, trying to give her somewhere to start, but to be honest, I just showed her pictures of snowy watercolor trees. I also shared some of the lyrics from "Wintertide" (the song) and "Call Me North". She took the few meager things I gave her and came up with this beauty! When she sent me the first preview, I thought, "That's it! It's perfect!" I didn't realize it was just a rough draft or that this preview was at a smaller scale. I didn't see how it could get any better than that!

These paintings wrap around the entire album. As you open it up, there is more to see, and if you open it up all the way, the images flow all the way across the front and back. The forest greens and grays, the misty trees, that cabin, the deep blues, all the kindly, wild, free creatures... I just love it. I hope you love it too.

Thank you, Angelina, for your beautiful work.

Oh, one more thing. Fun fact: when Angelina shared the final draft, I noticed the wolf on one of the panels... All of the other animals in the artwork are mentioned in the album, but there were no wolves in any of the songs. Since I had a couple more songs to write at the time, I managed to tie howling wolves into one.
See if you notice... Listen for the wolves.


All the love,
Brittany


P.S. Psst...
Make sure to stop by @bjeanmusic on Instagram to enter the giveaway that's going on over there...

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 4

Day 4: Writer's Block

In a conversation with my favorite co-writer, I told him about all the time I've been spending in Paris lately (reading Les Miserables... which... takes even longer to read when you're reading it ten minutes at a time) and the glimmerings of a new song idea. This song wouldn't be a Christmas song--it would be for some other future project, and I wanted to call it... well, I still might write it, so I'll leave that for another day.

At the time I was suffering the great panic of writer's block. If you've seen the movie "The Man Who Invented Christmas", imagine Charles Dickens sitting at his desk, staring into space with wild eyes and blank pages before him. Everything he goes through in that film is what writer's block feels like. With the pressure of looming deadlines and passing days, writer's block is like being the owner of an empty well, and instead of digging a new one somewhere else or noticing a friend standing next to you offering you a glass of water from their well, unable to look away, you stare and sink into the dark well directly before you. Dramatic, I know, but finding a rounded idea that takes ahold of you at such a time--when you start to wonder if you'll ever write another word in your life--is a comforting relief. To put it mildly.

(Of course, if you ever struggle with writer's block, I don't recommend staring into the emptiness. It's an easy thing to fall into, but for me, I've found the answer usually lies in lifting my eyes to look around and outward. It lies in doing something or tryingsomething different. Going somewhere new, hiking, finding a new place to write--it could be a mile up a mountain path or as close as the backyard, free-writing about anything at all without the pressures of a finished shine, having conversations and listening deeply, leaning into other writers for support... Which brings us back to that original conversation.)

Next thing I knew, I had a song with "Paris" in the title waiting for me in my inbox.

My first, knee-jerk reaction was to be a little miffed because someone else had written my song.

Then I read the lyrics and found it wasn't what I was expecting at all. It wasn't the song I'd been talking about. It was something else, and I quickly fell in love with the lovely, lonely night in the story. After reading it a few times, I took Bellamy out of his case and began the hunt for the melody. Now the only thing I'm upset about is that I didn't write it! (Well, other than a handful of words.)

This song also broke the writer's block. It helped me turn my focus, and it took some of the self-made pressure off because I knew we would have at least one song for that upcoming recording session.

"For Paris" was one of my favorites to bring to the studio. The short intro sets you on the streets of Paris, passing by musicians at a corner cafe... The steady acoustic guitar finding its moments, the mandolin sparkling throughout, the violin in harmony, the cymbal swell and soft brushes... Our musicians found the sound.

I would like to live in this song. And I can say that since I didn't write it.

And I'll revisit that other idea at some point, but this is my song about Paris.

Thank you, Allan James, for this gift.

All the love,
Brittany

P.S.
Wintertide
Available November 12

We're one week away...

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 3

Day 3: Christmas Wonder

My niece told me recently that she likes how this song that has "Christmas" in the title never actually mentions Christmas in the lyrics. My response to her giggles was a laugh of my own and a soft, "Well... not by name."

"Christmas Wonder" began with wonderings about the very first Christmas, and it is full of whisperingly strange things. Moments that are out of the ordinary and yet not wildly spectacular enough to be completely unmissable. Little things that need to be watched for to be seen. Small moments of the day.

A silent and mysterious ringing in the air, the typically quiet ponies racing through the canyon as if they don't want to be late for something, walking into a warm room that should be shockingly cold since the fire hasn't been started yet, strangers asking for directions and bringing curious and unheard-before questions with them, the move to help someone who sorely needs it--someone who may have gone unnoticed another day...

"And the ponies come to mind..."

In my first notes for this song, I knew without a doubt that we needed the ponies. (You can ask my co-writer--I was quite adamant they be included no matter what.) They are a recurring thread that ties these small wonders together. Their wild, early-morning rush is one of the first unusual things noted, and later, with an act of kindness, they come back to mind. The ponies' unusual fieriness is tied to this second "unusual" kindness by rock-solid and yet unexplainable motivation. 

And then there are the yearlings in the end. Being only a year old, you wouldn't expect playful, sprightly yearlings to stand still for too long, and yet, here they do. They are stone-still in their yard, looking up with an anticipation that would make one ask,
"What are we waiting for?"

"Christmas Wonder" is a quiet prelude to Christmas Day.
It is a simple prologue to the true wonder that followed.
It is that moment just before everything. 

All the love, 

Brittany

P.S. My (wonderful, kind, beautiful) sister, Jenelle, is running an album release tour for me as we prepare to send Wintertide into the wilds.

The release will be on November 12 and the tour will run through November 26.

We're looking for people willing to share on IG, FB, Twitter, your blog, newsletter, really anywhere. We will do all the work for you and send you graphics and info--it will be very simple, I promise.
(There will also be a giveaway during this window... details coming soon.)

If you would be willing to help spread the word and would like to join the tour, just fill out this form: https://forms.gle/Lo6qyH1hpHo8eY1HA

And thank you!!

12 Days of Wintertide - Day 2

Day 2: Call Me North

"With the bitter cold and falling snow
Longing and belonging call me north
To the mellow woods I’ve always known
And a cabin there well-hidden by a storm..."

Many years ago, my family spent some time in Northern Minnesota, staying in a cozy, rustic cabin on a lake rimmed with green trees. Even though it was long ago, that place and time is often on my mind, and I was picturing it as I began writing a new song last December. I had only written a few lines when it came to a halt.

My grandma's health had taken a turn, and she went home to Jesus far sooner than I was ready for. This song I was writing about going home and being with family was hitting me differently. So I set it aside.

Sitting in my grandparents' living room in Michigan a few days later with family I hadn't seen in far too long and hearing these beloved, familiar voices telling old stories, I kept thinking about the Thanksgivings we had in that house. There was a big, beautiful table that we somehow all used to fit around--all twenty-seven of us, and as I looked around, looking for my grandma from pure habit and noticing the frames on her shelves holding photographs of all of us through the years, I thought,

"We all have a place around the table
The empty chairs remain there like we’ve asked..."

Then there were the goodbyes as we started for home again, family by family. Being among the last to leave, those goodbyes were getting harder and harder. I remember my mom looking at me with a small smile and saying, "We should make much of the coming and little of the going." 

For a few months, I didn't look at that song I had started before Christmas, but when I finally did, it was a garden. The ground beneath my feet was ready and waiting--the foundation was already there, and all I had to do was write it.

And this was the beginning of the second track on Wintertide. A song about home, about family, about belonging... I named it  "Call Me North".


All the love,
Brittany

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