One Year Of Wintertide ❄

Hello friends!
Wintertide was released one year ago today! And what a year it has been!!

(The other day I was doing some counting, and we had over 50 shows since last November! THANK YOU for coming out to the gigs and concerts. Thank you.
As John Denver wrote, "You know I love to sing my songs for you."

And this is just one of the highlights from this year. There have been plenty more. Passing a million total views on YouTube, charting on College Radio, "That Night" playing #1 on WBSD Radio this summer (yes, a Christmas song in the middle ofsweet summertime), the shows in Wisconsin, and some things I can't even tell you about yet even though I so badly want to!)

So to help celebrate this first anniversary of the winter album, everything in the store will be on sale until the end of November. Albums, sweatshirts, and if you would like a Wintertide Mug, we're working on getting 'em restocked--so keep an eye out for those!


All the love,
Brittany Jean

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! 📻