December 9, 2011
How we arrived at the title for the Christmas Album
We started talking about this Album last November when we were finishing up a tour. I wanted to do the album with Michael Lent, just Bass and Voice or a reasonable facsimile thereof. So we talked about it, we were going to try to record two albums, one of new material we were working and one of Christmas material. I applied for a grant to record the bigger project. The stars didn’t align. I scaled back my plans and we decided to record the Christmas album. We had to readjust our time line due to circumstances beyond our control, not being independently wealthy might have been one of them. We finally recorded on 2 beautiful September days. I put up Christmas ornaments. I sent a few prayers into the atmosphere. We finished.
Lindsay at Indie Pool (great company for independent recording artists to work with, btw, www.indiepool.com) needed the art, liner notes, master by early October. My hope for a stylist to help with album design just didn’t materialize; I had to find another photographer, fast. Patti Falconer Talent recommended Kyle Kleefeld, he got to my house before I did, I had just finished training clients at the gym, I went upstairs did my own hair, makeup and came down. We shot in my living room. I opted out of Photoshop. I learned how to use Dropbox to send the shots, I then realized I hadn’t named the album. Maybe I should call it miracle I said, tongue in cheek, it’s a miracle we finished, and it’s about a Christmas miracle. Lindsay agreed.
Michael, meantime was feverishly mastering away, he was in between producing other artists and coming down to perform at WordFest. At one in the morning he was putting the grace notes on the album, and realized he didn’t know what I was going to call it. He called it Tidings of Comfort and Joy. And you know, I think it is.
Best,
M