This Is Christmas
Notes on the songs on “This Is Christmas:
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[While this shows prices for the individual songs and for the whole CD, that is there because the website program had it. Feel free to fully listen to any/all of these songs as well as download any of them. Pay if you want - I will donate proceeds to charities such as our church youth group, Cross Roads Camp & Retreat Center (a joint operation of the ELCA and Episcopal churches in NJ), or the Franklin Food Bank (Franklin Two, NJ). Or you can decide to donate to a charity you like and just tell me what it is. Please - nothing political.].
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Sing Hallelujah For This Holy Birth! – I wrote this due to a prompt from my friend, Clyde Bird. He is in a songwriting group and the challenge was to write a seasonal song. I had wanted to try something with an African rhythm again, so this resulted. The verse is in Swahili and says “ ​Praise the Christ! Hallelujah!” and then “Give Praise to God!” Thanks, Clyde!
Manger – I was trying to write another Christmas song a while back and this came into being. It’s had a few changes, but I like where it is now.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – With all the COVID-19 impact, our church has done a lot with virtual worship. Thanks to the streaming we’ve done in the past, we’ve been able to pull recordings of songs to include. However, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel” just was missing parts. So, I decided to record it. Wanted to do it a bit differently. I probably heard someone else do it this way in the past and it stuck with me. See what you think.
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Wise Men - This is on my First Fruits album as well, but, since it is definitely a Christmas song, I have also included it here.
This is Christmas– I wrote this one Christmas a couple of years ago when celebrating with our daughter and granddaughter but I only recorded it now.
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Starlight, Star Bright - My take on the theme of the Star of Bethlehem.