Christmas songs....
We were asked to perform Christmas songs for a Historic Homes tour in Norcross, Georgia and it's been a very rewarding experience for us. Christmas music contains such a broad cross section of music written in so many different styles from some many time periods and the songs that we chose reflected this. Charles and I are no strangers to making cover songs our own, and that is a great thing to do when you are adding covers to your regular set, but we found doing a whole program of Christmas music to be a totally different experience.
Since there are only two ofus, by necessity we have to simplify the music to reflect what the very essence of the song is, what it is that makes it work. Christmas songs come from Church music, Swing, Jazz, and Big Band music to name just a few and it is really suprising how few Christmas songs that bands have recorded in their own style are memorable at all. Instead when the season rolls around, we tend to listen to the classics as we remember them, not the new revamped version.
Give people what they want, the warm fuzzy from the heart and they can't help but respond, and you might just stretch and grow a bit yourself. Least you can do if you've got the gift is to spread some joy round the holiday season.. Just a thought.