Every year at Christmas time, some of my students will bring me a gift. A coffee mug, a plate of home-made baked goods or, more recently, a gift card among other thoughtful items. I was thinking of this one year and thought that it might be a nice idea to return the favor with a CD of me playing some Christmas music. The problem was that I got this idea around Thanksgiving time which gave me a scant three weeks to arrange, rehearse, record, and duplicate the final product.
In order for this to work the arrangements were going to be fairly simple. There was no time to get too fancy. I actually felt guilty about that. It seemed to me that I was cutting corners and my students deserved better. However I was able to record seven songs, do some post-production work, and have them ready to give away just in the nick-of-time.
When the master was finished I took the time to listen to the completed project for the first time and I was surprised by how nice it sounded. That was a huge surprise because I never like to listen to myself. Moreover when I listened to many other contemporary artists performing familiar Christmas music I suddenly felt like mine was better.
My first exposure to the standard Christmas Carol or song was in my childhood. The style of singing then was fairly unadorned. In my opinion today's artists seem to see a piece of music as an opportunity to show off their skills with little regard to content or meaning. In my little project the music is played pretty straight forward. Nothing fancy. It had nothing to do with art or showcasing my playing. And it was a happy accident that it came out that way.
So I gave away several copies to students and friends for Christmas that year. Everyone seemed to like it a lot. The only criticism I received was that it was too short. So I resolved to expand on it and release a full album of Christmas Carols. I was in the middle of two other recording projects so it was a couple of years before it happened. I remember that I finished recording in early May and my producer, John Campbell gave me the master two weeks later. On the Fourth of July I raided our attic at home and grabbed a few Christmas decorations, laid stuff on our couch, and took a few pictures. One of those pictures became the cover of the CD.
That happy accident has become a signature style. When I play popular music at weddings or other events I remind myself that I'm not a jazz guitarist and stay pretty true to the melody. Because of new technologies I no longer offer the physical CD but if you're interested, the music may be downloaded at: www.rogerhumphrey.com or iTunes as "Gentle Carols Roger Humphrey".
You can listen for free on YouTube https://youtu.be/n4sgufNp2uc or many other streaming services including Spotify.