My first and second stints in Nashville were not happy ones, but leant themselves to a dark humor.  I always hated the cheery Christmas songs that resurface from year to year—give me the Elvis ballads any day—so I thought it would be great to taint the experience for all the normal people.  This was an ongoing project (and still will be, until it’s right) over several Christmases.  The funny thing is that when we finally recorded a few of them, I was about to get engaged.  I laid down the vocal tracks a cappella, then headed off to Florida, leaving it to my roommate Gene (who then went by Alaca) to add the music.  He did some instrumentation on his own, then enlisted our friends Lizzie and Todd (who are now married) to add piano, guitar, and backing vocals.  Todd then did the art, and Gene brought me a finished product a few days before Christmas, 1998.  I’ve been longing to remake it properly ever since.

 

 

© 1998, 2001 by Ryan Christian Hedegard