The Suite Christmas

Boy has it been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. Wow, I really dropped the ball on this one. What can I say? I’ve been busy!

So, for the people that follow this blog, you may know that I have been putting out a Christmas video once every year on my YouTube channel.

After about six years of doing this I thought to myself, “Huh, I have about half of a Christmas album’s worth of material here, why not arrange six more Christmas tunes and put out a Christmas album?”

Well, I am pleased to announce that I have done just that! Behold, The Suite Christmas, my follow-up album to The Suite Acoustic! https://web.archive.org/web/20170501232813if_/http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=434837156/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/

This Christmas album could not have happened without the help of some very talented people: Special thanks to Patrick Rowan over at Rowco Studios and Daphne Alice Marcil at Tweek Sound and Mastering for recording my album, and thanks to Paul Elliot at SoundLAB for mastering all of the tracks! The Suite Christmas just could not have happened without the efforts of these amazing recording and sound engineers, so thank you all so very, very much!

Who did the amazing artwork for the cover, you might ask? Why, the same amazing artist who did the artwork for my last album, that’s who! The one and only Matt Talbot, one of the greatest artists of our time. Seriously, check out his work, I’m not joking.

I’m proud of this one. I wrote and rehearsed all of the arrangements. I funded this album all by myself. No kickstarter campaign, no go fund me, no begging anyone for funds. With very little money in my pocket and even less time I got this out the door and in time for Christmas.

So, like my last album, this album features the immensely talented Melissa Waterhouse on violin. Once again she did a masterful job of handling all of the parts that I wrote for her. However, unlike my last album, The Suite Christmas features two of my ukulele arrangements. People familiar with my YouTube channel know that I have a number of videos featuring my skills on ukulele, but this is the first time that I’ve recorded my ukulele arrangements for an album. Sadly Nick Lanzer, who lent his considerable talents to my last album, was not available for The Suite Christmas because he is now a proud father! I’m happy for Nick and the fact that he is now a dad. Congratulations! I’m sure he’ll be back for another album and some YouTube videos once things calm down.

The Suite Christmas is available everywhere, so go out there and listen to it and get into the holiday spirit!

You want it on iTunes? It’s on iTunes.

Do you want it on Amazon? It’s on Amazon.

You want it on Spotify? It’s on Spotify.

What about Google Play? You think it’s not on Google Play, even though they put me in the rock section for no apparent reason? Listen, it’s on Google Play!

It’s even on Bandcamp. The embedded Bandcamp player has already been posted up above. What, you haven’t clicked on it by now? If you click on it you can listen to it for free! Or you can click here, whichever you prefer. What are you waiting for?

It doesn’t end there. I ordered 100 CD’s of The Suite Christmas from Disc Makers and they sold out in five days. I know! Another Christmas miracle! I can not believe the response to this. My last album was not exactly a bestseller, but this one has really taken off. I found out that promotion via social media is far more effective than my blog, unfortunately, so that’s part of the reason why this blog post is coming on here so late. I simply can not believe how effective Facebook advertising is. After posting a Facebook ad for The Suite Christmas my Spotify monthly listeners shot up, my Bandcamp sales and streams shot up, and once I get my sales for all the other digital platforms The Suite Christmas is on (there’s a two month lag on sales via Tunecore distribution) I know that this album will prove to be a juggernaut digitally just like it has been on physical media.

So to everyone who has bought, streamed, listened to, and distributed my album as a stocking stuffer: Thank you all so very, very much. All of you have truly made this Christmas so very special and so wonderfully unforgettable. It was exhausting to start recording this album back in July. It was exhausting to be stuck in a recording studio in sweltering heat with no AC because the microphones would pick up the noise. 85 degrees Fahrenheit and playing Jingle Bells over and over and over again… Yikes! Well, you know what? It was worth it and I would do it all over again just to get the feedback that I have received on this album! Seeing how happy people are with the result made this all worth it. Thank you, all of you, from the bottom of my heart, and Merry Christmas!