Album Notes

We have a confession to make. This album, like most Christmas albums maybe, was born not in December, but in the middle of August. We were on a late-night drive home from a faraway gig, and our limbs were all woven through the tangle of mic stands and speaker cables that shared the space in the Cherokee with us when someone had the idea. A starry night, to be sure, but about 94 degrees outside the car windows. A few days later, we were shaking jingle bells in the studio, dressed in shorts and sandals. The weekend before we sent the masters off for duplication, we went water-skiing. Okay, that's the confession: we've been celebrating Christmas since Labor Day. And you know what? We recommend it. We recommend it partly because along the way we learned that you can take away the winter wonderland and still have Christmas.

You can take away the colored light bulbs and the eggnog and the popping chestnuts, and you're still surrounded by it. All around you, all year long, are good neighbors and friends and family, with the light of that divine baby Christmas hero shining like a beacon through every one of them. So put away this disc come january if you want. But don't put Christmas away. Don't put away the faith, or the warmth. Don't cover up the light. That's the Christmas Spirit, and it got us through the back half of a particularly blazing St. George Summer.