Science fiction author John Scalzi and singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan release a new Christmas song for 2020 and beyond.
Days before Christmas, singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan and science fiction author John Scalzi have released a holiday gift with a free download of their new Christmas song entitled “Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You).” It is a special holiday song for this difficult year, offering hope and a reminder we need to keep looking ahead.
Scalzi explained that while dealing with an illness that was likely Covid-19, he found it difficult to work on his current novel. So, he decided to try something different in writing a Christmas song.
He continued, “I wrote words that reflected where I was in this winter season, missing family and friends and looking toward when we could all be together again. And when I was done I looked at what I wrote, and I thought ‘This kind of feels like a Matthew Ryan song.’ So I got in touch with Matthew. He took a jumble of words and made them beautiful. He didn’t have to, but he did, and I’m grateful.”
So, Scalzi concluded, “This is from both of us to all of you. It has love and hope in it. May it help you through the end of a long year, and into a better year for all.”
The song fits perfectly for this year (“I know this year is hard for you / It feels like it’s meant to break us”), and you may find it bringing a tear or two. But it is also timeless, as we all have encountered our own individual bad years, longing for something in the past or the future.
Yet, this year, for our collective grief, “Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You)” is a wonderful holiday gift. “So have some faith it won’t be long / Until we’re once again together.”
“Another Christmas (Until I Am There With You)” is available for free download on Bandcamp until New Year’s Day 2021. I’ve already added it to my Christmas music collection, looking forward to hearing it years from now and thinking of how we made it through this year.
Listen to John Prine’s “Silent Night, All Day Long” as we reflect back on a difficult year with guarded hope for the coming year.
The world faced numerous losses this year. Although it is part of the human condition that we lose loved ones every year, this year was collectively difficult as we were struck by a pandemic that was not even on many of our minds one year ago today. As we watched the numbers climb on our television screens, we could lose track of the incalculable individual personal tragedies, largely because taking it all in would be too much to bear. The affected people we knew brought the impact home. And people in the spotlight killed by Covid, like Charley Pride, might bring together a divided country in unified grieving, if only for a moment.
One of the earlier deaths of a national figure occurred in April, when singer-songwriter John Prinepassed away from complications related to Covid-19. From his lyrics and his warmth, many of us felt a special personal connection to Prine, even if we had only heard his music and seen him on stage.
And so it seems appropriate that for this Christmas, we remember those we lost and reflect on the coming year with one of Prine’s perfect Christmas songs from his 1993 albumA John Prine Christmas, “Silent Night All Day Long.”
We held hands and stared at the lights on the tree, As if Christmas was invented for you and for me; When the angel on the treetop requested a song, We sang, “Silent Night” all day long.
Even as we are reminded, through memories of a year ago, that we can never know what tragedies and joys await us in the new year, we look forward to this coming year with guarded hope. As we persist through this winter, we pray for the changes from the new vaccines, new leadership, and the coming seasons.
And most of all we keep our faith that, as in the images of love in John Prine’s song, somehow we will get through it all together.
Dion has released two new Christmas singles where he sings “Hello Christmas” with Amy Grant and gets help from guitarist Joe Bonamassa on “You Know It’s Christmas.”
Dion’s Christmas album Rock ‘n Roll Christmas is a mainstay of my holiday playlist. So, I’m happy to hear that the rock-and-roll legend is still creating new Christmas music after all these years as he recently released “Hello Christmas,” a duet with singer Amy Grant.
Dion explained that traumas of 2020 led him to record the song singing to the holiday, “Need you more than I did last year.” Dion explained, “I was talking with a friend about how the world this year can use a little life-giving love and harmony. I told him that Christmas was the grace that changed my life and that I was looking forward to a shot of that this year.”
Dion asked Grant to help out and found that her counter-melody made the song “sublime.” Check out their recording of “Hello Christmas.”
Additionally, Dion released “You Know It’s Christmas,” featuring lead guitar by Joe Bonamassa. The inspiration for the song was considering what a bluesman would brag about Christmas: buying the perfect gift for his girlfriend.
Christian author Mike Aquillina co-wrote both “Hello Christmas” and “You Know It’s Christmas” with Dion. Check out Dion performing the latter song below.
What do you think of Dion’s new holiday songs? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Singer-songwriter Hal Ketchum, who passed away on Nov. 23, 2020, recorded one of the best country albums of the 1990s.
Hal Ketchum, who passed away recently, had a wonderful debut album in 1991 called Past the Point of Rescue. I sought out the album after seeing the video for Ketchum’s song “Small Town Saturday Night.” It was a catchy tune with a cute video. I would fall in love with the entire album, but really fell for one of the most heartbreaking songs I’ve ever heard, “I Miss My Mary.”
The opening stanza of the song reveals how wonderful of a songwriter Hal Ketchum could be. It sets the story of a man leaving his wife and baby.
A threadbare alibi…..a lifetime full of promise, Fell from my Mary’s eyes as she saw the screen door swing; The baby never woke……he lay cradled in her trembling; He lay safe and never knowing what my leavin would bring.
In this video from the Texas Music Preservation Project, Ketchum reveals that the song is based on a true story. While traveling with Jerry Jeff Walker, he met a man named “Chief” who told him the story of leaving his Mary. And, as Ketchum explains, once he got that nugget of a story and got back home, he couldn’t write the song fast enough.
Ketchum died on November 23, 2020 from complications related to dementia. His career was interrupted more than once due to health issues, including a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. But he created some wonderful music even if he never again achieved the popular success of his debut album. Rest in peace.
Neilson Hubbard and Matthew Ryan reunite as Strays Don’t Sleep for the atmospheric EP “A Short Film for a Long Story.”
Matthew Ryan and Neilson Hubbard, who released a self-titled album together as Strays Don’t Sleep in 2005, have reunited for the EP entitled A Short Film for a Long Story. The wonderful four songs on the EP complete a story arc through an atmospheric soundtrack of hope for troubled people in troubled times.
Since the release of their self-titled Strays Don’t Sleep debut, Ryan and Hubbard have gone in different directions. Ryan continues creating engaging music as a solo singer-songwriter, while Hubbard became a successful Nashville producer.
The new four-song EP features what Ryan’s website calls the pair’s “own brand of earthy, cinematic indie-folk.” Ryan and Hubbard envision the music as a soundtrack to a montage featured in an art film, steeped in themes of “perseverance, reclamation, and an embracement of the joys of being alive.”
From my listening, Ryan and Hubbard seem to use the EP format to track a relationship through troubles and reunion. More specifically, Ryan and Hubbard explain that the opening song “I Walked Away” is about reclamation: “It’s a song about man vs. himself, and how losing that battle affects others.” Ryan has also said the song is about “the dangers of being an asshole.”
Ryan’s weary voice on lead vocals in “I Walked Away” highlight the plea of the singer being so close to the edge that he might never return. At its heart, though, “I Walked Away” leaves open room for hope.
“I Walked Away” is followed by “A Woman Running,” which is an instrumental Ryan describes as about “a moment of hope for what you can be, and melancholy for losing what wasn’t working but was known”). That song turns into “Couldn’t Be Happier.”
The beginning notes of “Couldn’t be Happier” indicate a shift in tone for the four-song arc, indicating relief and hope in the face of challenges. Hubbard’s voice takes the lead here, trading off with Ryan later in the song. Their voices blend well together, so that one might hope that Hubbard, like Ryan, would release more solo music in his own voice.
The EP ends with the inspiring “Hope is a Love Song.” Ryan has compared “Hope is a Love Song” to the feeling one gets after driving all night to get home, finally arriving at the destination where loved ones wait to greet you.
One of the reasons I love great music is that it can speak to listeners in different ways, even though the artist may not have intended those interpretations. For example, while listening to this EP on repeat play the last few weeks, I have been worrying about a friend in an emotionally abusive relationship and these songs brought comfort.
I found comfort and hope through the trajectory of A Short Film for a Long Story. In the music, I heard my friend’s situation through the first song recounting a person losing themselves in a bad situation. Then, through the instrumental “A Woman Running,” I heard escape. And finally with the last two songs, I heard the hope for a future of finding a new life and love. Even though Strays Don’t Sleep may have intended to track a divide and reunion, I found my own connection to the music for my current moment.
Reunion
Speaking of reunion, listeners may wonder why there was a 15-year hiatus from Strays Don’t Sleep music when the duo still had such wonderful music to share. Ryan has explained that there was a foolish and youthful divide that emerged between the two. But maturity and wisdom helped bring them back together when they wrote these songs in October 2019. And then came the strange world circumstances, such as the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. politics. These events compelled the two men to record and release this vital music on A Short Film for a Long Story.
Finally, Hubbard and Ryan indicate they do not plan to wait fifteen more years to work together. Music seems to have the power to heal old wounds. And their reunion has created beautiful music of reconciliation and hopefulness during our current era of despair.
Or as Hubbard puts it:”I feel at the heart of this EP there is a story about looking in the mirror to find the way out. Modern living has told us we are participating in a story that we don’t have control over, that we must believe certain things to find our value and belonging. Ultimately we have the power to walk away from self-destruction. We can choose to love ourselves and each other.”
It is not a bad message for these days. And A Short Film for a Long Story comes with some wonderful healing music for our tortured souls too.
A Short Film for a Long Story is available on Bandcamp. Leave your two cents in the comments.
