One of our Christmas traditions here in the Scheer household is for me to force the whole family to listen to Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata’s lovely CD “An American Christmas.” If you’re tired of syrupy Christmas crooners, this is the CD for you. It’s a great collection of full-blooded songs from the Sacred Harp and other early American traditions.
If you’re not tired of syrupy Christmas crooners, then you might enjoy the Scheers other Christmas listening tradition–the 3WS “Home for the Holidays” CD. The recording starts off with Lou Christie singing “O Holy Night” and ends with my arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” The Pitt Men’s Glee Club sang on both tracks, conducted by yours truly.
When 3WS contacted us to be a part of the “Home for the Holidays” CD, we were told that our musical contributions were going to charity. So I happily donated my arrangement of “God Rest Ye” that we had just sung in our Christmas concert and quickly wrote the choir parts for the Glee Club to sing with Lou Christie. And that’s the end of the story, right?
Wrong. About five years later, I was walking through a mall in Tallahassee when I heard the familiar strains of “O Holy Night” playing as I shopped. But it wasn’t just any “O Holy Night,” it was the one we recorded with Lou Christie. It seems that once the charity phase of the project was complete, the song was marketed to a number of other radio stations as part of “The Ultimate Christmas Album, vol 3.”
Someone, somewhere, is collecting royalties from my work this Christmas. Whoever you are, you’re welcome. And now, for some more giving: here’s Lou Christie and the Pitt Men’s Glee Club singing “O Holy Night.”