The Hometown Heroes Christmas CD: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
It's another year of great local Christmas music to benefit Toys for Tots, sponsored
by Sunoco Home Comfort Services, Gymboree Learning Center, Concord
Mall, and Ken-Del Studios. Featuring original and classic Christmas
songs from Hometown Heroes artists such as SOULoh, Outset, Laure Cheadle, Paul Lewis, and
more, this CD also has 2 great all-star Hometown Heroes songs:
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and "Put a Little Love in Your Heart".
The CD is just $5, and is available at the WSTW
studios during regular business hours. Or, email Mark Rogers for more information
on how you can get one.
This album is dedicated to the Spirits of Peace, Joy and Hope. Many
thanks to all of the musicians that have lent their talents to this
project to help bring the joy of the season to those less fortunate.
Thanks also to the corporate sponsors who helped make this CD happen.
Special thanks to Ed Kennedy, Bob Trimble, Peggy Pennypacker, Tracy
Files, and, of course, Mark Rogers for his tireless support of the
Delaware Valley music scene.
Check out this review of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas":
I have never been to the Delaware Valley, and in fact had never heard of
the Delaware Valley. And meaning no disrespect, but who knew the
Delaware Valley had such a vibrant music scene? This CD I am listening
to, WSTW's Hometown Heroes Presents Have Yourself A Merry Little
Christmas, is one of the best surprises to come my way all year...
At 72 minutes and 21 songs by a variety of what I presume to be mostly
all local Delaware Valley artists, the producers have thrown in
everything but the kitchen sink. I'm not quite to the end but so far
I've heard a variety of pop and rock musicians, both solo acts and
groups. I've heard a few traditional carols, a few holiday rock
standards, even a couple of nice new originals. The quality of the
recording is excellent, with beautiful sound quality coming out of my
iPod, even from the crummy little "near CD quality" mp3 files I use for
my listening room. I've heard a lot of recordings come out of similar
settings in Austin, but I don't remember hearing such a beautifully
recorded set of songs as these.
After I reached the end, I went back
and looked at everything I had given five stars. There's The Autumn
Affair's Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, with Brad McClain's
grungy, distorted guitar and Paul Lewis's angst-driven vocals. I also
liked Marcus Christoph's clever new renditioning of old Doc Seuss's
You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch. Christoph sings and plays all the
instruments on this... There is Mary Arden Collins with a cool new
original Christmas Dream, a romantic new singer-songwriter tune that
even format radio could love. Outset performs a nice alt rock
arrangement of George Michael's Last Christmas, another nice pop tune
making the rounds in recent years. I also enjoyed the forceful vibrato
of Phil King's performance of The First Noel, ably accompanied by Bill
Kintzer on guitar and with various synth effects. With vocals that
brought to mind Henry Rollins, multi-instrumentalist Steve Ketterer
impresses with Blue Christmas. There were no obviously weak tracks on
the disc, and opinions surely will vary over which are the greatest.
These are just the ones that stood out for me in the brief time I have
to comment and move on, in my annual feeding frenzy. But WSTW's
Hometown Heroes Presents Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is the
kind of record that is difficult to move on from, is all I'm saying.
