Any time you intend to add to the ever growing corpus of Christmas music, you must be willing to do two things:

1. Make that recording during the hottest and least Christmassy-feeling part of the year possible.
2. Presume to have a fresh and worthwhile take on the 2,000 year old story that has not only split our calendar in twain, but continues be the sword that divides all people into either light or darkness, life or death, righteousness or lawlessness, holy or profane.

Well, we certainly did the former and we attempted the latter. After a decade of gathering songs and hours of thought, prayer, and work, here is my contribution. I’ve certainly not heard one like this so maybe there’s points for originality.

What does Christmas celebrate? That God, while remaining God, became flesh. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Not just “took on” flesh, like a shell to be discarded later, but became flesh, forever, while retaining his divinity, forever.

But what did that look like? Have you ever seen that video of Joshua Bell, the virtuoso violinist, performing in the subway with a multimillion dollar Stradivarius? Isn’t it amazing how thousands of people pass by without taking any notice? The same person that would command the awe of hundreds in a concert venue is absolutely unappreciated because of his surroundings. In the same way, Jesus was so human, so normal, so unremarkable, that it took the testimony of angels, God the Father, God the Spirit, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna, and the myriad miraculous testimonies of Jesus himself to convince his own family and closest friends of his divinity. They had to be persuaded that he was fully God, while I, on the other side of Christmas, sometimes more need to be persuaded that he is fully man. This is why the gospel writers take care to underline his deity even as they portray the vividness of his humanity by using adjectives and verbs that are everyday realizations to us.

He became flesh. He dwelt among us. This album is our effort to flesh out the incarnation.

Song List:

At The Right Time Christmas Medley Fear Not Hark The Herald Angels Sing God Made Low Sweet Little Jesus Boy This Baby We Three Kings You Did Not Have A Home God Is With Us His Humanity In The First Light Surely God Is With Us Thou The Promise

Producer/Engineer/Mixing by Tommy Cooper @ AFAB Studio in Nashville, TN Piano/Keys/Marxophone/Hurdy Gurdy/Accordion/Penny Whistle Piano/Guitars/B3/Choir Arrangements - Larry Hall Orchestrations - Larry Hall Drums & Percussion - John Hammonds & Ashur Peterson Bass - Craig Nelson & Byron House Electric Guitar - Kelly Back Acoustic Guitar & Banjo - Ron Block Mandolin & Fiddle - Wanda Vick Harmonica - Buddy Greene Dobro - Scotty Sanders Christmas Medley Arrangement - Lari Goss Piano and Arrangement on “Thou The Promise” - Martha Pike Guitars on “We Three Kings” - Jonathan Crone Background Vocals - Miles & Martha Pike, Buddy Greene, Ronnie Booth, Michael Booth Choir - Reggie & Ladye Love Smith, Angie Primm, Gayle Mayes Stewart, Gene McDonald Original Album Artwork - Aeden Peterson Graphic Design - Brenda McClearen Photography - Martha Pike