FREE SONG DAY: The Road to Christmas Carol Recovery.

When I was younger (I can say that because now I’m older, in my mid 30’s, though hard to admit) I worked for three years in three different department stores selling men's clothes. Let me recommend that if you are looking for a job, you should avoid working at a retail clothing store. There is a long list of things that are more desirable than working retail. These include, but are not limited to: Pulling your toenails off. Hot waxing your own buttocks. Listening to long boring lectures about the merits of doing something that you’re not the least bit interested in. I could go on.

During Christmas, retail stores begin to play Christmas music on a continuous loop over the PA. Customers love this. There is something about hearing Gene Autry singing “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” that makes people want to buy stuff. And really, in small doses, it's great. It does put you in the holiday spirit. However, when you have to hear it all day, for say eight or nine hours a day, it can begin to have a negative effect. And while some of it is quite pleasant (Bing Crosby singing about chestnuts and open fires comes to mind), one can only take so many repeats of Mariah Carey singing, “All I Want For Christmas” before you want to drive your car through the storefront window.

So to be quite honest, being able to get to a place that I can enjoy Christmas music again has been a journey. Having a two-year-old daughter has helped tremendously. It’s hard to not be excited when I watch her dance all over the room singing “Frosty The Snow Man”. My wife Randi, who has great taste in music (editor's aside added), has a great playlist that plays a lot in our house that our daughter really loves.

So in celebration of my own ability to heal from the traumatic Christmas music experiences of my youth, I recorded a seasonal song, just for you. I say seasonal because it's not really a Christmas song per se. I think there are enough Christmas songs to go around, and being able to write one and say something that hasn’t already been said is pretty difficult. So instead I wrote a song about winter. It’s called, “Love Song For Winter”, and the title pretty much says it all. Download it for free from the music player above, and enjoy it all winter long.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.