Find your spirit with a song

Having trouble finding your holiday spirit this year? Case of the bah humbugs going around?

 Perhaps you just need a little inspiration of the musical kind. Enter “Christmastime,” a new single by well-known local musician Glenn Simmons and members of the St. Bon’s Treble Choir. And here’s why it will work on even the most coal-coloured heart: this isn’t just another pop song or ballad with a Christmas reference thrown in for effect. Rather, Simmons’ tune is much closer to a traditional holiday song.

Think more Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby, less Jon Bon Jovi. Christmastime is full of wonder and magic and a simple reverence.

Simmons, who is a member of the Wonderful Grand Band and co-founder of The Fables, wrote the song about six years ago. It was largely forgotten until heard by Paul Fowler, while the two were working on Simmons’ latest album, Sweet Vanilla.

“Paul’s been pushing me to record it ever since he heard it a couple of years ago. It was his idea to get the choir on there, and that worked wonderfully, too. It’s a great way for me to finish off the year,” Simmons said.

Recorded at Stagehouse Artist Recording Studio, Christmastime also features Paul Kinsman, Paul “Boomer” Stamp and Ian Chipman. And of course, it showcases the lovely voices of seven members of St. Bonaventure’s Treble Choir (directed by Maria Conkey).

‘Christmas around the bay’

Simmons says the single is a, “a reflection of my memory of Christmas around the bay in the late ’50s and ’60s. Things were simpler then. It really was about all the family coming home, and all the magic Disney tries to portray.

“Hopefully, this new song will bring the old feeling into people’s lives. That’s the spirit it was written in, and it seems that’s the spirit people are taking out of it.” he adds.

“Christmastime” is available at Fred’s Records or O’Brien’s Music.