NOT THE OFFICIAL COVER ART With Fleming & John up on the Free page and Jon and Valerie Guerra in this piece, I feel like I'm kicking back with the Ghost of Christmas Past.
My mind ain't what it used to be, and we didn't cover it here at Stubby's that I can recall, but my memory tells me that John and Valerie Guerra's "It's Almost Christmas" was one of the better received albums of 2015. It was a labor of love, years in the making. Literally. The husband and wife duo from Chicago released the bare outline of what would become "It's Almost Christmas" on Bandcamp in 2011. As they tinkered with it, you'd hear occasional updates and improvements. Finally, their aural vision complete, the album was officially released in 2015.
My mind ain't what it used to be, and we didn't cover it here at Stubby's that I can recall, but my memory tells me that John and Valerie Guerra's "It's Almost Christmas" was one of the better received albums of 2015. It was a labor of love, years in the making. Literally. The husband and wife duo from Chicago released the bare outline of what would become "It's Almost Christmas" on Bandcamp in 2011. As they tinkered with it, you'd hear occasional updates and improvements. Finally, their aural vision complete, the album was officially released in 2015.
"It's Almost Christmas" was reportedly recorded entirely in the couple's living room, with Jon and Valerie providing every voice and every instrument. But you wouldn't know it to listen to the album as a whole. The production was meticulous. To listen to "It's Almost Christmas" blind, you'd assume that many fine players had recorded their parts in the most state of the art studio in existence. Indeed, the complaint of one reviewer was that it sounded too well produced. But, to me, it sounded "big", yet still intimate. The performances hold you throughout, just as they do in that video above for "The Way You Look Tonight/I'll Be Home For Christmas". Regardless, the album found its way to the middle of many reviewers' lists of the year's best Christmas recordings.
Jon's prior history had been in Contemporary Christian music and the Christmas album drew some mixed reviews from that community with some arguing it was more of a Starbucks record than a Christian one. Meanwhile, the community that loves the kind of music played at Starbucks labeled Jon and Valerie a Folk Pop or Baroque Pop duo. Feeling a bit constrained and pigeonholed by such labels and false expectations, Jon and Valerie rechristened themselves Praytell almost precisely a year ago. There was an extensive social media campaign to announce the change. "Praytell was born to be a home for songs that didn’t quite fit the clean lines of the duo's other projects," they said. Dude, they just wanna make music. Is that so hard to deal with? If nothing else, Praytell is a lot easier to say and write than "Jon and Valerie Guerra". And, judging from last year's Christmas single, "Silent Night", the name change didn't mean a change in their sound.
Jon's prior history had been in Contemporary Christian music and the Christmas album drew some mixed reviews from that community with some arguing it was more of a Starbucks record than a Christian one. Meanwhile, the community that loves the kind of music played at Starbucks labeled Jon and Valerie a Folk Pop or Baroque Pop duo. Feeling a bit constrained and pigeonholed by such labels and false expectations, Jon and Valerie rechristened themselves Praytell almost precisely a year ago. There was an extensive social media campaign to announce the change. "Praytell was born to be a home for songs that didn’t quite fit the clean lines of the duo's other projects," they said. Dude, they just wanna make music. Is that so hard to deal with? If nothing else, Praytell is a lot easier to say and write than "Jon and Valerie Guerra". And, judging from last year's Christmas single, "Silent Night", the name change didn't mean a change in their sound.
A week ago, Praytell announced on Facebook, "we're in the Christmas mood over here putting the finishing touches on our new Christmas album!" Not sure where my head was at in 2015, but I plan to be all over this one.
Jon and Valerie clearly love Christmas music. It's one of the things they list under "genre" on Facebook. And "It's Almost Christmas" was their debut album (I always give bonus points to groups who debut with a Christmas album). If I have any complaint at all with Jon & Valerie's music, it is that it sometimes takes a minute or so to get to the best parts, the "chewy center". Jon likes to build to the ecstasy. My radio training almost forces me to make my determinations in the first 30 seconds (and those first brief impressions can be unforgiving). But, like Christmas itself, sometimes patience is well rewarded. It took five years for "It's Almost Christmas" to go from bare outline to aural masterpiece. What's another 30 seconds for me?
Let's close it out with one more from John & Valerie, the title track of their 2015 album. This one's a Christmas card to their home, the city of Chicago.
Jon and Valerie clearly love Christmas music. It's one of the things they list under "genre" on Facebook. And "It's Almost Christmas" was their debut album (I always give bonus points to groups who debut with a Christmas album). If I have any complaint at all with Jon & Valerie's music, it is that it sometimes takes a minute or so to get to the best parts, the "chewy center". Jon likes to build to the ecstasy. My radio training almost forces me to make my determinations in the first 30 seconds (and those first brief impressions can be unforgiving). But, like Christmas itself, sometimes patience is well rewarded. It took five years for "It's Almost Christmas" to go from bare outline to aural masterpiece. What's another 30 seconds for me?
Let's close it out with one more from John & Valerie, the title track of their 2015 album. This one's a Christmas card to their home, the city of Chicago.
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