2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recording Project
(The songs found by scrolling down on this page are: Santa Claus is Gone, Lights Up on the Tree, Mango Christmas, Family, Funky Funky Santa, and Little Shepherd Trail. )
Several years ago, I wrote a bunch of original Christmas songs. I used to play these songs every December at Clifton’s Pizza as a guest of the Danny Flanigan Songwriter Swap. Danny stopped hosting that show at the end of 2015. This year, I decided to make several living room recordings with friends and family and share them out on social media and on this web site.
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Santa Clause is Gone
This is the first installment in the 2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings called Santa Claus is Gone. It features Torion Gore on vocals, John Hawkins on slide guitar, Amy Fitzgerald on vocals, Patrick Fitzgerald on mandocello, and Tim Kelty on guitar. Thanks to all of these fabulous musicians.
Completely my fault that I bumped the focus on the center camera right before we started and did not realize until after everyone left.
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Lights Up on the Tree
Installment 2 in the 2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings. This tune is called “Lights Up On the Tree”. It is about a couple growing older together and sharing the holidays together through multiple generations. Kinda makes me cry. Jenrose Fitzgerald: guitar and vocals, Patrick Fitzgerald: mandolin and vocals.
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Mango Christmas
Installment 3 in the 2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings. This tune is called “Mango Christmas”, which is about a couple who met on a fateful Christmas Eve and then decided to spend the next Christmas together in a different location and then the next, etc. but are not in contact other than their annual holiday get-together. This year, a slight misunderstanding may doom the whole affair.
Mae Alice Harrell: vocals, Owen Fitzgerald: vocals, Patrick Fitzgerald: guitar.
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Family
Installment 4 in the 2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings. This tune called “Family” is only barely a Christmas tune based on the lyrics, but the message of accepting and respecting cultures of all people seems appropriate for this time of year. Such a treat to get to sing a duet with Keith McGill, as fine a human as one could hope to meet.
BTW, the instrument I am playing is a 1916 Gibson Mandocello, which if you are scoring at home, is 100 years old. I try not to get sentimental about objects, but this thing is almost family.
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Funky Funky Santa
Installment 5 in the 2016 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings. This is the dance craze that is sweeping the nation. Get out your dancing boots, head way up to the North Pole with us, and do the Funky Funky Santa.
Zoe Peterson and Lucy Fitzgerald: Vocals, Dan Dilamarter: Electric Guitar, Jim Becker: Drums, Tim Kelty: Guitar, Patrick Fitzgerald: Bass.
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Before There Were Reindeer
The sixth installment of the Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings is called “Before The Were Reindeer”. It is a song written from the perspective of Santa Claus’ ex-girlfriend. Up at the North Pole, way back in high school, Kris Kringle was her fool… until her best friend (the future Ms. Claus) stole him away. Years later, Santa Claus is delivering presents, and they have a chance encounter.
Lucy Fitzgerald: Vocals, Chris Fitzgerald, Bass, Patrick Fitzgerald, Piano.
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Little Shepherd Trail
The seventh and final installment of the Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recordings is called “Little Shepherd Trail”. (It was just finished on December 20, 2016. It is a song about a family in Appalachia experiancing hardship but learning how to remain hopeful, or as the lyric goes “This mountaintop storybook cold starry night slightly trajic nativity tale”.