2017 Christmas Tunes

2017 Patrick Fitzgerald Original Christmas Tune Living Room Recording Project

(The songs found by scrolling down on this page are: Slide on Down to Christmas Town, Richest Man in the World, My News to Tell, 1:42, Peace and Joy, Three Wise Ones, and One Day of the Year.  )

The 2016 CHristmas Tune recording were the culmination of years of casually writing Christmas tunes.  In Fall, 2017,  was excited to do another recording project, and I had a few ideas for songs, but I had not written any.  Right after Thanksgiving, 2017, I decided to give it a go, and I wrote 7 songs in less than three weeks. I got a really great bunch of musicians together to make music with, and made these recordings. 

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Slide on Down to Christmas Town

Kind of a bluesey slide tune pushing the limits of how many slide puns one can fit into one song.  Yes, the third verse really is about Santa as Evel Knievel. 

It features Torion Gore on slide vocals, John Hawkins on slide guitar, Allison Cross on slide trombone, and Patrick Fitzgerald on slide guitar.

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The Richest Man in the World

This is a great lakes sea shanty that I hope sounds like it could have been written in the 1880s.  Although it would be easy to categorize it as “The Wreck of the Patrick Fitzgerald”, it really draws more inspiration from Paul Simon’s song “Duncan” with a small slice of Harry Chapin’s “A Better Place to Be”.  It follows many of the beautiful places we have visited on our two great family Michigan trips. 

It features Don King on Guitar and Vocals, Jacob Head on violin, and Patrick Fitzgerald on Mandocello and Vocals. 

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My News to Tell

It is about the Angel “Rose” who was tasked to spread the good news in Bethlehem, but then the Angel Gabriel jumped the gun and blabbed the news himself. Over two thousand years later, Rose is NOT over it, and she is in a cocktail bar in Buffalo, New York spilling over the side to anyone who will listen. It just goes to show that even “The Greatest Story Ever Told” is not immune to outrageous fan fiction.

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1:42

This song is about a man who gets on the St. Charles Street Trolley in New Orleans on Christmas Eve with a ring in his pocket and a plan to propose to his girlfriend at midnight in Jackson Square. He knows he needs to know her answer relatively quickly because the last train back leaves the French Quarter at 1:42 AM.  From a pure songwriting perspective, I think it is one of the best songs I have ever written. 

 

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Peace and Joy

The song is about two people who encounter each other in a tattoo parlor on Christmas Eve, one getting a tattoo removed, and the other getting her first tattoo. They encounter a stranger in need, and everyone is changed. 
Special thanks to the high school phenom band “Anemic Royalty” with guest vocalist Zoe Peterson. Anemic Royalty is Jeremy Rochman (guitar, vocals), Seamus Coyle (guitar), Oden Curry (bass), and Miles Rochman (drums). It was recorded in Jeremy and Miles’ basement. The band has written a lot of their own songs. You can find them on Spotify. 

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Three Wise Ones

This tune allegorically plays the three wise men as the different human qualities of Awareness, Empathy, and Action.  Stuggled on whether to uswe Three wise men or three wise ones.  Somehow ended up splitting the difference on different choruses.   The main reason for writing this song was to give a vehicle to play mandocello and sing harmony with Marty Purdy (Mandolin) and Amy FItzgerald.

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One Day of the Year

It was actually recorded in the music room at Bloom Elementary with Debbie Graf and her wonderful third grade class.  Debbie is one of those awesome teachers who brings her guitar to class and makes music a priority all year ‘round.  We collaborated on writing this song for her class to sing.