From the Lubbock Avalanche Journal

Sunday, November 12, 2000

Christmas album turned out better than Wilkinson imagined

By William Kerns

As the song goes, "Sleighbells ring, are you listenin'?"

Andy Wilkinson is no Grinch, but his answer undoubtedly would be no. In fact, he said that the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the words "Christmas album" is: "Please turn it off."

He explained, "I just have grown so tired to the standard Christmas albums put out every single year. Come on, no one hates 'White Christmas.' I don't hate 'White Christmas.' But so darn much Christmas music is recorded and rehashed, or it's sappy and sentimental."

But now Wilkinson has released his own Christmas album, "An Ordinary Christmas: a celebration of death and rebirth," and even he is a bit surprised that he likes it so much.

He recalled, "A long time ago Cary Banks asked me to write a Christmas song for a radio program called 'The West Texas Music Hour.' I viewed that as a morass, because I'd have to tread a think line between a good song and a sugary tune. I didn't inted to do it.

"Then I said, 'By golly, if I'm serious about being a songwriter, I ought to give this a try."

The result was "The Tumbleweed Christmas Tree."

"So that was one," said Wilkinson. "But when I played it, people would ask if I had a Christmas album. I told myself I should have known better than to write that song; I don't want to do a Christmas album."

Two years ago, Wilkinson was aked by the National Philanthropic Society to write a song for its annual meeting. He researched a tale about cowpuncher Zack Henshaw risking his life to ride through a blizzard to retrieve needed medical supplies for diphtheria victims.

That song was "The Day of the Christmas Ball," and Wilkinson said, "So now I had two Christmas songs."

Later, Wilkinson made a guest appearance with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. Then-conductor Albert-George Schram and independent violinist/arranger George Stelluto wanted him to condense the Christmas story to a few verses. "I thought we ought to be celebrating Easter more," said Wilkinson, "but we make a whole bigger deal about Christmas."

In any case, he penned "We Angels Sang to the Shepherd Boys" and could claim three original holiday tunes.

But even when he committed to a Christmas album, he knew it could be like no other. In the first place, said Wilkinson, "I know I am more songwriter than singer, so how dumb would it be to ask people to listen to me sing 'Away in a Manger?'

"And I also wanted to include a song about how it was grim, girim, grim after the song 'Happy Trails' came on the radio -- because I knew it was time to go to bed and say that 'Now I lay me down to sleep' prayer.

"That scared me to death. It was the first time it ever occurred to me that I might not be getting up, that I could be dead in the morning."

Not exactly a happy Christmas thought, but Wilkinson wanted to balance the "ordinary," that commonly accepted joy of Christmas' meaning, with personal memories of other reasons why Christmas Eve was the longest night of the year.

Wilkinson explained, "So I came up with a theme of how the entire season progresses, how much in common our Christian celebration of death and rebirth has with almost every culture we know anything about.

"And about how the very end of the year also signifies death, and yet we look forward to rebirth in the spring."

He opted to use poetic introducions to each song strictly to better communicate his messages. "When you play a CD, most people listen to the melody, or they may like the beat. But it takes a long time to get them to take the effort to really dig into a song.

"So here I'm expressing waht I want to say in a poem, then emphasizing it with the song."

Choosing actor Barry Corbin, a past collaborator, to recite the poetry was a no-brainer, said Wilkinson after he and producer Lloyd Maines agreed that the recording needed a consistent and recognizable narrative voice.

Wilkinson noted that he's proud of "An Ordinary Christmas," saying, "I'll admit, this the first record I've ever done that I haven't got tired of listening to yet."

Review from Nightflying (www.nightflying.com):

AN ORDINARY CHRISTMAS
Andy Wilkinson (with Barry Corbin)
Greyhorse Press

Christmas in July? Well, it's kind of cowboy poet Christmas if you know what I mean and it has more to do with the spirit of finding God in ordinary everyday rituals than giving things to people and getting things in return. In fact it's subtitled "a celebration of death and rebirth" which is more in keeping with the pagan attitude toward that time of year than with jolly old Saint Nick. It's pretty good music and I bet Mr. Wilkinson puts on a good show.