The Making of "The Joy of the Season" Christmas Album in OKC

I just got back from my 3rd trip to OKC.  I had such a wonderful time, as always, when I'm in OKC.  It's such a beautiful city, and of course, I love to be in the heartland of America!  Everyone is so friendly.  My daughter Rebecca went with me, and she is a great traveling buddy!  We enjoyed seeing Oklahoma City at night (quiet, lit with pretty lights), and taking lots of photos.  We also visited Edmond, which is a beautiful town, reminds me more of Connecticut than Oklahoma, and stopped by Pops, which is a gas station/convenience store/gift shop/restaurant that sells every possible flavor of soda you can imagine!  Even disgusting flavors like "Bloody Nose", "Toxic Slime", "Worm Ooze", "Pimple Pop", "Monster Mucous" - well, you get the picture!

We also drove through terrential downpours to see Guthrie, the oldest city in Oklahoma, and the original capitol of the state.  The buildings are brick, and have the style of the old West.  It's a really  neat place to visit.  We saw a beautiful sunset as we came to Guthrie, as the rain finally cleared.

In Houston's airport they had a gift shop with lollipops that have scorpions in them!  That was more gross than the Pimple Pop soda!

My Christmas album is called, "The Joy of the Season", and I am very excited about this album!  It has a lot of traditional Christmas carols mixed in, along with new songs I have written.  As is my style, these songs will also prove to soothe your soul and help you relax from the busy Christmas season.  It celebrates many of the fun and joyful things about Christmas and even wintertime.  Having lived in Connecticut all my life, I can identify with snow, and I love it!

One thing that just occurred to me is that I never mentioned Christmas plays or Christmas programs in my songs, but let it go on record that I think those are VERY special parts of the Christmas season!  I have even led a few Christmas concerts, programs, and cantatas at our Christian school and church, so don't ask me how on earth I forgot to mention those! Ha ha!  But I got a lot of things in there.

I recorded my vocals, and then did a photo shoot and music video for the song, "Something to Celebrate."  While I was there I also had the opportunity to see my friends at Tate Publishing.  It is always great to see everyone!

The crew at Tate Music Group is wonderful!  Don Johnson arranges and orchestrates my background tracks, and this trip I had the opportunity to meet the guitarists and drummer and the guy who records them.  What a fun job that must be!  They are incredible talents.  Guy Prier did my vocal recordings, and he was great to work with, as was Robby Doland and Sean, who did the music video and the photo shoot (Robby).

We stayed at Isola Bella, which is a beautiful place (corporate apartments) at a great cost.  I hope you enjoy all the pictures.  They were taken from two different cameras, so please forgive the mixed up order.

Keep your eyes out for my Christmas album this Christmas 2016!  Some featured songs are "Christmas Fair Vendor" (my real experience at a holiday craft fair last November 2015!), "Incomparably Unique", "God's Nativity", "That's What Christmas is All About", "Ice Skating at Christmastime", "Something to Celebrate", "Oh Star", and more!