''Through the Many Winters, A Christmas Album'' is a 2005 Christmas album by Michael McDonald. It was one of the first in the longstanding series of annual seasonal albums commissioned and retailed by

Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a private, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the oldest and largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was award ...

to have reliable sales figures published, despite being sold through Hallmark's 4,000 card franchise shops, rather than through normal record shops in the ''Billboard'' chart system. The album was released three weeks before Thanksgiving, and reached Gold status (500,000 copies sold) two weeks after its release.Michael McDonald's Hallmark Gold Crown(R) Stores' Holiday CD 'Through the Many Winters, A Christmas Album' Reaches Gold Within Two Weeks of Release Nov 29, 2005
/ref> At the time of its release, the album was priced at $7.95 with a purchase of three Hallmark cards.

Track listing

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

" - 4:47 #"

O Holy Night "O Holy Night" (original title: ) is a well-known sacred song for Christmas performance. Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line (Midnight, Christian, is the solemn hour) that co ...

" - 5:06 #"Come, O Come Emanuel/What Month Was Jesus Born" - 4:10 #"

Deck The Halls "Deck the Hall” is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, "Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862. ...

Jingle Bells "Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and most commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in September 1857. It has been claimed th ...

" - 2:50 #"

O Tannenbaum "" (; "O fir tree", English: O Christmas Tree) is a German Christmas song. Based on a traditional folk song which was unrelated to Christmas, it became associated with the traditional Christmas tree. History The modern lyrics were written in 1824 ...

" - 1:55 #"

Wexford Carol The Wexford Carol ( ga, Carúl Loch Garman, Carúl Inis Córthaidh) is a traditional religious Irish Christmas carol originating from County Wexford and, specifically, Enniscorthy (whence its other name). The subject of the song is the nativity o ...

" - 5:01 #"

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy", and by other varian ...

" - 3:35 #"Through The Many Winters" (

Amy Holland Amy Celeste Boersma, known professionally as Amy Holland, is an American pop rock singer, songwriter, and composer. Holland's music career spans more than 30 years. She received a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist in 1981, following h ...

/ Michael McDonald) - 6:51 #"Christmas On The Bayou" (McDonald / Grady Walker / Shannon Forrest) - 3:41 #"

Auld Lang Syne "Auld Lang Syne" (: note "s" rather than "z") is a popular song, particularly in the English-speaking world. Traditionally, it is sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. By extension, it is also often ...

/O Tannenbaum (Reprise)" - 2:26

Personnel

* Michael McDonald – vocals, acoustic guitar (1, 2, 9), bass (2-4, 7-10), acoustic piano (3, 4, 7), backing vocals (3), keyboards (5, 10), synthesizers (6, 7),

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

(6),

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

(7),

Rhodes electric piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(8),

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

(9) * Pat Coil – synthesizers (1), string arrangements (1, 2), keyboards (2, 8), Hammond B3 organ (3), acoustic piano (8) * Josh Henson – electric guitars (3, 4, 6, 7), acoustic guitar (6), bass (6) * Russell Bono – additional electric guitars (3), backing vocals (3) * Tom Hemby –

nylon guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor ...

(8) *

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973 in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a pr ...

– programming, drums (2-10) * Conni Ellisor – strings (1, 2) * Anthony LaMarchina – strings (1, 2) * Mark Douthit – tenor saxophone (2, 3, 10), soprano saxophone (5) *

Stuart Duncan Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo. Life Duncan was born in Quantico, Virginia, and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band. He ...

–

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

(6, 9) *

Pat Bergeson Patrick Bergeson (born March 11, 1961) is an American guitarist, harmonica player and occasional songwriter. Based in Nashville, he is best known for his live and session work with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Suzy Bogguss and Les Brers. Biogra ...

–

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

(8) * Daniel Moore II – backing vocals (3, 7) * Drea Rheneé – backing vocals (3, 7) * Kabanya Vinson – backing vocals (3, 7) *

– vocals (6)

Production

* Producers – Michael McDonald, Shannon Forrest and Grady Walker. * Production Coordination – Kathy Walker * Engineer – Shannon Forrest * Second Engineer – Grady Walker * Recorded and Mixed at Bingham Bend (Leiper's Fork, TN). * Mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master (Nashville, TN). * Management – Joel Hoffner and Ken Levitan at Vector Management.

References

{{Michael McDonald Michael McDonald (musician) albums 2005 Christmas albums