''Winter Songs'' (in Australia and New Zealand titled ''Stay'')Ronan Keating – Stay (CD, Album – Australia) at Discogs
/ref> is the sixth studio album released by

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

singer/songwriter and

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band, created in 1993 by talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's '' The Late Late Show''. Their most successful line-up was composed of Keith Duffy, Steph ...

frontman

Ronan Keating Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish singer. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer (with Gately) of Irish pop group Boyzone. His solo career start ...

. It was released by

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

on 16 November 2009 in the UK and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, debuting at number 16 and 12 in each respective album chart. The first single, a cover of

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

-winning American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

duo Sugarland's hit "

Stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

", was released digitally on the same day.

Album information

The album ''Winter Songs'' follows the UK number one album ''

Songs for My Mother ''Songs for My Mother'' is the fifth studio album released by Boyzone frontman and Irish singer/songwriter Ronan Keating. The album was released on 16 March 2009 on Polydor Records, and is his first album to be released since the reunion of Bo ...

'' released six months earlier, this time pulling together a set of 11 songs that evoke special memories of winter and Christmas for

.Universal Music UK News
/ref>hmv.com: music: Winter Songs (2009)
/ref> ''Winter Songs'' includes traditional Christmas classics such as "

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 ...

" and "

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis''. Frank Sinatra later recorded a version with modified lyrics. I ...

" as well as modern festive classics like Joni Mitchell's

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

and Sugarland's "

". Songs originally performed by artists like Simon & Garfunkel (" Homeward Bound") and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

("Ring Them Bells") are also included on the album, which also includes two brand new Ronan Keating songs "It's Only Christmas" and "Scars". Like Keating's previous album, ''Winter Songs'' is produced by

Stephen Lipson Stephen J. Lipson (born 16 March 1954) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists including Annie Lennox, Propaganda, Act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Will Youn ...

(

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

, Annie Lennox and Pet Shop Boys). The album also features the last studio recording of

Stephen Gately Stephen Patrick David Gately (17 March 197610 October 2009) was an Irish singer, who, with Ronan Keating, was co-lead singer of the pop group Boyzone; all of Boyzone's studio albums during Gately's lifetime hit number one in the United Kingdo ...

, who died a short while after the album was completed.Stephen Gately's last song was The Little Drummer Boy
/ref> Ronan told The News of the World: "What keeps me going is that Stephen is on this album. His vocal on Little Drummer Boy is one of the most beautiful recordings. He is almost angelic – which is truly fitting as I believe my friend is an angel now." In a press release about the album, Keating said that "some of these songs conjure up some of my favorite Christmas memories".

Track listing

Credits from booklet. # " Winter Song" (Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson) # "

" (Jennifer Nettles) # "Scars" (Steve McEwan/John White) # " Homeward Bound" (Paul Simon) # "

" (Joni Mitchell) # "It's Only Christmas" (Ronan Keating/Paul Barry) # "

Little Drummer Boy "The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 195 ...

" (Guest vocals by

) (Katherine Davis/Henry Onorati/Harry Simeone) # "Ring Them Bells" (Bob Dylan) # " Caledonia" (

Dougie MacLean Dougie MacLean, OBE (born 27 September 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Described by AllMusic as "one of Scotland's premier singer-songwriters", MacLean has performed both under his ow ...

) # "

" (Franz Gruber) # "

" (Ralph Blane/Hugh Martin) # "

I Won't Last a Day Without You "I Won't Last a Day Without You" is a song by the Carpenters with lyrics written by Paul Williams and music composed by Roger Nichols. It was released in the U.K. in September 1972, paired with " Goodbye to Love" as a double-A side. The sing ...

" (Paul Williams/Roger Nichols) Australian alternative track : 6. "It's Only Christmas" (Duet with Kate Ceberano) (Ronan Keating/Paul Barry)

Notes

Chart

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winter Songs (Ronan Keating Album) Ronan Keating albums 2009 Christmas albums Albums produced by Stephen Lipson Pop Christmas albums