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Christmas in July and Trailer Park Santa and Childhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Well, it’s “Christmas in July” again and I have completed another holiday-themed song that’s ready to launch, which I have dubbed “Trailer Park Santa”!
Update July 20th: Here is the link to the Trailer Park Santa video.
The backstory on Trailer Park Santa is after spending time recording music with a sacred theme, e.g. Mary’s Gift and the Hallelujah Chorus, I was ready for something fun. Secondly, Trailer Park Santa was inspired by my real life experience when I was eight years old of living in a trailer park in Fort Wayne, Indiana which was bordered by US Highway 30 on one side, a lumber yard on the other side, railroad on the two sides, the Gladieux oil refinery just across the tracks and a number of factories not far away including International Harvester and Phelps Dodge. (Wikipedia has this nice little factoid about Phelps Dodge: “As of 2013, the Political Economy Research Institute identified Phelps Dodge as the 41st-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States….”. I still remember seeing, during the winter, black snow on our car! Maybe that is how I ended up with asthma? 
Here is an aerial view of that spot where our home on wheels once stood. Today seven oil storage tanks occupy the spot I once called home.
One persistent memory of that time was how I went over to Johnny’s trailer to play one day and Johnny’s mom served us cookies and milk while walking around in nothing but her bra and panties. After I got back home and told my mom about this experience, she said, with that funny wrinkle in her brow, “You are not to go over to Johnny’s house any more.”
So from those days came Trailer Park Santa and a humorous look back at how Santa brightened up our days in that smoggy trailer park.
Stay tuned and check back later this week for the release. You can always check my music store page for the latest music.
Here’s your Music Player for Mary’s Gift
Ringtone for Mary’s Gift
I have created an iPhone compatible ringtone for Mary’s Gift. The mp3 version is attached to this post. If you want the .m4r format, you can go to my music store page to download a copy. If you are not sure how to install or use a ringtone, see this page!
In addition, the music store includes the following formats of Mary’s Gift:
- Mary’s Gift high-res (320kbs) MP3
- Mary’s Gift FLAC format
- Mary’s Gift Video MOV format
- Mary’s Gift Ringtone .M4R format
A video that goes with the song is on YouTube.
Pre-Christmas in July Sale – Mary’s Gift
Today I am releasing another song, Mary’s Gift, in my series of music that will make up my Christmas album that I plan to have ready by October or early November!!!
Releasing Christmas music in the summer isn’t so crazy after all, at least that’s what an article in Fortune magazine implies as they found that Pandora experiences a surge in mid-summer holiday music listening.
This month’s song is called Mary’s Gift and it celebrates in song the Blessed Virgin Mary’s humility and openness to God’s will, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) and God’s love for the world, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Go to the Music Store to download a copy. A video is available too!
Video of Mary’s Gift
Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 7) my next song “Mary’s Gift” gets released via CD Baby in my series of singles that will make up my Christmas album this coming fall. Towards that end, here is the video that goes with Mary’s Gift. So….”Mary Christmas!” After all, Christmas in July is just around the corner.
Hallelujah Chorus Sheet Music
I meant to mention in the last post, that the first sheet music available is for my arrangement of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. Again, it is located on the Sheet Music page.