Home For Christmas is out!

When I was home, during my Christmas break of my last year at Berklee College of Music, I met with David Pochatko.  He is an orthopedic surgeon who wrote "The Most Special Day of The Year" and also built his own recording studio in his house.  It was in the tour he was giving of this brand new, state of the art, studio in which the conversation arose of recording an album.  The next step that we took was to pick an arranger, engineer, and musicians.  Enter Phil Sims, Jack Kulp, and a kickin' band!  I had to go back and finish my last semester of school at Berklee, so from January through May we did everything by email including picking songs and listening to arrangements.
 
It was almost as if I walked off the stage, where I graduated in Boston, and into the studio in Buffalo to begin recording my vocals over all of the instruments that had already been recorded while I was at school.  We spent countless days and nights putting on the finishing touches to the tracks. Three and a half months later we were done.  Since the album essentially had been everything Buffalo: produced, recorded, mixed, mastered, and used Buffalo musicians, and since I was going to be releasing the album on a Special Western New York Release this year, I thought it was appropriate to title the album "Home For Christmas".  For those of you, who have a hard copy of the album, you will notice that at the top of the front cover it has the words "Made In Buffalo".  This is another nod of pride to the hometown that supported me so fiercely through American Idol.  
 
The songs that were chosen for the album are among my favorite Christmas tunes.  Some are lesser known such as The Christmas Waltz and Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) and some are old time favorites like White Christmas and Winter Wonderland.  Still the arrangements are refreshing and new, bringing life to all of the songs in different ways!  Then there is the 2 new songs: David Pochatko's "The Most Special Day of The Year" and my first recorded composition, "Christmas Eve Sweetheart".   
 
Two years ago, I had a gig in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve and spent it alone, away from my loved ones.  It was this night that inspired me to write the song "Christmas Eve Sweetheart".  I've been writing original compositions for the past 3 years and plan to continue to write, record, and perform original works.  
 
I'm very proud of this album, having spent many hours planning, recording, mixing, and promoting it.  I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed working on it!  Merry Christmas!