Christmas of '89

Next to my birthday, my favorite day is Christmas day. I take that back, Christmas is my favorite. Most, if not all of my happy memories have been during Christmas vacation--either from school or work. Christmas of '89 is one of my favorite Christmas memories. During the summer of '89, I moved to the U.S. from Mexico. That was a very stressful time for me, first, because I didn't speak English, and second, because I had left all my friends and family from Mexico behind. A few months after that, during Christmas vacation, I went back to Mexico. Once again, I was amongst my family. That Christmas was the first of many, where I would spend Christmas vacation at my aunt Olivia's house.

There are many stories which I will eventually write about. But there is one that I'd like to share today. Every Christmas vacation, from about Christmas '89 to '91, my cousins: "Checo," "Junior," "Picky," and I, would get together at my uncle's church and played and recorded music. It was the best! We would set up in the sanctuary, which was usually very cold, and we would play and record for the longest time. It was so cold, that my cousin "Junior" would play the bass guitar wearing knitted gloves. We called ourselves "Grupo Primitivo" or Primitive Band, because we were very primitive, both in our instruments and recording equipment; which included nothing more than a cassette recorder. I enjoyed those "recording sessions"--if they can be called that--like nothing else. Getting together to record music became something we did every Christmas until some of us got girlfriends, or got married, or moved away. Eventually all those things that you enjoy doing as a child, disappear one by one.

All this time since then, it has been my dream to get together again. It has never happened, and I'm not sure it will ever will. So, this Christmas I wanted to record a Christmas song. Although, my cousins were not with me this time, all that racketing we did back then, inspired me to record a song for this Christmas.

I've always liked the lyrics to the Christmas song "Sweet Little Jesus Boy." So, I made an arrangement which was inspired by Rebecca St James' version of this song. It took me two weeks, recording only during the evenings. The hardest part was the singing, because I'm not a singer. Usually I would spend more time working on a song, but I had a late start; I waited until it was December to get into the Christmas spirit. Because of this, the song is still kind of rough, and I will not make any changes to it. I want this song--as is--to be a reminder of those memories that started back in Christmas of '89.

Please take a moment to listen to this song which is listed on my music player on the left side of this blog.

Merry Christmas!
December '08