What many people don’t know about singer-songwriter Howard Kirkpatrick, who’s been making quite the buzz this year with his heartfelt songs about the human condition told through the eyes of the working class everyman is that the singer is also a former concert pianist.
Kirkpatrick decided to record a collection of Christmas classics for this holiday season as a gift for fans. And he’s called the album, what else? The Christmas Album. But that’s just about the only element that this album has in common with other holiday albums being released this year, because Kirkpatrick decided to bring a strong improvisational tone to the songs.
It doesn’t hurt that Grammy nominated producer Tom Eaton heard some of the demos for the album and immediately signed on to produce the album with Kirkpatrick. The two turned out to be a brilliant duo when working together.
The 16 songs include everything from modern hit songs like Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” or the Judy Garland classic “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” to older traditional pieces such as “Silent Night” or “The first Noel”.
The collection finds the artist improvising on the piano, sometimes stretching the melody just about as far as it can go before he reels it back in, creating a musical atmosphere that is both festive and musically experimental and at times mind-bending