Photo: blmurch on Flickr

Every now and again I spend time sitting around singing… I know, it probably sounds nerdy. Just about everything I do probably is. I download new songs from iTunes, search YouTube to pre-listen before buying, go through songs I already have etc. Tonight I spent the evening rejuvenating my spirit doing just that. I’m so incredibly moved by music and moved by creating music, that it really is a part of who I am and I couldn’t live without it.

My band is playing a concert on December 1st at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver and I’m going to sing this year. It’s been a long time since I sang anywhere out side of church and I’m struggling with song choice… hey, isn’t that what they always say on American Idol? It’s all about song choice… Anyway, back to the concert. See, it’s a “Winter Concert” and not a “Christmas Concert”. Because there are a number of different religions and many non-religious people in the band, it wouldn’t be fair to have a Christmas concert. So we’ll be playing a few Christmas tunes with other random stuff – show tunes and the like – thrown in.

Personally, I like to think of this concert as a Christmas concert, and clearly Christmas songs are not forbidden, but my family is a whole blend of various religions and I don’t want to offend. My mom is an atheist and my dad a lapsed Anglican turned mason; my mother in law is Roman Catholic and my brother and sister in law are Jehovah’s Witnesses. And I’m a born again Christian – the crazy Jesus-freak kind. Yeah, I said it.

Christmas to me means the real deal – the birth of Christ – but my biggest fear is that I’ll sing my heart out to an audience only to find stunned silence at the end, or worse, a mediocre smattering of claps.

Anyway, I’ve short listed 3 songs:

• Grown Up Christmas List (this is the one my accompanist has at this point)
• Mary Did You Know (the one my friends are gunning for me to sing)
• Breath of Heaven (one of my personal favourites forever)

I guess I feel like I’m selling out by considering Grown Up Christmas List… I mean, it’s a nice song, but one that speaks to the Santa crowd. It is heartfelt and touches the part of each human that wants world peace but still never seems to reach a passionate climax. It’s not that I think there’s anything really wrong with Santa (and world peace is, of course great), but there’s no Jesus in it… which is, in my humble opinion, what Christmas is all about. Not that this is a Christmas concert.

So I’m still undecided at this point. If you’ve read this far and know any of these songs (or had a chance to click the links and listen to them), please feel free to give me your opinion. I’m open to any and all suggestions at this point. In fact, I may just get cold feet and call the whole thing off haha… I’ve been known to do that *blush*.

Anyway, on an unrelated note… I came across an old favourite that had me bawling my eyes out by the end of it: Martina McBride’s Concrete Angel. It’s not a Christmas song, and it’s not appropriate for this concert (or any other if it will make me bawl and my nose run while singing it haha!) but it’s beautiful and always reminds me of the sadness that is interspersed throughout the faces of this world… I’ve known many who have been touched. Hope it moves you as much as it does me: