Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to check out my Christmas music this year. I have never ever received this much traffic to the site and I almost went over my monthly “allowance” of bandwidth on my webspace which was exciting.

It was definitely a challenge to get the tracks done in time for each week… ideally I would have recorded all of the songs months ago - but I wasn’t able to start until late November because of scheduling issues and I had just gotten new studio equipment as well. So I was literally holed up in my bedroom, recording each song the week before it was due… a little bit stressful, but also a fun challenge to see if I could arrange, record, and mix a song that I felt good about in a week time frame. 

I received a good amount of nice little reviews and links from the blogosphere… here are some links to a few of them:

Reviews:
Cover Lay Down: Joel Rakes Does Xmas Classics 
Free Christmas Music: Artist Spotlight
Bloggable Music Network: A Boy and A Banjo
Bloggable Music Network: The Song That Blew Me Away

Blurbs:
The Hype Machine
The Album Project
The Potters III
Art Lady
Ryan and Rebekah
Big Sandy Gilmore
Generation Music Online
Feels Like Christmas
Christmas Music 24/7
Falalalala Daily Roundup
Santas Working Overtime
Tari Rocks

My silly original Christmas song “No Mo’ Ho Ho Ho” was played on a Delaware radio station, WSTW. You can hear a recording of the program it was featured on here. My song was played near the end of the 10-10:30 block from the 12/21/08 show.

Thanks again and I hope you all had a great holiday season!

Merry Christmas! I just put up the final song of my Christmas EP for this year… this last song is one I wrote for my sister Rebekah who is in a different state today. This is the first Christmas we’ve had where she spent it with her husband’s family - which is fine… just sad to see the changes that come as we get older. Anyways, I wrote this song for her… and sent her a little email earlier today that explains the song a little more… see below.

Sister,
Christmas is different this year. Granted, you’ve been married for a few years now and having Ryan around for Christmas was always a nice addition; but you two were always here. But this year you’re not, and it feels a little empty. Don’t get me wrong, the Mitchell side is cool and I understand the need to switch teams every year - but that doesn’t mean I have to like it! 

I was at the Rosie Thomas Christmas show a few weeks back filling my brain with both happy and sad Christmas music. When I got home I was thinking about how you were going to be in Virginia this year for Christmas, and all of a sudden I had an inkling of inspiration to write a quasi-sad Christmas song about that.

What came out is the fifth and final song of my yearly Christmas EP - “Christmas Is Different This Year.” I was reflecting on how this year, 2008, really kicks off a series of changes to Christmas for us. For the first twenty-one years of my life I spent Christmas with Mom, Dad, you, eventually Daniel, and sometimes other relatives. There was consistency - this Rakes clan was always together. But now we are (…well, maybe you) adults and there are changes that come with that I suppose. 

Any consistency we had for Christmas is gone. From here on out Christmas is going to be held in different places, there will be little kids running around eventually (maybe soon? please? Uncle Joel has a nice ring to it…), there will be new spouses (…fingers crossed) and so on and so forth. While it’s sad we won’t always be able to be together, there are exciting aspects to these changes too. There is a new chapter forming in our lives and it’s one we can’t even begin to predict.

So while this song I wrote for you might seem a little sad, and it is sad in the sense that I miss you and the Ry-man, it’s also hopeful and exciting as we head into whatever our “adult” lives as siblings will bring. I love you and wish you were here; say hello to the Mitchell’s for me - I hope they aren’t offended by this song I wrote that wishes you away from them. :)

Merry Christmas Rebekah!

Love,
Your little, yet larger, and more in charge(r) brother…

-Joel

P.S. Maybe I should just move to Nashville ASAP and the distance thing wouldn’t be such an issue anyways… :) Standby…

Hello there. Have you been enjoying the free christmas music I’ve posted? Would you do me a favor…? If you have a myspace/blog/website/basically anything that takes HTML code… would you consider copying the code below and including the banner on your web area? 

I want as many people as possible to download these songs and be exposed to my music and you could really help spread the word! If you’re interested in helping… the code is below for you copy and use. Thanks!
 

<a href="http://christmassongs.joelrakes.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.joelrakes.com/ms/mschrsitmas.gif" alt="christmassongs.joelrakes.com" width="360" height="160 border="0" style={border:0px; /></a>