Los Angeles, California: Melanie loved the holidays - so much so that she celebrated Christmas twice, once on December 25 and again, in honor of her Ukrainian heritage, on January 7.
It’s a tradition that she shared with her husband Peter Schekeryk, himself born in the Carpathian Mountains; and which was naturally passed onto their children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. Yet it was not until the mid-1990s that Melanie and co set about realizing her long-cherished dream of recording a Christmas album, combining Melanie’s own Xmas compositions and the all-time favorites that need no introduction across the much-loved Antlers.
Several remastered and revised editions of the album followed over the decades before Melanie’s death in January 2024, alongside a clutch of digital singles that further celebrated the holidays.
And now the best of these projects has been brought together as the very aptly-titled Melanie’s Christmas Treasury - a beautifully arranged and pristinely produced collection that will be out on November 7.
Today, however, we get a delicious taste of what’s to come, and an almost heartbreakingly pure rendition of “Silent Night” - one of half a dozen tracks on the collection remixed by rockabilly maestro Danny B Harvey, and hitherto available in digital form only.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/melanie_silentnight
Indeed, much of Melanie’s Christmas Treasury is making its CD and vinyl debut with this release, including the spoken word passages that bookend the treasury, introducing “Santa Claus is Coming To Town” and rereading the evergreen “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus”; the timeless “Will Peace Come In Time For Christmas”; and the all-season, all-purpose, festive potpourri that is “Christmahanavaloween.”
All of course bear Melanie’s unmistakable imprimatur. “Momma loved Christmas,” recalls Beau Jarred, “but musically, she had her own very unique take on it. Even when she was singing a song that everybody knows, she was able to make it her own, at the same time as she was writing new Christmas songs that a lot of people were convinced were traditional numbers.”
Looking at the calendar, it still seems a little early to be thinking about the holidays… could we at least get Thanksgiving and Black Friday out of the way first?
At the same time, though, it’s never too early to begin preparing the playlists that will swing us through these last weeks of the year, and “Silent Night” is certainly a great place to begin. At least until the full album is available!
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=melanie+christmas+treasury
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/melanie_christmastreasury
Track listing
- Introduction
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
- Ships In The Harbor
- Virgin Mary
- I Saw Three Ships
- Tin Star
- Silent Night
- True Believers (upbeat version)
- Come All Ye Faithful
- Hallelujah
- Christmas Lullaby
- Tonight’s The Kind of Night
- Marvelous Toy
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas
- What Child Is This
- The First Noel
- O Holy Night
- Coventry Carol
- Good King Wenceslaus (rock version)
- It’s Christmas
- Christmahanavaloween
- Will Peace Come In Time For Christmas
- Yes Virginia, There is a Santa
