Something Like A Star

In 2020, the world felt like it was in the midst of a deep season of darkness — the political realities in the USA were dire and the COVID-19 pandemic left many people feeling isolated and depressed. This album was recorded in response to that darkness, and the title comes from the poem “Choose Something Like A Star” by Robert Frost. It’s a Christmas album, but my hope was that it could be an offering of beauty in a world that seemed trampled by fear and outrage, which is, of course, the whole point of the actual Christmas story (the one with Jesus in it) — that even amidst brokenness and despair, there is an ever-present source of beauty and hope among us. God is with us.

It had been over ten years since the last album when I decided to go into the studio with this music. Nuc and I were no longer married but were both living in New York — still very amicable and good co-parents — and Harp 46 hadn’t played together in many years. I wasn’t even playing harp by myself that much, to be honest, because I was also trying to launch and maintain an academic career alongside being a parent. But many years prior I had started a kind of personal tradition of arranging one new Christmas carol every year and posting it to social media. By 2020, I had quite a collection ready to go, and a tiny bit — a very tiny bit — of disposable income that I could put towards recording a new album.

So, this was the first project I ever took on completely by myself. All of the arrangements are mine. I recorded the whole thing twice because I ended up not liking the first version — the version you hear on this album was recorded at Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck, NY. Album cover is by Posido Vega.