Local bands rock the holidays

One crazy idea fell right into place for Mark Bryant.

It was just before Halloween, and Bryant, a music producer and owner of SeaSound Recording Studio in Plymouth, was going to lunch with Cat from The Cheap Seats radio show on COOL 102 FM when he learned that Bob Dylan had a new CD of traditional Christmas songs.

“Now there’s an idea,” he thought, and mentioned the idea to Cat.

“You are crazy,” she said.

“That was good enough for me,” Bryant said later.

But over the next month, Bryant brought together 19 local bands for one extra-long recording session, and recorded 19 traditional and original holiday tunes for the CD A Christmas Miracle. Bryant also found a partner to receive the CD’s proceeds: Cranberry Hospice, which provides end of life care for South Shore residents, and Fragile Footprints which helps young children undergoing treatment for life-threatening illnesses. Both are operated by Jordan Hospital.

“Neither of us really approached each other. It just kind of fell into place, not unlike everything about this CD,” Bryant said. “We had some ideas of who we wanted to work with, and believe it or not, the people we wanted to give the proceeds to originally just wouldn’t return our phone calls! About a week later I was having an ale with Chris Smalley, who is head of marketing at Jordan. He told me about The Festival of Trees and Fragile Footprints, and I was sold. I just thought it was such a great cause for this time of year. Who ever thinks about children requiring hospice care? But it does happen, and it is an amazingly sad scenario for anyone and everyone involved.”

Bands include Brian Hitchings and Jim Calandrella, Tripping Lily, Cheryl Devaux, Randy and The Oak Trees, Funktapuss, Jupiter Ray, The Jackson Weatherbee Band, The Sardonics, Sara Leketa, McCarthy, Richards & Legge, Scott Damgaard, Shaun Dever, Tex, Mad Dog and Cat, The Ticks, Meat Depressed, The Greenheads, Liz Solomon, The Gobshites, and The Jonee Earthquake Band. Three bonus tracks were recorded by Chandler Travis Philharmonic, Entrain, and Three Day Threshold.

“Most of the artists came to us,” Bryant said. “Thanks to Cat’s history and knowledge of the local music scene, she was able to contact some heavy hitters that were very generous to us. Really, once people knew that bands like Entrain and Chandler Travis were to be on the CD, word spread like wildfire.”

Most of the bands are from the Plymouth area and Cape Cod, but a couple of bands traveled from Manchester, N.H., and Newington, Conn., to perform on the CD.

 ”All in all we had 19 bands and soloists join us for the CD,” Bryant said.

The three bonus tracks were recorded prior to the November sessions.

The CD has been in stores for a couple of weeks but the reception has already been amazing, Bryant said.

“I can’t remember being a part of a production that has received such accolades. At least once a day we are getting phone calls and e-mails and Facebook messages from people saying that they love the CD.”

Bryant said he was amazed at the quality of the performances, given that each band had only an hour to record its song. Often a band will take 12 hours to record just one song.

“I was under the assumption that if these musicians want to come in and record a tune, then that is a great start. However, once the bands came in and started recording I was just blown away. I even posted on the second night of recording how humbled I was to have such incredible musicians in my studio and working on the project with me.”

Tracks include covers of “Santa Will Find You” by Tripping Lily and “Silent Night” by Sara Leketa, and originals such as “Funky Christmas” by Funktapuss.

Mixing, mastering took only four days, when it usually takes between six and eight weeks.

“We did the entire project in 11 days, including Thanksgiving,” Bryant said.

The CD costs $10, and $2 from each sale goes to Cranberry Hospice. Cranberry Hospice also received $200 from the project’s sponsors T-Bones Roadhouse, the law firm of Winokur, Serkey and Rosenberg, Tiny and Sons Glass, Bobbie’s Cleaning Services, Wood Palace Kitchens, Cape Auto and COOL 102.

A Christmas Miracle is available at Myles Standish Liquors in Plymouth, Wood Palace Kitchens in Middleborough, T-Bones Roadhouse in Plymouth, COOL 102 radio station in Hyannis, Zieterion Theatre in New Bedford, and several other locations on the Cape.