“Medley: Sing We Now of Christmas / O Come, O Come Emmanuel / Emmanuel” by Michael W. Smith ft. The American Boyhood Choir, Wednesday, December 14, 2022

 

Many boys go into the woods and play soldiers or cops and robbers. I did that when I played with other boys, but when I was by myself, I went into the woods and pretended to be someone else. I fantasized about being Michael W. Smith. I'd sing in the forest and dance around like the stones were my audience, pretending to play piano and sometimes guitar making up my own songs. Michael W. Smith is probably the closest Christian music ever got to having a bona fide  male sex symbol, if you exclude Carman for just being creepy. Sure, there were other handsome CCM singers, but no of them played off the scratchy voice and five o'clock shadow the way that Smith's marketing team did. 

OF THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS. My fandom of Michael W. Smith lasted the span of three records starting with 1998's Live the Life and ending with 1999's This Is Your Time with his second Christmas record, Christmastime between them. Smith's music prior to Live the Life felt too dated and a little too cheesy at the time other than some of his biggest hits "Friends," "Place in This World," and "Secret Ambition."  In 2001 Smith released Worship, a record of worship songs mostly written by other artists or written by Smith and originally recorded by others and Worship Again the following year, and I was on to rock music. But in those two years or so when I was listening to Michael W. Smith, I was proselytizing for him to my anti-rock music mom. After he released This Is Your Time which included several instrumentals songs with bagpipes, she started listening to Michael W. Smith. I even bought her Christmastime that year for Christmas and the CD became one of our Christmas standards. Michael W. Smith's music from this middle golden age showed his mastery for composition. The singer often included musical moments not typical in rock and pop music, especially Christian music.

SING WE NOEL.  I could reminisce for days about the musical odyssey Michael W. Smith brings his listeners on at the beginning of "Missing Person," the first track of Live the Life, about his reaction to the Columbine tragedy with the touching tribute "This Is Your Time," about the disappointment I felt with "Healing Rain," about how he was my musical role model growing up and only later did I realize that he was actually good looking, or analyze the professional partnership with Amy Grant despite her being somewhat boycotted from the Christian market. Michael W. Smith is a giant of Christian music and I feel like my introduction to his music was at the best time. Christmastime broke rules that I was discovering about albums: at least ten distinct tracks with singing, unless you're Pink Floyd. An instrumental could be on the record if there were at least ten tracks with lyrics. Songs had choruses. But Christmastime was more of a Christmas fantasia weaving songs together with long instrumental sections. And this was okay because it was a Christmas record. The version of today's song "Emmanuel" paired with "Sing We Now of Christmas" was first recorded on Amy Grant's 1983 A Christmas Album.  Smith recorded it for another project as well, but the 1998 version is the most refined sounding version of the song, particularly with the introduction with The American Boyhood Choir. So as we approach Christmas, I hope to share more of these Christmas memories. Enjoy!

Christmastime version:

Duet with Amy Grant:

Amy Grant version: