However, it's the chorus where Smith truly hits his stride. "Go home to nothing or stay out for more?" he asks. "Give in to someone or lock down my door? / Or drown all my shadows, drown them like before? / I'm drowning shadows once more." While this song didn't make the original release of In the Lonely Hour, contextually, it fits right in.
Loneliness and isolation are the center of this track. There's definitely a sadness to "Drowning Shadows," but Smith has a way a reassuring us we'll get through it. You can listen to "Drowning Shadows" in the embed above.In The Lonely Hour: Drowning Shadows Edition buy CD music Clarion's wildly varied body of music comes with the attitude that as much as we love holiday music and its traditions, they don't have to be the same every time we hear them. It is fun to find and highlight the underlying character, or at least some characteristic, in each one of these songs which resonates with brass and percussion overtones. So we rethink all of these carols and songs in a way which renders them unique to Clarion - sometimes serious and gorgeous, sometimes. People should be able to ho-ho-ho at Christmas, shouldn't they?Some explanations may be in order, beginning with the title track. Reindeer Games is really Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman as they would sound if they had been orchestrated by John Williams for an action adventure movie. Williams' film scores have certainly kept brass players busy and earned their love, so this selection is written as a tribute to his beefy writing. Since Jingle Bells is the best-known winter song in America, taking liberties with the tune might be welcome. The lyrics are about going out in the snow to race sleighs and pick up girls. So we get in touch with our wild side and play it fast and close to the edge.Īt Clarion's concerts, we have been featuring the talented soloists and sections from within the group, which is everybody, and some of those are represented here. What Child Is This?, on the Greensleeves tune, has been sung for half a millennium, so doing something new with it means quoting some more Renaissance music, opening it up for jazz improvisation, and turning Andy loose with his flugelhorn. Larry has a trumpet sound as big as Santa's workshop, so letting him soar on the big ballad, Have Yourself a Larry Little Christmas, is a slam-dunk. The rich Irish Wexford Carol is worthy of Clarion's horn quartet, with just a little help from their friends. Kirk chose the song Karen Carpenter made famous, Merry Christmas, Darling, so we feature his sweet and precise, high trombone floating over us all.