Stan Carew, the affable host of CBC radio Weekend Mornings, is set to release “Christmas” (Zoey Dog Music), a soul-warming new album of yuletide music recorded with English folk duo Breeze & Wilson. The three musicians will take the new music on the road, with a Christmas tour through the Maritimes to benefit local presenting venues.
The new album is highlighted by five of Carew’s beautifully-crafted Christmas songs set amongst fresh acoustic arrangements of several seasonal classics. The project took root last December, as Carew was recovering from major surgery.
“I came home about four days before Christmas to an empty house and wasn’t feeling very well,” recalls Carew. The season brightened though when an trans-Atlantic email arrived from his musical pals Graham Breeze and Toby Wilson, who have recorded and toured with Carew in the past few years.
The pair had created an original video for Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, highlighted by their wonderful acoustic performance of the song.
“They got me thinking we should record a Christmas album,” says Carew, “so I decided to spend the time on my back writing Christmas songs. I had a good streak and wrote three in the next couple of days.”
Carew emailed his songs back across the Atlantic and the seed was sown for this warm acoustic album. Working out of their studio in North Staffordshire, Breeze and Wilson layered lush tracks of guitars, bass, percussion, vocals and more around Carew’s guitar and vocals.
Graham Breeze and Toby Wilson join Carew for a nine-date tour through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI in support of the new release. The Christmas tour, running Nov. 29 through Dec.9, is a series of benefit concerts supporting local presenters in several communities through the Maritimes.