Merry Christmas from the Morse Family

Merry Christmas From The Morse Family is a collection of tracks Neal Morse (of Spock's Beard and Transatlantic fame) wrote and recorded between 1984 and 2000 in his home studio. Morse had recorded the Christmas songs each year to send to friends and family as Christmas gifts. For this album, Morse re-recorded some of those songs and wrote a few new songs to make a full Christmas CD. The range of styles include children's songs, jazz, pop, gospel, traditional, and Sinatra & Elvis parodies. Also included are some of the original 4 track demos.^[1]

This album is not one of Morse's big budget progressive rock albums with a label, but a demo quality album with a mix of styles. One of the promotional lines used on his website is that "This record is for your wives!" ^[1]. The idea being that the album has a more general appeal and people who live with progressive rock fans but do not like prog themselves can enjoy the album.

Personnel

Band

• Neal Morse - voice, all instruments
• Jayda Morse - vocals on tracks #4 and #11
• Wil Morse - vocals on tracks #4 and #11
• Colleen Harrison - vocals on track #3
• Joey Pippin - background vocals on tracks #1 and #13
• Dave Schmidt - background vocals on tracks #1 and #13
• Terra Mears - background vocals on tracks #1 and #13
• Jessica Mears - background vocals on tracks #1 and #13
• Dean Clifford - background vocals on tracks #1 and #13 ^[2]

Other credits

• Uncle Sonny - Cover Photo

Track listing

1. "Hallelujah - The King Is Born"
2. "Christmas Keeps Calling"
3. "Love Lay In Bethlehem"
4. "The Laughing Christmas Song"
5. "Sinatra Christmas (My 1st Christmas With You) "
6. "How Peaceful Was The Night"
7. "'Tis The Season To Be Blue"
8. "Elvis Christmas (Lovin' Christmas) "
9. "A Special Kind Of Christmas "
10. "Swingin' Holiday"
11. "Kids Love Santa"
12. "Missing You At Christmas"
13. "Holy Christmas"^[1]

References