It's no secret that Mark Yeary has been playing with Merle Haggard again, that this heretofore ex-Stranger he will be joining his tour, and that plans are in the works for him to be back in the studio with both Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, but Mark Yeary is still humble enough not to give up his Christmas Day job with me, Dr BLT. 



That Christmas Day job is a brand new Yeary-produced arrangement of an original Christmas medley of mine called Homeless at Christmas/Angels or, simply, The Homeless Christmas Medley.  Even the news that ARS will be closing it's doors at the end of the month is not enough to deter him, or to deter the rest of us, from completing this multi-artist, multi-band medley to support the homeless in Bakersfield this Christmas. 

Here we are laying down some foundational tracks for the medley that we worked on yesterday.  After listening to it, I decided I'm going to speak to Mark about releasing this as an "unplugged" singer/songwriter/producer edition.  Mark and I trade verses and I sing the choruses on this one.  Mark provides harmony and plays the keyboard.  To me, his keyboard on this rehearsal mix remind me of Elton John and his haunting vocals reminds me of Joe Cocker, a little David Clayton Thomas with a little Johnny Cash at a higher octave flavor in the mix.  Dave Wulfekueler of the Buckaroos has graciously offered to lay down the drums, and Mark McKinney will be on bass.  On Long Road to Christmas (link posted below), I believe we'll have Pat Frase offering to do the drums.  Other parts and vocals are subject to auditions, but we'd like to work as many of you in as possible.  Proceeds will benefit residents at Bakersfield Homeless Shelter. 

Homeless Christmas Medley (rehearsal mix)
words and music by Dr BLT © 2009
produced by Mark Yeary
engineered by Josh Graham

Download | Duration: 00:07:29

To get an ideas for what you, the interested artist would like to add to the song, listen to the original recording that Mark and I put out in the early nineties:

words and music by Dr BLT © 2009
produced by Mark Yeary

Now, finally, if any of you would like to add vocals or instrumentation to Long Road to Christmas, here is the scaled down edition of that song: