For the second time this year, Eden Casteel Music Studio is releasing an album!

Holly Days will be released online via Bandcamp on December 9th.

Holly Days will have its online listening party premiere on Wednesday, December 9 at 8pm EST. I’ll be online at my YouTube channel to spin the tunes, and you can meet and greet the singers, too!

“Holly Days” contains the first original songs I’ve ever written — and even better, I’ve co-written them with each student, ages 13 to 82! A few will even be available as sheet music for you to buy and perform on your own! I’ve always thought that my best skills were in playing covers, or creating parodies of music written by others. I never thought I was good at creating my own songs or lyrics. (Imposter syndrome. I got in my own way a lot.)

But in 2019, I played a show for Casey Cook, a wonderfully talented LA-based songwriter originally from Rhode Island. She graciously showed me how she had started her writing career, and as I studied her songs to accompany her, something finally clicked. I was ready to write and also ready to create new music. Casey, Rhode Island Music Hall Of Famer Mark Cutler and fantastic improv musician Keith Munslow worked with my student singers this fall to help all of us write and create the tunes on this album.

It’s been such a fun project, I decided I had to do something to make it even more special. So for this album, there will be videos too, filmed by me and some with artwork created by the singers themselves! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to get notified when each video premieres this month.

This holiday-themed project of all-original songs was supposed to culminate in a live show, but the pandemic turned it into a recording instead. The same thing happened last April, when I realized there was no way I’d be able to do a live student showcase planned for June. So I pivoted and created Six Feet From Stardom, an online album of 13 cover songs that were happy, humorous, and/or hopeful.

Like all hubris-laden people who don’t really know what they’re doing, I decided that I would arrange, mix, and master all the tracks and play almost all the instruments! How hard could it be?! Well, hard enough that I now have newfound respect for anyone who has ever written, mixed, or mastered even ten seconds of music. It’s harrrrrdddd. But worth it.

We rehearsed almost entirely online, and did workshops and master classes online as well. It was great to stay connected and have some musical fun in the midst of a pandemic. I learned how to use Logic Pro X and how to legally produce cover tunes!

The singers came to Chez Eden one at a time, safely distanced, to record their songs. The youngest singer was 13, the oldest was 81. It was a lot of work for me, but also a labor of love, for the students I love. Click the artwork below and take a listen why dontcha!

Just as women forget the pain of childbirth right after they hold the baby, I forgot how much work it is to create, coach, arrange, play, mix, master, and produce an album. But, I’m having a blast! Pretty sure there’ll be many more “musical babies” in 2021. ;)