The Christmas Sessions

New York musician and promoter Bill Ward unites with one of the Northeast's brightest young bluegrass ensembles for this unique holiday record. Featuring Joey, Kim, Ben, Eddy, and TJ Doerfel on bass, fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo respectively, this project presents an opus of Ward's original Christmas tunes. Recorded in Chautauqua Institution's Hurlbut Church, this album is a collection of songs written over the last ten years and recorded in an acoustic format. The bonus tracks on the cd include Ward's previously released “Everybody Look at the Baby” and his solo 2008 Christmas song, “This Year.” Not a traditional Christmas tune in the bunch, but if you're looking for a host of brand-new original holiday songs, this one's for you. A portion of the proceeds from this album goes to Project Chacocente, a program which exists to help folks move out of the dump in Managua, Nicaragua. Visit outofthedump.org for more info.