Birthday Music (a Christmas Folk Music CD)

Presenting a new digital remix of a beloved Christmas album:

“Birthday Music” by Tim and Debbie Smith and Bruce Adams

The cover artwork and track listing of Birthday Music in its restored, exclusive Tanignak.com CD edition. The cover photo features a very young Kirstin Smith (Tim and Debbie’s daughter) in 1984 in a spontaneous moment at one of the displays of “Christmas On Euclid” in Ontario, California.

If you love acoustic Christmas music, remember the folk-era of the 60s, the Jesus People music of the 70s, or are just tired of the same twelve songs on every Christmas album, check out Birthday Music, one of the freshest, most original holiday albums ever!  If hip-hop, alternative or heavy metal is your thing, then never mind.  But I think you’ll find our homemade music to be just what the season ordered.  Its continuing popularity (since first appearing in two installments in the 1980s on cassettes that we gave away as gifts) prompted me to bring it into the digital age.  I spend hours remixing and restoring just to make a version to replace those aging and worn-out tapes my friends were still playing.  The result is pretty good folk, I think.  It is also what the name implies, “birthday music” for the King.  This private-release CD-R is only $6 including shipping (worldwide).  I’ll even give you your money back if not delighted.    –Timothy Smith, owner of Tanignak.com (and artist and producer of the above album), October 2008

You can buy it here (and nowhere else!) using our secure PayPal link

Or remit $6 USD to Tanignak Productions, 14282 Tuolumne Court, Fontana, CA 92336 USA

The 2007 CD insert describing the restoration process and the songs is included below.

The photo below is of the binaural electret condenser microphone used on all the tracks, and of an original cassette as released in 1984.  

It shouldn’t have worked… (and very nearly didn’t)

“Birthday Music” was recorded in the early 1980’s using technology that was behind the curve even then.  All the songs in this collection were recorded using two identical cassette decks, a small mixer, and a stereo microphone (which permitted only distant miking, and added its own tone curve).  In addition, each successive layer of overdubs was equalized in an attempt to make it more clear, meaning that the original master tapes leave much to be desired. We also had no capacity to edit other than fading in or fading out. If we flubbed a line, it killed the entire take, so we had to leave in a lot of little mistakes!

Fixing the tracks… I now have digital editing capacity and a great deal more experience with equalization of vintage material than I did twenty-five years ago.  When I remixed the songs for this CD, I digitized the original session tapes using a broadcast-quality cassette deck with pitch control.  I also took full advantage of visual digital editing, fixing many songs (and making us sound a lot more polished than we really were). On some tracks, the mid-treble has been cut by up to 6db, and the bass boosted by 6db to help reverse that tinny sound.  I was also able to rearrange sections of songs, duplicate the licks that were done correctly, replace flubbed sections, and fix most of the glaring mistakes.  But some problems obviously remain: several songs were recorded using a glue-on pickup for the instruments, which made them sound very tinny.  We also experimented with a voice-doubler on several lead vocals in the 1984 sessions, which only made the vocal sound muddy. I did the best I could, with such opposite problems.  This CD still sounds like a cassette (which it was), but I was able to make all the tracks listenable, and many shine with never-before-heard detail.  It sounds best on a good car stereo. 

But the songs… The whole reason for reissuing this project on CD is that the recipients of all those cassettes in the past two decades agreed with us, that these are terrific, unusual Christmas songs, presented in a homespun, personal way.  Unique instruments such as kitchen glasses, a homemade mop-handle bass, and weird percussion using common household items make this a fun-sounding album.  The interplay of 12-string, classical and standard guitars, plus an occasional mandolin lick also contribute to a homespun sound, but it is especially the folk-style banjo that makes this Christmas album unique. The songs derive from famous folk groups like the Kingston Trio, The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary, from old hymnbooks, from the Medical Mission Sisters, and from songs I sang as a child growing up in Ouzinkie, Alaska in my parents’ missionary chapel.  I am still impressed with the variety of songs and styles we came up with (even if the songs tended to be more mellow than our usual repertoire).  Several European carols feature verses I arranged and rewrote based on available translations.  This album is unapologetically, fervently spiritual, and the words to the songs are often as meaningful as any of the more well-known carols.

This CD is dedicated to: Bruce Adams, the bass player throughout, and the encourager who made it happen.  To Debbie, my wife of 31 years, who was game enough to try singing, and made each song she sang on sparkle.  And this edition is especially dedicated to Rev. Rob Acker (Senior Pastor of Community Baptist Church of Alta Loma, California), who requested a CD of this music, since his cassette was almost worn out.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!  --Timothy Smith, December 2007 (released on Tanignak.com in October, 2008)

Or remit $6 USD to Tanignak Productions, 14282 Tuolumne Court, Fontana, CA 92336 USA

Written by Timothy Smith, web author. See the About Me page for more information. Always feel free to send me comments, suggestions or corrected information about this article or any of the articles on this site. (Write to: Tanignak@aol.com)

Link to our other CD: The Stone Table String Band: "The Love and the Mercy" a digitally-recorded folk-rock Jesus People retro new music CD!

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