Chris Berardo — “This Year”
Americana Highways is hosting this video premiere of Chris Berardo’s holiday song “This Year.” This year was written by Chris Berardo and produced by David Abeyta. The song is Berardo on vocals and piano.
The video of Chris Berardo performing “This Year” was produced and edited by Will Speno and filmed at The Cutting Room in NYC. The brilliant colors in the video footage adds to the mesmerizing effects of the song. The song is heartwarming and poignant, and really relevant. Not every Christmas is idyllic, and it’s a time for pause and reflection too, which Chris Berardo captures magnificently here. Enjoy a genuine Christmas song!
So, the year before last, as we were almost heading into the holiday season, it was suggested to me by some of the folks I work with that maybe I should write a Christmas song, and my first reaction was that for whatever reason I just couldn’t see myself writing about reindeer or candy canes but I’d always wanted to try my hand at the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which is just a joy to sing and I figured would be fun … but before we did that I started finding my way on a song of my own that I was working on that felt good … it wasn’t very traditional sounding, which I think freed me up to write something that fits me and felt natural … it started to feel like a song about family and friends and time and how precious it all is …
Sadly, that holiday turned out to be a very hard one for me and my family because my dad was struggling with a number of really tough health challenges and that Christmas was spent in a hospital room with him, all of us painfully coming to grips with the fact that he was not going to be coming home … you wouldn’t think I’d have any trouble after that finishing a song about family and precious time, but the fact is that I just couldn’t face it … every time I tried to, it was just too raw and too painful, and I didn’t come back to it for a year …
But then I remembered in those last days when we were so sad, telling my mom that “he’ll be gone sometime, like all of us, and today he’s here, and we will look back and think this was a lucky day because we are together right now” and I started just thinking of how lucky we are for the time we do have with the ones we love and then I felt good because it could be a song that is positive and joyful and I hope it works on that level for folks … and it helped me to feel better and to be thankful … I hope it maybe evokes a nice memory or two for some folks …
So, I was going to record it really simply with just me singing and playing piano, but when I shipped it off to my friend and producer David Abeyta down in Austin (we’ve been working together remotely throughout the shut down) he put his brilliant musical mind on it and we started bouncing ideas around, and he really fleshed it out, playing all the other instruments and I feel like it stands on its own as a song and a record in the style of what he and I have been creating together, which felt really good …
It’s not Jingle Bells, but like I said, I hope it just might evoke a few warm memories and remind a listener how lucky we are for the time we have and the love we share in this world …
Oh, yeah, and then we did “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” anyway, and it was fun and joyful, just as I had predicted! — Chris
https://smithmusic.ffm.to/chrisberardo_thisyear