THE HERALD

Bobby Gosh Releases "Spirit of Christmas"

After a solid year of composing and recording, Brookfield singer and hit songwriter Bobby Gosh has just released a CD of self-penned Christmas songs.

Entitled "The Spirt of Christmas," the holiday CD contains 10 tracks all recorded at Gosh's Brookfield studio by Leonard Osterberg. Gosh sings in all the tracks and shares a duet with Vermont soul-singer Tammy Fletcher in "Someday at Christmas."

This song, Gosh says "captures the present mood of America"

"Someday at Christmas the peace will begin/ We'll value each life more than wanting to win," the chorus goes. "Someday at Christmas our passions will soar/ We'll love one another, there'll be no more war."

Another song is Gosh's own musical setting of the classic, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and another is a new version of his children's classic, "Welcome to our World of Toys," which has played for many years on the famous clock in the FAO Schwarz Toy Store in New York City.

Gosh has had an impressive music career as a singer and songwriter--his best known was "A Little Bit More" as sung by Dr. Hook and others. He has also been very successful in penning advertising jingles for such major corporations as Burger King ("Have It Your Way...").

In this album he accompanies in his own arrangements on piano. Background vocals are provided by a number of area singers—Patty Akley-Warlick, Nancy MacCarthy, Julia Pattison, and Janine Reeves.

The "Welcome to Our World" arrangement also includes a children's choir made up of Libbie, lan and Cameron Pattison and Molly Jacobs.

"The Spirit of Christmas" is available at The Music Shop and Cover-yo-Cover in Randolph, as well as CD download sites on the Internet.

Section: NEWS

One song celebrates Vermont

Bobby Gosh creates new Christmas album

ROBIN PALMER Staff Writer

BROOKFIELD - Every year around this time, Brookfield singer-songwriter Bobby Gosh contemplates writing an original Christmas song. But writing and producing a song takes time, and when the thought strikes him, it's usually far too late in the year to try for a new Christmas classic.

"You've got to look ahead," Gosh says.

Last Christmas, he finally did. He spent about nine months composing and recording his new album, "The Spirit of Christmas."

"It was almost like giving birth," he jokes.

What Gosh birthed is a 10-song disc of original music. It includes what he believes is the first Christmas song about Vermont; a song about baby's first Christmas that he and friend Carol Hall wrote with their grandchildren in mind; two others with a peace theme; a couple of up-tempo numbers; a remake of Gosh's famed FAO Schwarz Clock Song, "Welcome to Our World of Toys," and a musical version of Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Gosh says his songs call on Americans to carry the Christmas spirit into the new year. "Why can't we always get along as we do on Christmas?" he asks.

A duet on the record with Vermont soul-singer Tammy Fletcher suggests:

Someday at Christmas, the peace will begin;

We'll value each life more than wanting to win.

Someday at Christmas, our passions will soar;

We'll love one another, there'll be no more war.

Other songs poke fun at the holiday, its chaos and commercialism. "We got another fruitcake in the mail and that makes five," is a line from song "Christmas Frazzle."

The song about Vermont, however, is probably truest to Gosh's own holiday experience.

"All I've got to do is look out the window and put into lyrics what I see, for 'Christmas in Vermont,'" Gosh says.

He came up with:

Silent nights and fields of white as far as you can see;

Where icicles grow and tufts of snow sleep in every tree.

Chimney smoke and simple folk and grandma's recipe;

Give me Christmas in Vermont, that's where I want to be.

"It's about Vermont, but, 'Why do I want to be there?'" says Gosh. "My feeling is there's no place I'd rather be than in Vermont anytime, but particularly at Christmas."

To Gosh, the holiday is a time of family coming together in Vermont. His two grown children will come from out-of-state to join him and his wife, Billi, for the holiday. "It's like it used to be: everybody at home, really good food. It isn't the presents to me or the gifts."

Gosh has had a long music career. A rock musician turned music producer, Gosh is best known for his song "A Little Bit More," which became a Top Ten hit by recording artist Dr. Hook. He's toured the world as a pianist, and the songs he's composed have made it to the big screen and the TV screen. Gosh has also composed, produced and sung more than 200 national radio and TV commercials for Burger King (Does "Have it your way" sound familiar?), Pepsi and Post Honeycomb cereals.

Gosh has made other CDs - "Loves Stories" and "Bobby Gosh Live" - but he hopes this Christmas album is his legacy. With most holiday songs dating back decades, Gosh saw an opportunity to write a new classic, he says.

"The main thing is every year around Christmas, it's fresh again," says Gosh. "I picture someone 15 years from now, 20 years from now, playing the album and making it part of their Christmas tradition."

Gosh hopes his album resurfaces annually, that it evokes emotion (one woman already told him one song made her cry), and that it gets national play.

"I'm very proud of it. It will be there longer than I am and that's what I wanted," Gosh says. In fact, he is already contemplating a second Christmas album.

"The Spirit of Christmas" is available for $9.99 at Buch Spieler in Montpelier, Cover to Cover Books and the Randolph Music Shop in Randolph, and at the Web sites www.cdbaby.com and amazon.com. Individual songs can be downloaded from www.iTunes.com for 99 cents apiece.

Contact reporter Robin Palmer at robin.palmer@timesargus.com or 479-0191, ext. 1171.

Copyright, 2005, The Times Argus