Nashville's Tristen premiered her brand new Yuletide offering, "Crying On Christmas Day," over at American Songwriter Magazine. The song is available for purchase on her Bandcamp page, which will benefit Doctors Without Borders.
The song, which unfolds over quiet, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, considers whether some of the long-running themes of the holidays aren’t just empty platitudes with no basis in reality. The tune aches with melancholy, and won’t be cheering up Charlie Brown this Christmas.
“Although the presentation changes over time, artists have been repeating the same messages over and over,” Tristen said of the Christmas songbook. “Music that distills the human experience stays infinitely relevant. This timeless art has the power to connect you to generations that came before, and to guide you through hardship. I kept thinking about the desire for ‘peace on earth’ found in so many holiday hymns. For centuries we sing these words, but can we live peacefully? We walk around with bricks on our backs, suffering, depressed, and oppressed, but at Christmas we come home, wherever that may be, to commiserate, and atheists and church-goers alike hope for an end to war and pray for love, while the snow falls, the garland hangs, and music plays in the background.”
Listen at American Songwriter
Purchase / Donate on Bandcamp