Jingle Bells

Hello, I am Wendell Tilley, producer of Bluegrass Lullabies. You may be familiar with the story of how this project came about. When my first daughter was born, (I have three!), my wife and I received as gifts many different types of lullaby cd's featuring different vocal artists. I noticed that none were instrumental and most were keyboard arrangements. It was kind of a personal wish of mine to hear these traditional lullabies produced, and arranged, in a bluegrass motif. Having just moved to Nashville, and fortunate enough to meet some of the finest musicians in the city, I contacted a few and set about picking and arranging the different lullabies for an instrumental presentation. Jonathan Yudkin is simply a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. I was familiar with his work with top artists such as Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, Jars of Clay, among many others, and thought he possessed the right mixture of styles to make it something special. Along with Bruce Bouton and Dan Dugmore, Bluegrass Lullabies surpassed my expectations and was released to critical acclaim in 2007. I had in my head for quite a while to do a Christmas record that would be instrumental and arranged similarly to the first, but work on other projects kept me from completing it. That is, till this past summer of '13, when I finally found the time to go ahead and start production. I called Jonathan again and he was happy to do it. The first record I actually played an acoustic bass sample on keyboard for our "bass player", but on the Christmas record I was lucky to find in town between a Jerry Douglas tour and a Lyle Lovett tour, the amazing bassist, Viktor Krauss. (also Alison Krauss's brother) The day before, Jonathan had efficiently wrapped up his mandolin and fiddle parts, and so to hear Viktor against these was quite a treat, indeed. I then went to New Orleans and recorded drummer, Doug Belote. Doug and I were good friends having played shows and recorded on more than a few of Americana artist, Riley Etheridge Jr.'s records. I then took all those tracks home and proceeded to put down my acoustic guitar tracks and mix it. Jim Demain of YesMaster in Nashville did a superb job of mastering the record and now, it is here and ready for your consumption this holiday, or any time of the year, really! It is my sincere wish that you enjoy the record every bit as I did making it. Thanks for all your support. Wendell.