Music Artists Bring Cheer to the Year

John Flanagan, the singer from the folk band Faultlines, swore he wouldn’t write a Christmas song. “With its heavy religious overtones, I feared Christmas might be too heavy a topic for our diverse listeners,” he explains.

He has had a change in heart. In Snowfall, their new holiday single, he and Ashley Morgan aim to capture the season’s essence of geniality and love. “There are elements of heartache and longing in Snowfall, however, it endeavors to soothe that longing with a happy ending, and don’t we all need a happy ending in 2020,” he questions.

OUTMusic Award winning singer-songwriter, Justin Utley believes we do. His offering for the season, “All is Bright,” presents a similar vibe. It is an optimistic, yet not overly sweet holiday song about bringing people together to celebrate something meaningful and special and how even during these dark and tumultuous times, there’s still a silver lining.

“The pandemic has brought people closer together,” he says. “There’s nothing like spending time surrounded by the people who matter most, even if it’s over Zoom.”

Both artists share warm feelings about the season.

"My favorite Christmas memory is from when I was eight years old and my family finally got a piano," Utley recalls. "It was an old Conover upright and it weighed a few tons. I grew up playing it, wrote my first songs on it when I was twelve, and moved it in and out of a number of apartments before I moved to New York City. My parents have it at their house today. It’s a nostalgic piece, and means even more to me when I play it."

Flanagan's favorite Christmas memory was on his aunt’s eighteenth-century farm in small town New England. "On Christmas Eve, my sister and I would shiver in the snowbanks waiting for a fire-engine Santa to pass along a dirt road. Midnight mass was aglow in advent candles and Christmas day was spent sledding and unwrapping gifts."

Justin Utley will spend the holidays this year in Utah. John Flanagan and Ashley Morgan will spend their holidays in California.

Visit Faultlinesofficial.com and Justinutley.com.