In December 2017, alt-country duo Smith & Jones were wrapping up their monthly residency at The Hub in Bathurst. They invited the local musicians who had featured in their shows over the two years they had been playing there to join in.

Being December, we'd organised to play a couple of well known Christmas songs, and finish the evening with Paul Kelly's How to Make Gravy.

That's how it started. Blame Paul Kelly.

The room was full of good songwriters. Someone had an original Christmas song - it'd be good to give it an outing. The flood gates were opened. Songwriters reached back into their memories to find songs they'd written but only ever played once or twice - ghosts of Christmas past. It was a great night. Sitting around after the show with a glass of wine, we started thinking about the nature of these songs - only really useable for one month a year, not likely to make it onto a regular album etc... "We should put them all together and make a local Christmas compilation album!"

The idea stuck. Slowly, I began making recordings of the songs that had been played that night, and also fishing around the thriving local music scene to see who else had Christmas songs hidden away, and who might be willing to write one.

Two years later, and here we are. I've rounded up a (very) full album's worth of 18 songs. A wonderful eclectic mix from a broad sample of local songwriters. Blues, pop, soul, rock, folk, country... opera singers, jazz singers, bluegrass singers... guitars, pianos, violas, horn sections, ukuleles. From kids just starting out to songwriters with multiple decades of experience, people getting airplay right now - and even an ARIA winner (that's Gen)!

The full list (alphabetical order-ish):

• Abby Smith
• Amy Viola
• Andy Nelson
• Cameron Love
• Cindy Fox
• Claire Wright
• Emily Butler
• Fat Wombat (Cate McCarthy & Mick Moffitt)
• Gabbi Bolt
• Genni Kane
• Madi Hodder
• Matt Williamson
• Peter Sadler
• Smith & Jones
• Sophie Jones
• Sweet Revenge (Belle, Jenna & Ella)
• The Safety of Life at Sea (Kris, Lian, Steve, Tony and a cast of thousands)
• Yanhadarrambal Jade Flynn

This has been an amazing 'project for the sake of having a project'. A great chance to work with a huge variety of local musicians, to all share ideas and make connections that I hope will continue to develop throughout the local music scene for years to come.

I can't wait for you to hear this,

Kris Schubert

As the songs started coming in, there was a huge variety. Funny, beautiful, frustrated, exhausted, cute - but also some sad songs. I had forgotten that Christmas is, of course, a hard time for a lot of people. When something goes seriously wrong around Christmas, you get reminded of it each year after.

Following this line of thought, we’ve decided that all profits from CD and download sales this year will be donated to Lifeline Central West, to support the amazing and not-easy work they do.

I've really loved working with all these musicians on recording the songs at our little studio, The Boatshed in O'Connell. I'm donating that tracking time to the cause, and the musicians have all donated their time too.

What it costs:

Editing & mixing - $3,000

Mastering - $1,200

Graphic Design - $300

Printing 500 CDs - $1,100

AMRAP distribution to radio  - $200

A total of $5,800

This project is ready to go, and will be ready for this Christmas.