A few years ago I thought that I might record a holiday album. My first idea was that I would call it Songs About Being Cold, make it a one joke 5-song thing and let it go at that.

Last December I was offered quite a few gigs as background Christmas music guy. Stand there, play some carols and be out-of-the-way. I was rehearsing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town when it occurred to me: hey!  This song is kind of creepy.

I got through the holidays without weeirding out the shoppers, but when January hit, I didn’t delete the Christmas playlists, I dug deeper. I started Googling things like “Weird Christmas Traditions” and researching the history of upside down Christmas trees. When summer hit, I went into the studio with my jingle bells and emerged months later with album number 6.

Another Creepy Christmas might be the only album of its ilk. I searched the net and iTunes for something similar and came up empty. There are plenty of funny, quirky, and odd holiday songs- some of them I covered for this album- but this is more of a concept piece wherein Jonah finds no joy in Christmas and can’t stop being a monster-laden Grinch even in the face of intervention. Can anything melt his cold, cold heart?

At 11 songs (12 tracks) it is my longest album and probably my favorite. Some of the songs will likely stay in my set list year round. All of the songs are free to listen to on my website, www.jonahofthesea.com and, as the holidays grow near, it might make a good gift for that one friend. You know, the one who really likes Halloween. The one who likes Christmas but complains about Christmas music. The geek who you have a hard time shopping for because they are uber-hip.

I’ve been offered a few of those background Christmas music guy shows again this year. They might go a bit differently.