Change of plans for today! Yesterday I got a reminder that I was supposed to submit a video for a virtual Westmont Holly Days. I was going to do a ukulele thing on Saturday with Dad and Susie but it was restring for food which ended up being pretty busy and Susie wasn't there anyway. So what to do? Why not a Christmas polka!? We have rehearsal today and it would be a good cross promo for the store and the band. Plus, we usually do Christmas polkas (originals) at the parade with ICV. Greg moved to Kentucky so that's not an option this year.
But which song to record? At first I thought of the Sausage and Sauerkraut for Santa song. I love it and would love to play it but I didn't think it was the best choice for this. Next thing I thought MUST BE SANTA! One of my favorites off Brave Combo Christmas. It is, of course, a cover of Mitch Miller. In the past few years Bob Dylan also did a cover which is pretty much a straight copy of the BC arranegment. Anyway, so what? It is a fun song which will be easy to play since I am so familiar with it already. Ran over it a few times, no problem. I found a chart on musescore and just had to tweak it a bit so I could have something for Hans and Kurt to read off of. The chart was close but imcomplete. Had to change some chords and put the changes over the vocal part to make a quick lead sheet.
Kurt is going to come early and help set things up - cameras, set, Christmas decor. The store needs to be decorated for Christmas anyway! I'm going to set most of that up first. Then later this afternoon we can run the tune and make the video. I think it should go well.
This is the second year in a row without a parade. Last year it was canceled because there was rain in the foprecast. Then it ended up not even raining. We still wanted people to come out to out Holly Days open house so we made this quick Mele Kalikimaka video and posted it on social media. People liked it although I'm not sure that it brought anyone out that night. There were some passersby that we lured in with our Christmas carols and I think we did end up selling a ukulele as a result.