After 25 years as a professional musician, I never fail to be impressed by the sprit of community of musicians in general and the Boston music community in particular. A further reminder of this occurred this past weekend. Tom Polce, a music producer with whom I used to be in a band but who now lives in LA, tweeted or sent a message on Facebook last Friday that he was back in Boston to work on some music at Q Division studios in Somerville. He and I went back and forth about, "come on man, we have to get together this time," over the various media available to us nowadays. "When are you available?"  We often have these situations where he is in for a week of 12-hour days, or my band, Buffalo Tom, might be on LA for one show and we fail to hook up, or only do so for a few minutes on the way in or out of town.

But both of us intrinsically understand the one almost fail-safe way to get musician buddies together: Book a session or a gig. Build it and they will come! So, texting back and forth last Friday night, looping in the selfless Ed Valauskas -- who was at that moment playing a gig in Albany with his band, Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents, and who books Q Division sessions -- by the end a couple of the night we had time and a plethora of musicians booked at Q for that Sunday, two days later. Sunday was the night of the Boston Music Awards, but the event was starting early. While I was not able to attend, most of the area musicians planned to, so a bunch of people would stumble in later in the night, carried along by the momentum of the event. We had decided to do a couple of holiday tunes and thought, if they turned out OK,  maybe we could upload them to the Target Cancer Foundation web site, Righttracktunes.org where musicians have contributed songs in exchange for listeners to donate to the foundation.

Listen, I know most people have had enough of Christmas songs by the week after Thanksgiving. And no one really needs any new recordings. But we felt we had dug up a couple of little-known numbers that should be classics, "Christmas Everyday," by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and "Christmas Must Be Tonight," by The Band, and “I Wish You A Merry Christmas” by Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva – the latter sung be me and Jenny Dee.

The core band of Mike Piehl on drums, bassists Joe McMahon, Phil Aiken on piano, Tom on electric, and me on acoustic guitars, set up first and ran through the Band song. We set up in a small room, live, with just a few microphones, no separation, and banged the song out old-school style, arranging it in our own version as we recorded a few takes. Done. Beautiful, if I may say so.

By the time we were ready for the Smokey tune, more musicians started filing in -- singers Kristin Cifelli, Steve Scully and Dave Brophy (both drummers by trade), and my younger brother, Scott Janovitz. And then local saxophone colossus, Paul "The Ostrichman" Ahlstrand snuck in and lent a baritone sound. This recording absolutely swings. I love the idea of sitting in a room together, not worrying to death over separation of sound, arranging on the fly, the way musicians all used to do before the exponential expansion of multi-track recording technology. But here is the trick: you have to start with good musicians.

And not only are these people good, they are tops at what they do. They would be in-demand session players in LA or Nashville. But here in Boston, they are just folks you see around at the clubs. Go out any night in Boston or Cambridge and there is an embarrassment of riches here, mostly musicians with day jobs who can play or sing any current Top 40 artists to shame. But we also have some luminaries who are known for touring or recording with big artists. And most of them would swing on down to such a hootenanny as this on at the drop of a hat.

Because here is an ill-kept secret about musicians: they will play for free. The whole music industry rock star myth was built on this business model. Music is not what they do; it is who they are. We didn't have to tell any of these folks that this was for charity. No one was sitting on their phone asking "how much? Am I getting scale?" They wanted to play. But once you tell them there is good cause, almost every musician I know will rally and make arrangements to show up. And all one has to is look at FB profiles of musician friends to see them rallying even faster and determinedly when one of our own is in need. I have countless local examples here in Boston, even just in the past year.

Music is about community, a room full of people sharing something otherworldly, soul satisfying. Once you have spent an evening playing music with someone you had might not even met, it is easy to feel a kinship with them, and that is hard to let go. So when my brother Tom Polce is in town, I call up my other bothers and sister literal and figurative. We play music. It was the one sure way to get everyone together for the holidays.

That session was such a blast of impromptu fun and good will, that we rushed to book another one for a few more holiday tunes a few days later. So come Tommy, and Philly, and Mikey and Eddy. Top and Jenny, Kristen and Joey. Come Scotty, and Brophy and Scully...Dash away, dash away, dash away all.

Christmas Must Be Tonight
The Q-Dee Revue-y

This song was originally recorded by The Band in 1977. This version was recorded live in Studio B at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA on December 5, 2010 by The Q-Dee Revue-y – exclusively available here.

Bill Janovitz – Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Tom Polce – Guitar
Joe McMahon – Bass
Mike Piehl – Drums
Phil Aiken – Piano
Kristin Cifelli – Background Vocals
Dave Brophy – Percussion
Steve Scully - Percussion

Produced by Tom Polce
Recorded and Mixed by Pat DiCenso

Christmas Everyday
The Q-Dee Revue-y

This song was originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles in 1963. This version was recorded live in Studio B at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA on December 5, 2010 by The Q-Dee Revue-y – exclusively available here.

Bill Janovitz – Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Tom Polce – Guitar, Background Vocals
Joe McMahon – Bass, Background Vocals
Mike Piehl – Drums
Phil Aiken – Piano
Paul Ahstrand – Saxophone
Kristin Cifelli – Background Vocals
Dave Brophy – Background Vocals ,Percussion
Steve Scully - Background Vocals ,Percussion
Scott Janovitz - Background Vocals

Produced by Tom Polce
Recorded and Mixed by Pat DiCenso

I Wish You a Merry Christmas
The Q-Dee Revue-y

This song was originally was written by Carol King and Gerry Goffin and recorded by Big Dee Irwin & Little Eva in 1963. This version was recorded live in Studio B at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA on December 9, 2010 by The Q-Dee Revue-y – exclusively available here.

Bill Janovitz – Lead Vocals
Jenny Dee - Lead Vocals
Tom Polce – Guitar
Ryan Spraker – Guitar
Ed Valauskas – Bass
Steve Scully – Drums
Phil Aiken – Piano
Freddy DeBoe – Saxophone
Andrew Jones - Percussion

Produced by Tom Polce
Recorded and Mixed by Pat DiCenso

Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents had a tremendous 2010 which saw them release their debut full-length CD, a 7” vinyl single, and open for J. Geils Band and Aerosmith at Fenway Park. Here is their take on an obscure Hank Ballard holiday tune, Santa Claus Is Comin’.

Merrie Amsterburg is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist born in Ludington, Michigan, currently residing in Boston.

She uses several instruments in her songs, including guitar, trumpet, mandolin, Indian banjo, bouzouki, hamonium and even a 70’s Kenmore Washing Machine.

Her latest release is a two-song vinyl 45 RPM single on Q-Dee Records. The A-Side, We Three Kings is featured here on The Right Track. The song includes guest vocal performances by Dennis Brennan, Chandler Travis, and Ry Cavannaugh as the Three Kings– along with Peter Linton on guitar, Joe McMahon on bass, Steve Scully on drums, and Phil Aiken on piano, and Jenny Dee & The Deelinquents on background vocals.

Christopher Tolle is a songwriter and producer living in the American heartland. Most known for his work in Indie Pop band The Belles(S-Curve/Emi/Universal) With extensive touring and recording in the U.S. and abroad.

Christopher is also putting the finishing touches on his debut, solo record. Out in 2011, It will feature guest appearances by Kliph Scurlock (The Flaming Lips) and Allen Epley (Shiner, Life&Times)

Tolle also runs a creative music company called FourBigWatts supplying music for Film, Television and web clients.

Music producer, remixer, and composer Matt Pendergast, is continually immersing himself in diverse projects and work.  After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2002 with a B.M. in Music Synthesis, Matt spent several years at TONAL, a New York City-based award-winning music production company.  He returned to his native Boston where he continues to specialize in music production, remixing for recording artists, composing original music content for albums, TV and films, and sound design. 

Throughout his career, Pendergast has worked with artists spanning all genres - from performing with James Taylor, creating remix productions for Mary J. Blige, Britney Spears, Ciara and Chris Brown.  He has performed at renowned music venues such as Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, has recorded at world-class studio facilities such as the old Hit Factory in NYC, produced original music content for companies such as Wired Magazine, PBS, Toys R Us and Volvo, and has been a featured artist on Billboard.com. 

One of Boston’s favorite rock acts, The Gentlemen are featured here on The Right Track with their take on the Christmas classic “Blue Christmas”. This track was recorded in the summer of 1999 and was the first ever recording for this then “new” Boston band.

Available here for on The Right Track are 3 holiday songs Boston’s Power Pop kings - The Gravel Pit recorded back in the late 90’s: the traditional “Angels We Have Heard On High” done as a country song, a re-make of Darlene Love’s version of “Marshmallow World”(originally released on Viva Voel – A Q Division Christmas), and The Pit’s own holiday classic “(Suckin’ On A) Holiday Treat”.