Music

A Familyre Christmas Album is Complete!

Rachel — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:35:46 GMT

Okay everyone! You can download all of the songs and print out a cover for FREE and own your very own "A Familyre Christmas Volume 1!" Here are the artists: Danielson, Lenny Smith, Half-Handed Cloud, Soul Junk, Leopulde, Dan Zimmerman, The Singing Mechanic, Sufjan Stevens, Rachel and Jon Galaxy, Woven Hand, Ben + Vesper, Joshua Stamper, and Elin. Since you have been reading about the process of my song with Jon, here is instant gratification :

Love, Rachel

A Famile Christmas - Mixing Music and Drinking Wine

Rachel — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:48:20 GMT

Well, it's been a very exciting week for Daniel and all the Sounds Familyre artists with the song releases from the first Sounds Familyre Christmas Album. Each day Daniel works on mixing the song that will be released at midnight. Tomorrow is the very last night with Elin finishing off the album with her amazingly angelic and hauntingly beautiful voice. I can't tell you yet what song she is singing-- it just wouldn't be right to spoil the surprise. Here are some photos from our evening listening to Joshua Stamper's song which has just been released tonight and Elin's song. We are hanging out in the basement/studio of Sounds Familyre a.k.a. my childhood home.

Daniel running away as I'm taking his picture in our parents kitchen. He can't sue right? I'm his sister!

Downstairs in the studio.

Jon playing along with Joshua Stamper's song as we listen to it.

My father, Lenny Smith.

Crazy face Daniel!

My daughter, Eleanor, who is supposed to be sleeping. Does this face look sleepy to you?

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Lots of Days

Rachel — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:29:53 GMT

So I missed a couple of days! I have a good excuse--traveling to San Francisco and then on to New Jersey for the holidays. We need to catch up with Day 7- Sufjan Stevens presents "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," Day 8- Rachel and Jon Galaxy(that's me!) present "What Child Is This," and Day 9 - Woven Hand presents,"I Wonder as I Wander." Just wait until you hear the next three days. I got a sneak preview in the basement today of what's to come, and believe me, it's amazing.

It's crazy how this album is really turning into something pretty big. Noone thought it was going to turn into something like this. Everyone is pretty excited and we still have Ben and Vesper, Joshua Stamper, and Elin to come. Wait until you hear Elin's song. it's really something special.

More later on the Christmas holiday in the Smith household!
Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Day 6

Rachel — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:59:18 GMT

Day 6 already! Go and listen to Dan Zimmerman's beautiful and cozy Christmas song entitled, "In the Bleak Mid-Winter."

Jon and I officially passed the torch to Daniel to work his magic on our Christmas Carol, "What Child Is This." I can't wait to hear what he does in the mixing process!

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Day 5

Rachel — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:11:51 GMT

Oh my goodness! Day 5 already! Check out the original Christmas song posted by Leopulde entitled, "Pat-A-Pan."

So last night was the big night for Jon and I in regards to our Christmas song ("What Child Is This"). The pressure is on--we have three days until we fly to San Francisco and Josh needs the song so that Daniel can mix it down. We borrowed Glen's keyboard and took his incredible suggestion to use the Wurlitzer. When Jon started playing, I just knew it was perfect.

So, Jon laid down the keyboards, fixed some bass parts, I fixed some uke parts and vocals. Now it was time to bring in the big guns. We have to keep up with all these professionals some how.

My daughter Rosemary came in to save us all with her vocals.

Rosemary and her Dada, missing teeth and all.

So we finished up at 2:00 am and blearily looked at one another knowing the baby would be up and wiggling around at 7 am. Thank God for espresso. Song is off to the capable hands of Daniel. One more thing to scribble off the list.

(That marker again!)

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Day 4

Rachel — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:18:32 GMT

Today is the day that Soul Junk (my brother-in-law Glen) shares his wonderful song, "Dayspring from on High," which celebrates the birth of Christ. Go to the Sounds Familyre blog yet once again and get your fix on amazingly special and unique holiday treasures.

Jon and I are still plugging away on our Christmas song. I think we are going to try and finish it up tonight. I talked to Elin on the phone today and got the scoop on what song she's doing because I was afraid I was the only one doing a Christmas carol and not writing an original song. She IS doing a Christmas carol and that's all I can tell you. You'll just have to wait. I'm excited because she has the most amazingly beautiful yet interesting voice to listen to.

I have my daughter Esther and her cousin Mila Galloway (Glen from Soul Junk's daughter) over playing today and I think I'm going to sneak them in and get them to sing a bit for my song. It's always festive to hear the kids in their imperfect sweet voices singing. (Hmmm...sounds like Danielson!) We'll see how that goes.

Don't forget to download all the songs and make your own special Christmas CD for yourselves and your loved ones!

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Day 3

Rachel — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:31:44 GMT

Half-handed Cloud has presented an amazing Christmas song for all to enjoy! It's called, "Plant A Little Fir Tree." Go listen and you'll start your day with lots of smiles!

My smile is starting to get a nervous twitch to it thinking about sharing my Christmas song amidst all of these amazing artists. Jon and I are progressing nicely, but of course nothing is ever easy, is it? We laid down the ukulele tracks and bass tracks the other night and last night was scheduled to lay down vocals. We borrowed his brother's super vocal mike and of course we had the wrong cord for it. The one Jon found in his bag that did fit...didn't work. "Oh, yeah. I saved the cord in hopes to fix it one day." Hmmm......sometimes it is good to throw away???? I get slightly tortured/teased (depending who you are asking) about being so very quick to toss. Since this is my blog, I can say that I think tossing is a healthy and cleansing experience. There's got to be a couple people out there at least who agree with that statement.

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Day 2...and all of my crazy projects

Rachel — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:11:41 GMT

Today is the day that my father, Lenny Smith, shares his original Christmas song with all of us on the Sounds Familyre blog. It's a beautiful song entitled, "For There Is Born A Child." For those of you who do not know, my Dad wrote the gospel song, "Our God Reigns," and at one point in time it was the Pope's favorite song. Kind of cool. Go check it out and don't forget to keep checking in every day for the new updates.

On the home front I'm still trying to juggle a load of things including recording a song for the Sounds Familyre site (I am going to sing "What Child Is This?"), sewing the rest of my Christmas doll clothes for the girls, and start the packing process for our East Coast Christmas trip. I'm also expecting to hear any moment that my little sister Megan has gone into labor! The first boy on the Smith side is about to be born! Ah! So much excitement this year.

Oh, and I almost forgot that I'm also working on a vintage dress for my daughter Esther's preschool teacher Mrs. Putnam.

Look at this crazy pattern! It's a vintage dress (Butterick 4790) and I've never seen a layout like this before. The front piece fastens around the waist to the back and the back piece fastens in the front. That's it.It's pretty cool. The one downside is that it's kind of a pain to fit and get just perfect because the front is just one piece of fabric wih a million fitting darts. I'm going to have the final fitting with her tomorrow and I'll post some pictures. It's a really cute dress. Mrs. Putnam got really sick over the summer and became very thin. I wanted to make her a dress that actually fit her and something that she would feel just beautiful in. She is such an amazing woman who has impacted my two older girls in such an amazing way, that this is the least I can do for her.

More later.

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas - Day 1

Rachel — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:28:17 GMT

I wanted to let everyone know that the Sounds Familyre Famile will be performing new interpretations of traditional Christmas carols as well as some original songs. Visit the Sounds Familyre blog to experience a new song each day for thirteen days.

All of these Christmas songs will be available for free downloading so you can make "A Familyre Christmas - Volume 1" for yourself as well as your loved ones.

The first song is ‘Christmas Eve Nite’ by Danielson. Get in the spirit of Christmas!

Love, Rachel

Christmas Preparation

Rachel — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:26:56 GMT

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time start thinking about the upcoming Christmas Holiday. My little Galloway family is traveling back East to good old New Jersey this year. I'm very excited. We are going to be recording my Dad's (Lenny Smith) next album while we are home. My Mom is kicking us all out of the house during the holidays (for good reason) so Daniel had to go rent some studio space elsewhere for two days. I'll be bringing home my uke for this recording and I think they are going to get Jon to play some keyboards. It's going to be a madhouse of people and instruments. Very exciting.

Another exciting event I am really looking forward to is that my sister Megan is giving birth to her first child! And it's a boy! The first grandson on the Smith side. After five girls we are finally getting a boy! After the New Year Jon is going to take Rosemary and Esther back to San Diego with him and I'm going to get to spend some good sister time with Megs in New York. I can't wait for that too.

So, the Christmas preparations continue. My girls are getting American Girl dolls for Christmas from their Grandma and Paka so I'm sewing their dolls a bunch of clothes. Why? Well, first of all, the American Doll clothes are really cool, but kind of pricey, and second, because I can! It's actually been really fun for me to make doll clothes--something a little different. You can find some great doll patterns out there and they are even starting to make historical doll clothes patterns. I won the Felicity doll pattern off of Ebay and there are a lot of patterns in there! I never understood the reasoning behind why the company would sell patterns that go with the dolls. They discontinued them, which is smart on their behalf, but I'm not complaining! And so the doll clothes sewing continues.....

Love, Rachel

PS- A wonderful Christmas idea for your crafty children: Go to Michael's or your local craft store and stock up on tons of little items: clothes pins, sparkles, glitter glue, pipe cleaners, yarn, etc. Throw them into an unfinished wood box (which the kids can later paint and decorate) and you have a cool, fun project with lots of play value and is nice to your pocketbook. For those of you who have tons of fabric, add chunks of fabric to the stash. Kids love to cut up fabric and paste it onto clothes pins to make little "dolls."