Former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry has announced the digital release of his first holiday record of his illustrious career, “The Season”, on November 5. For years, fans have been asking for Perry‘s unmistakable voice to bring-in the holiday season.
Steve notes: “I hope when people hear this record they’re teleported in the same way I was when I recorded all these songs. I hope it brings them back to those golden moments with their loved ones and gives them that feeling of joy and connection and comfort that we all need so much.”
All eight tracks on the record come straight from the heart as Steve hopes to send listeners to the place they find the most comfort during the holiday season, which, for Steve, is his grandmother’s home.
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” opens on a cascade of layered vocals that perfectly capture its mood of melancholy longing. “As I was singing that song, I closed my eyes and all of a sudden found myself standing in the doorway that looked onto the living room of my grandmother’s house,” Perry recalls. “Her Christmas tree was always loaded with presents underneath, and covered with the tinsel that my mother and I put on to make the tree shimmer. I could see that tree so clearly in my mind, and then I opened my eyes and thought, ‘Whoa — where did I just go?’ Now everybody has passed, of course, but for just that moment I was home for Christmas.”
“The Season” track listing:
01. The Christmas Song
02. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
03. Auld Lang Syne
04. Winter Wonderland
05. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve
06. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
07. Silver Bells
08. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Last October, Perry told Rolling Stone that he had been busy creating new music since the April 2020 release of his cover version of the BEACH BOYS classic “In My Room”.
“I have a studio and I’m always writing and always recording stuff,” he said. “I have lots of music, so much stuff.”
Perry‘s first solo album in more than two decades, “Traces”, was released in October 2018 via Fantasy Records (a division of Concord Records/UMG). He credited his late girlfriend, psychologist Kellie Nash, who died more than seven years ago, with helping him want to sing again; she’d made him promise he wouldn’t go back into isolation when she passed.
Perry dated Nash for nearly two years before she died in December 2012 after being diagnosed with breast cancer. He mourned for two years, and then began recording again.
Upon its release, “Traces” was met with wide acclaim and tremendous excitement from fans and critics all over the world. The album entered the Billboard 200 Albums chart at No. 6, Perry‘s highest debut as a solo artist and earned the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer his best-ever chart entries in the U.K., Germany, Canada and Japan.
Perry reunited with JOURNEY for the first time in years as they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2017. The iconic singer appeared onstage with his former bandmates as they each gave speeches, but did not perform with the group later in the event.
