Edmonton based quintet, The Dungarees, have released a country Christmas tune for your holiday enjoyment this year... and there's a brand new video to go along with it!
Check out James Murdoch in his starring role in Ring The Bells, and share it with your friends as we all get ready for the festive season.
To help celebrate the release of Ring The Bells and its video, we caught up with The Dungarees for a little holiday Q&A to ask about the song, the video, their Christmas favourites and a little more.
Thanks to James, Robb, Darrek, Kiron, Ben for sharing their music with us, and for taking the time out for the Q&A. Here's wishing those boys a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
5 Holiday Questions with The Dungarees
Q) Where did the idea for Ring The Bells and a holiday song from The Dungarees come from?
A) We've been asked by fans to record a Christmas song for years now. We must give off some sort of holiday vibe! We really wanted to try something original but that's pretty daunting when you're comparing it to the classics we have all been singing for generations. With a few exceptions, there didn't seem to be any real "country" Christmas songs. So the challenge to ourselves was to write a country song that was reminiscent of classic holiday songs. The story of the song is about a guy driving through the night to be with his sweetheart for Christmas. And everywhere he goes he hears the bells of Christmas, pushing him down the road, closer to home.
Q) The video is legit country, with an old truck, a tree, snow, and a pawn shop... on a scale of 1 to 10, how country do you think it is?
A) Yeah! That was the idea. We're hoping it's a 10 out of 10. The reason being, is that those cliches are comforting. Ideally, that's what a great Christmas song does, it brings a sense of comfort and familiarity.
Q) Do you (as a band) have a favourite Christmas song to play together, other than Ring The Bells?
A) We have been known to play a pretty sweet, country-swing version of Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time Is Here (From Charlie Brown Christmas). And of course it's not quite Christmas, but we've played Auld Lang Syne on countless NYE's over the years.
Q) If you could partner up with any artist for a collaboration on a Christmas song, who would you choose?
A) Oh man! That's a tough to narrow it down to one. I bet we could come up with a pretty bad-ass Christmas song with Eric Church. We love his raw and gritty songwriting style. We kind of had that in mind when we wrote Ring The Bells. Of course, if this is an "of all-time" list, Bing Crosby is pretty much the king of Christmas songs. I wonder how Ring The Bells would sound with Bing on lead vocal? Probably pretty smooth. Although it's hard to picture him driving across the country in a beat up old truck...
Q) Is the gift of more new music coming soon for your fans?
A) 2018 has a lot in store for our fans! We've been in the studio a lot over the last few months and we're really excited about the new material we've recorded. We plan to release our second EP of brand new material, early in the new year. One of the songs will feature a guest appearance by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band!
Thanks again to The Dungarees for answering our questions. And, thank you to Murdoch for sharing a stuffing recipe that sounds like it'll knock our socks off!
Murdoch's Almost-Classic-Oh-So-Rich Turkey Stuffing
Ingredients:1/2 Loaf Bread, diced small
1/2 lb Butter
2 tbsp, Truffle Oil
1/2 package of Bacon, diced fine
2 Hot Italian Sausage, diced fine
2 tins Smoked Oysters, chopped
1 small Yellow Onion
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 sticks Celery, chopped
10 Mushrooms, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp fresh Sage, chopped
1 tbsp Dried Savoury
Salt/Pepper to taste
1) In a large saucepan, fry onions, bacon and sausage until browned and cooked
2) Lower heat to simmer
3) Add butter to melt
4) Add mushrooms, celery and garlic, stirring regularly
5) Add sage, savoury and salt/pepper and stir
6) In very large bowl, add diced bread
7) Pour saucepan mixture over bread
8) Add smoked oysters, oil and all
9) Add truffle oil
10) Mix thoroughly with wooden spoon
11) Once cooled to room temp, stuff in turkey cavity, excess in casserole dish with lid
