Carla Muller heads home for the holidays with her soothing new Christmas album Snow Came Falling — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Christmas is often a time of getting gifts, wrapping gifts, visiting friends, and preparing rather large meals. It’s a busy time when one should be relaxing, watching the snow fall as loved ones enjoy the warmth of a fireplace, candles, and the company of each other. And listening to gentle, soothing songs that evoke memories of simpler times. That feeling is felt throughout Snow Came Falling. Ontario folksinger Muller’s album was inspired by her father and family and epitomizes Christmas at its essence.
“I wanted to make a Christmas album for my dad, with some of his favorite songs on it,” she says. “And I did, although it was only really a demo album. It had some of the songs we still sing together every Christmas Eve, as a family. A few years passed, and I wrote Snow Came Falling for my daughter Charlotte. In the time since, I’ve written a few more, and this collection of songs has seven original songs I have written with three talented songwriters: (the late) Sean Cunnington, Mark Lalama and Jason Fowler.”
Snow Came Falling, produced primarily by Muller and Julian Decorte (who was also the mixing and sound engineer), is a gorgeous, gentle, soothing 12-track effort showcasing Muller’s comforting, cozy vocals often backed by sparse but special acoustic instrumentation on well-crafted nuggets such as Go And Find Him and the timeless Huron Carol.
A handful of selections are performed partly or wholly in German, including the dazzling, hymnal-leaning Weißt du Wieviel Sternlein Stehen / Heaven’s Sky, which features a children’s choir. The German portion is a song Muller’s father sang to her and her siblings growing up, while the latter half was a lullaby Muller wrote recalling how her father, a leader of the Sunday school choir at her church, taught his children to sing. Muller used a six-member children’s choir led by choir director Quisha Knight to “capture the needed enthusiasm” for the track.
Perhaps the most inventive offering is Leise, Rieselt Der Schnee (Softly Falls The Snow), which features “a Hawaiian guitar, steel drums and a key change in a chorus of aahs” which is a rarity for the German Christmas classic.
Equally impressive is the title cut, a previously released single Muller’s journey to and from hospital before and after giving birth to her daughter during a snowstorm. The roots-folk flavour is highlighted again by lovely arrangements that are uplifting but not busy in terms. And the tender, moving I Can Hear The Bells, penned by Muller and Cunnington, is a stellar reminder that not everyone has someone to be with this time of year.
“It wound up taking three years to make, as I just couldn’t get the sound right,” Muller says of I Can Hear The Bells. “I myself have found comfort in the words years after the loss of my friend (Cunnington died from Covid in 2020) and only a few short weeks after losing my sister this October. It’s about faith, that things will be all right again. That life goes on. And to remind us that there will always be Christmas.”
Snow Came Falling, mastered by David Travers-Smith, was recorded at Toronto’s Canterbury Music Co. Aside from Muller — who provided lead vocals, backing vocals, piano and co-arranged songs — other core musicians on the album include Fowler (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Lalama (piano, keyboards, accordion), Rob Piltch (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Ross MacIntyre (bass, upright bass) and Gary Craig (drums, percussion).
Additional musicians include arranger Scott Metcalfe, cellist Kevin Fox, pianist Robbie Grunwald, violinists Drew Jurecka and Jessica Deutsch, backing vocalists Melanie Conly and Jason Fowler, woodwind musician Ernie Tollar, and percussionists Joy Lapps and Davide Direnzo.
Muller has released several singles, including Christmas At Home, Another Morning After and The Last Two Years. She has also been hard at work on The In-Between Project, creating more than 90 songs with some of the best musicians from the Toronto and Niagara regions.
Listen to Snow Came Falling below and send Carla Muller your holiday wishes on her website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
