Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies Inspire Midwinter's Gift Album

The new Christmas album, Midwinter's Gift was inspired by the waft of peanut butter blossom cookies. Really!!

It all started when my friend, Kirstin Myers (oboist) was baking Christmas cookies for her family last December. Being a busy oboist, performing in various symphonies in the South Central Pennsylvania region, she didn't have time to bake cookies until AFTER the holidays. She had been too busy making music for everyone else's Christmas celebrations. We had originally met—because of Christmas—when Kirstin was hired to play oboe in my annual Portraits of White Winter Concert orchestra.

So there she was, the day after Christmas, making cookies. She confesses that she may have been devouring the Hershey kisses before they even made it to the blossoms. She was also listening to her favorite music playlists—for three solid days in a row. 

In the midst of this baking, nibbling and listening frenzy, while waiting for a batch of cookies to finish baking, she was struck with some nagging yet intriguing observations . . . that she says went something like this:

"There were no oboe tunes popping up on my Spotify."

Perhaps oboists need more quality Christmas music. 

Scrolling through Spotify for ‘oboe’ and ‘Christmas’ and not finding much . . .

"Wouldn’t it be cool to create more?"

"What if I could record an album?"

No, you can’t do that. Take the burning cookies out of the oven.

"But what if I could? It would be something I could give the kids."

Eat more cookie dough.

"Who knows how to record an album? Who could I do it with?"

My friend, the piano player, Frances.

(Kirstin and I [Frances] had already formed a duo called Double Keyed and were enjoying performing together until COVID brought our in-person performances to a jarring halt.)

After running through many more doubts in her head, Kirstin texted me. 

Fortunately, I took screen shots of our conversation. I had a feeling I'd want to keep a record—pun intended.

This text was followed by some banter about money, potential arrangers . . .etc., etc., and I knew it would get to be a long conversation by text, so I suggested we meet for coffee to talk details . . .

After we met for coffee, I began thinking about places we could stay in Nashville, if we ended up doing a project there. I texted Kirstin with more ideas . . .

Fast forward to August and we were on our way to Wildwood Recording in Franklin, Tennessee to record our project. At the recommendation of our arranger and producer, Nashville's own Phillip Keveren, we chose this studio because Phillip said it's the best Yamaha piano in Nashville! Being a piano player, I was concerned about finding a great piano for our project. 

Phillip was right—the piano was incredible. At one point, I said, "This piano is like a race car that doesn't want to stick with the speed limit." The guys liked that analogy.

Frances warms up on the Yamaha, August 3, 2022.

Long story short, the little somewhat obscure oboe is now making a splash! Even the English horn got to be a part of the production on three songs; O Holy Night, What Child is This? and O Come, O Come, Emmanuel—which ended up being the first song we recorded on our two-day recording spree. I remember Phillip's comment after we played his hauntingly beautiful arrangement of this 15th Century song. "This project is going to be world-class," he said confidently. My heart tried to absorb the words. It was uncanny that he used this particular phrase.

I've always wanted to be a world-class performer. I only tell you this because I'm learning that setting goals is such a key to getting where you want to go and becoming the person you want to be. I had decided years ago that one of my goals as a singer-songwriter and pianist, was to become world-class. It was a goal that I knew would always keep me motivated to improve—even if it took me a lifetime to achieve. So you can see how hearing this comment was monumental for me. 

But we had nine more songs to go! In the moment, I had to keep focused. 

You see, I was facing the challenge of playing the piano in front of the arranger of the music (and the producer of the album) with him sitting in the control room, listening to me. I also knew that he himself is a very gifted pianist. His Sojourner project with The London Symphony Orchestra is one of the most beautiful albums of all times, in my opinion! 

Knowing I would be recording in the presence of a master craftsman, I had been strategically conditioning my mind to focus for the seven months leading up to this moment. Not only had I been practicing the technicalities and musicality of the arrangements we commissioned Phillip to create, but I had been practicing overcoming the trepidation and downright terrification (a word I made up during this season) of playing in front of him. I had moments of sheer terror while practicing. I had to learn to ignore those monsters so I could support Kirstin without falling apart when recording day came and the engineer would push the record button.

Hearing Phillip's genuine comment after our first song was a beautiful gift and a perfect way to start off the two days of recording. He was fabulous to work with!

Kirstin Myers (oboe, English horn), Kent Hooper (Recording engineer), Phillip Keveren (Arranger, producer), Frances Drost (pianist)
August 5, 2022

By November 4, 2022, we had our new Christmas album, Midwinter's Gift ready for release on Bandcamp and many streaming sites, including—of ALL places—Spotify. People responded. In fact, by November 15 (just 11 days after release day) we discovered we had charted at No. 13 on Billboard's Classical Crossover Album chart. 

After waking up on a Monday morning to an email notification from Alex at Billboard, I texted Kirstin and told her to check her email. I had forwarded the big news to her.

Now, Kirstin and I are very busy getting ready to tour, responding to sweet comments, filling orders and enjoying building a listener base on Spotify! We have filled that void and now Kirstin won't need to scroll through Spotify this Christmas looking for soothing, inspiring, elegant and classy oboe music. Way to go my friend! You've done it . . . and in world-class fashion.

Midwinter's Gift is our gift, first to ourselves as musicians, secondly to our families and the most fun surprise gift of all—a placement on the Billboard charts!

We think there might be something special about peanut butter blossom cookies . . . or maybe it's as simple as having an idea, setting a goal, following it through, giving it wings and watching it soar. Is that simple?!

Double Keyed is having fun watching our album help the world fall in love with double reeds. 

P.S. The instrument Kirstin is holding on the album cover is her English horn. The oboe is working through a bit of envy since it didn't make the front cover—but wants us to know that it is truly happy for the success of the English horn and is thrilled to be on Spotify.

You can order Midwinter's Gift CD here.

You can also find us pretty much everywhere on streaming services.

Cover photo and album artwork by Erick Anderson Photography, Nashville, TN

I wonder what kind of cookies Kirstin will be baking this December? ;-)