HOW DID MOUNTAINCITY CHOOSE THE SONGS FOR THEIR LATEST EP?

Photo Credit: Eldeen Annette Portraiture

(Denver, CO)  MountainCity is smack-dab in the middle of its’ Love’s Gonna Find You Christmas House Concert Series, while also promoting the release of their first Christmas EP by the same name.

The couple’s enjoyment for Christmas music was in full force at their concert last Saturday night. The Iron Wood Photography Studio in Erie Colorado was the sparkling site of the festive event featuring Dave and Tara Powers, the husband-wife duo known as MountainCity.

A 2-hour set-list highlighted popular Christmas music from across the years and variety of genres from country to modern pop, to soul, folk and more.  MountainCity also included the songs from the recently-released, seven-song Love’s Gonna Find You EP (AVAILABLE HERE).

We caught up with Tara Powers of MountainCity recently to ask her, with their growing Christmas song repertoire, how they chose which songs to include on the EP.

[Love’s Gonna Find You, About the song HERE]

It’s Christmas Time

The only original song on their EP, MountainCity fittingly wrote about songs and artists they enjoy at Christmas in the lyrics. Tara gave us some background:

“We wrote this song about two years ago. I love it because the lyrics are very personal for us. Dave and I have said before how much we love Christmas. By that we mean we love the sounds, the sights, the tastes and the scents of the holiday!

“Dave really captured the specific things that say ‘Christmas’ for our family. He did a great job of pinpointing the songs and artists that we really love. He even sings about our boys.  It turned out so fun! Even though it is very personal to us, we hope listeners can relate to it and pick out the references we made.”

The Powers boys, immortailzed in MountainCity’s “It’s Christmas Time” original song

Colorado Christmas

MountainCity decided to cover Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band’s well-known Christmas song because they live in Colorado. Dave was born and raised along the Front Range and Tara has lived there since she was in high school.

“We chose this song because we absolutely love Colorado,” Tara explained.

“We travel a lot for music and every single time we come back to Colorado, we take a deep breath of satisfaction. We love to be able to see far distances and gasp at the beauty of the mountains. This song captures the feeling of Christmas in this amazing place that we live. We’re just 20 minutes from Boulder, which is mentioned in the lyrics. Being musicians from Colorado it was a must-sing on the album.”

O Come Let Us Adore Him

The final song on the EP features a hammered dulcimer played by multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, speaker, author and poet, Stephen Roach. The traditional Christmas hymn begins as an instrumental, but is soon joined by a studio-full of voices, friends of MountainCity who joined them during one afternoon of recording.

Tara told us why they chose this song.

“We definitely couldn’t make a Christmas CD without singing about the reason for Christmas!

“The hammered dulcimer is amazing and, even though this is a song you hear everywhere, I recommend that you just close your eyes and enjoy listening to this version – you’ll love it!

“The surprise ending is great, too. Our friends were able to join us in the studio and sing along to the track. This song really communicates our reason for celebrating Christmas, Christ was born.”

CD cover back side

Stream or Purchase the Love’s Gonna Find You EP

You may stream the Christmas EP HERE or on SPOTIFY. You may purchase the EP digitally or order a CD HERE.

Next week we’ll look at the final three songs they chose and hear more about why.

[Love’s Gonna Find You, About the song HERE]

(  —posted by Jeanie Rhoades)

♦♦♦

Dave would like to thank his sponsor, Stringjoy

Here is what Dave Powers has to say about Stringjoy:

“I’ve had the privilege of talking with Stringjoy’s owner, Scott. What a cool guy! He’s a good business man, REALLY cares about customer service, and wants guitar/bass players to be stoked about the sound of their strings. He and his team work hard at it and the strings are made in the U.S.A., which makes me very happy!

If you’re looking for a new string company, give Stringjoy a shot! They also have picks, cables, and an assortment of other mischief! It’s a HUGE privilege for me to be a part of the Stringjoy Family of Artists!” https://www.stringjoy.com