DESCRIPTION:
"Coventry Carol" is the third track on Jill Tracy's album "Silver Smoke, Star of Night"

The "Coventry Carol" is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The carol refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother's lament for her doomed child. It is the only carol that has survived from this play.

"Silver Smoke, Star of Night" can be purchased here: http://jilltracy.bandcamp.com/album/silver-smoke-star-of-night

Jill Tracy — Piano, vocals
Randy Odell — Drums, percussion, metals, antique bells, chimes, toys
Paul Mercer — Violin
Kenny Annis — Contrabass
John Anaya — Ebow guitar

Produced by Jill Tracy with John Anaya
Engineered, mixed by John Anaya, Humpback Recording.
Additional engineering, mixing by Drew Zajicek, GetReel Productions, and Bruce Bennett. Mastered by Gary Hobish, A. Hammer Mastering

Photography by Audrey Penven
Artwork, star puppetry by Trista Musco
Design by Jill Tracy and Sam Rosenthal

Room 19 words and music © Jill Tracy, BMI
All others are classic carols, some dating back to the Middle Ages.

For more info, please visit:

http://JILLTRACY.com/
http://jilltracy.bandcamp.com/album/silver-smoke-star-of-night
http://www.bdom.com/

What happens when the celebrated "femme fatale for the thinking man" applies her dark elegance to a Christmas album?

Silver Smoke, Star of Night beckons away from the cheap holiday tinsel and phony cheer to reveal a more evocative, sophisticated undercurrent. This is the season's Night Music---- Jill Tracy's glorious realm that lurks within the shadow of Christmas, and will cast you under its spell.

Silver Smoke, Star of Night is Jill Tracy's lavish, shadowy interpretation of some of the more haunting classic carols. Emotional, delicate, and textural, the music was recorded in completely organic, but grand fashion-----from hand-held antique chimes, bells, toys, mallets, bamboo, metals, and drums by master percussionist Randy Odell; to the mysterious heartfelt strings of cult violinist Paul Mercer.

The space, the breath, the huge dynamics of the recording add to its intensity and filmic aspect. This ambiance was a crucial factor for Jill Tracy who even sampled environments, including an abandoned stairwell at night, to create the reverb sound for her piano.

"I wanted listeners to lose themselves hypnotically within this music, but also honor and embrace the imagery, " Tracy explains. "We 3 Kings begins with a veritable score of the Magi traveling far, in the black of night, laden with strange, exotic gifts. In fact, the lyrics for We 3 Kings was a major part of the reason I wanted to do this album. The little-known verses are dark and gorgeous: Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume / breathes of life of gathering gloom / sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying / sealed in the stone-cold tomb. -- These are not songs merely to be sung, but tales to be told."

The inspiration for Silver Smoke, Star of Night came at the urging of fans on Twitter. Jill Tracy tweeted about an adventure that found her inside San Francisco's historic Swedenborgian Church at midnight last Christmas Eve singing by candlelight.

"I've never really been into Christmas," she reveals. "But I was completely moved, had not heard some of these songs for years. The lyrics are poignant and bleak, yet hopeful. I began researching some of the more older obscure carols, some of these date back to the Middle Ages. I wanted to interpret them in my style, create an emotional, mystical journey befitting to the spirit and subject matter. But at the same time, music that you could listen to at any time of year."

Silver Smoke, Star of Night includes the 16th century "Coventry Carol", (a mothers lament over King Herod's Massacre of the Innocents;) a nine-minute swoon-worthy "O Come O Come Emanuel" with sweeping violins, angular piano, and an almost noir jazz contrabass, a devastatingly beautiful piano vocal version of "What Child is This," and "Room 19," Jill Tracy's original ballad about a spirit haunting a run-down hotel room after his 1947 Christmas Eve suicide.

"This album has become one of my most empowering projects yet," Jill Tracy reveals. "And one I never imagined doing. That's what makes it utterly compelling."