I come out and she says , these are her words , verbatim , “ Put it back , now .” She started feeding me prenatal vitamins and making me wash with Horse n ’ Mane or something ... I don ’ t know , some horse shampoo . And so that ’ s the last time I did anything on my own ... This is all her fault , she ’ s the keeper of the beard . ( laughing )
[ WM ] Man . Okay , hey , the piano tone at the start of the ballad “ Christmastime Is Here ”, is just amazing how you captured that . And then , was Jerry playing a big semi-hollow body electric guitar to get that beautiful jazzy-bluesy tone ?
[ Crowder ] It was a hollow body ... Oh , I can ’ t remember the guitar it was . But yeah , we said , “ Here ’ s the tone we ’ re going for ”, probably said it just like that , and he goes , “ I got it ”. Yeah . That song , the musicality of it ... And we did the tuning , it ’ s not in 440 , it ’ s-
[ WM ] 440 is normal .
[ Crowder ] We did it 432 . That is what we did it in .
[ WM ] Wow .
[ Crowder ] Yeah , so that was interesting . So the piano and stuff , we tuned to it , and then everybody had to fold around it , which was ... I don ’ t know , it was a good opportunity to experiment with that whole thing .
[ WM ] Well , it sounds like a standard . I mean , you listen to it and you go , “ This is the standard I ’ ve heard for 30 years . But wait , it ’ s not , it ’ s you .” It ’ s just got a great blend .
[ Crowder ] Well , I will say though , that chord progression , I ’ ve been playing since I was in junior high . So it ’ s basically a standard by now to me . But as I said , the opportunity to do things that were a little more , don ’ t want to say musical , but to do something with the chord structures like that , fit into the Christmas album better than they do for , as I said , some liturgical worship . I ’ ve had that progression since junior high and I ’ ve never been able to write a song to it . And then all of a sudden , we get a Christmas album , I ’ m like , “ These are Christmas chords , these are definitely Christmas chords ”. That was a joy to finally let that thing find a home .
[ WM ] So finally , halfway into the record , I get a song that sounds like I would ’ ve expected from a Crowder Christmas record . And that was with “ Your Praise Goes On ”. Lively and great . And then you floor us again because you go right into the “ Go Tell It On the Mountain ” with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs , and his mandolin is on fire in that thing .
[ Crowder ] It ’ s one of the most incredible things I ’ ve heard someone play . It ’ s insane .
[ WM ] And then your voices blended so well .