Rachel Taylor Brown Releases Holiday Album

Her decision to put these online (7 Small Winter Songs has only previously been available at her shows) was made in part to give fans more material and a look into her creative process.

But, also to further promote her latest full-length, World So Sweet, which came out earlier this fall.

Of 7 Small Winter Songs she said: "I wrote these songs in one day, and recorded them in three, in the middle of recording Half Hours with the Lower Creatures. It started out as a kind of joke and challenge I made to a friend, who declined to participate. I suggested we each try to write ten holiday songs in a single day. I decided to plow forward and did write ten songs in all, but wound up recording just these seven. I had to re-learn the songs just to record them and, later, to play them live. It's a strange feeling to write things so fast you forget them an hour later. I've grown to really love these little songs that started on a whim. I like the little bit of melancholy in them, but also the memories of snow, warmth, cold, and all the stuff of the holidays."

Of Songs Without A Home she says: "These are some old songs that my engineer and producer, Jeff Stuart Saltzman, suggested I get down during a little break in recording World So Sweet. We just set up a chair and a mic in his living room and ran straight through the songs. My poor fingers - I hadn't played a guitar in a very long while, and it shows. I have no idea what to do with these songs, or their brethren (who are legion). Thanks for listening!"