From the first time I pushed play and set Helene Cronin’s “Old Ghosts and Lost Causes” CD spinning, the album continued to spin in my head long after it had stopped in the player, its striking intimacy engaged in my brain’s temporal lobe. It’s similar to the sensation that comes when you absolutely know a musician is going to be with you for the long haul. This happened in 2019. Two EPs had preceded “Old Ghosts,” and I sought out the dreamy, poetic “Restless Heart” and the atmospheric “Belong to the River” like a sailor at sea chasing the stars to navigate a vast ocean of music. Four years later marked the arrival of “Landmarks,” which yielded some of her best work: the tenderness in ‘Body of Water’ and the eternal question of ‘What Do You Lean On?’ stood out as beacons reflecting the brightest lights.
The imagination in her songwriting with its intricate details and attention to truths added a spellbinding effect to her music, but even that didn’t prepare me for being fascinated by “Beautiful December.” This was no collection of standard Christmas fare cobbled together with some sleigh bells and clop-clopping of reindeer hooves. This was an entirely different breed of Christmas music, an introspective triumph that captured the essence of the wintry holiday season as effectively as a balsam and cedar candle will instigate a festive olfactory response.
Cronin describes herself as a story singer but all of those artists are not created equal. She writes songs with the same conviction that Lorrie Moore writes novellas and short stories. She touches on both the joys and sadness of the season without forgetting the miracle behind all the trimmings. Her music compels listeners to express what the songs mean to them as one listener wrote: “Your songs make me want to be a better person.”
Cronin took a break from preparations for an early 2025 release of her third full-length album, titled “Maybe New Mexico,” to record this Exclusive AUK Christmas Mini-Gig. You will hear three songs from “Beautiful December,” recorded from her home in Dallas, Texas where she has lived most of her life when not travelling back and forth to Nashville.
The acoustic guitar she’s playing on the first and third songs is a Taylor 414K (Koa back & sides). “I bought this one after my father died on December 10, 1997,” she recalled. “We found an envelope of about $7K in cash in his dresser drawer, labelled “Fred’s papers”. His version of hiding money under the mattress, I guess. That Christmas my mom gave each of us five kids $1000 from Fred’s papers! I took mine to the guitar store and bought this beauty.”
The other guitar is her first Taylor, and she noted, “It’s the first ‘real guitar’ I bought with my own money. I wanted something with a solid spruce top. I’d gone to the store to buy another brand, but when I picked up the Taylor, I fell in love with the feel of the neck.” She ordered one on the spot and has never regretted the choice.
Cronin graciously offered her thoughts on the three songs she plays. The video is her gift to the AUK audience. Think of it as a tastefully wrapped present under a fanciful online tree, and you can follow this branch to her website for last-minute shopping and news of upcoming shows.
- Beautiful December (written by Helene Cronin & Nicole Lewis): During 2020 & 2021, Nicole and I were writing a lot, and one day she mentioned the idea of a Christmas song. I began thinking about December because it’s my birthday month in addition to Christmas. As I thought about the sights, the sounds, the gatherings, and the feelings of the season, the title ‘Beautiful December’ came to mind. I wanted this song to capture all of those elements. We spent a couple of days writing this tune …. the perfect title to become the title track to my 2023 EP.
- The Bells of St. Thomas (Helene Cronin): I explain in the video how this song came about. It was a random song prompt that turned into a song about spreading the “good news of goodwill” to all.
- Christmas Boy (Helene Cronin): I think of this song as a lullaby to the newly arrived baby Jesus. I wrote it from the perspective of watching his first moments, knowing he wasn’t welcomed and that he came here for the purpose of love and redemption. This song appeared on a 2015 EP I put out, but I re-recorded it on the “Beautiful December” EP.
