What to do once you’ve hit the heights as a children’s music performer, had your group become the house band on a popular kids tv show, and then found yourself perplexed by a pandemic? For Brooklyn musician Mike Messer, the choice was to segue into a new group – Adoraborealis – and release a brand new holiday tune, “All Dressed Up for Christmas.”
Messer’s previous group, the Dirty Sock Funtime Band, was an early obsession of my younger son. One year the kid even dressed for Halloween as Mr. Clown, an integral part of the group’s live (and recorded) performances. But there’s been a lack of new material or even live shows for a number of years. Sadly, my son has declared himself “immune” to whatever charms children’s music once held for him.
This is a situation that plagues all performers who specialize in children’s music, as your audience grows and evolves at a steady clip. Messer’s solution was to sidestep the Funtime funk and move into a new realm. With that decision, Adoraborealis arrives with its pleasant Christmas song and a lyric video. “All Dressed Up for Christmas” is all about the colorful outfits that people sport to show their holiday spirit, and the love and care that demonstrates for other people in their families and communities:
I’m so weary of dreary but when you’re here
We are nearly a rainbow on snow
It’s a miracle
Come here and curl into me
All of the way ’til and through Xmas Day
Every year, musicians struggle to find a new angle for December festivities, regardless of religious belief. Messer has liberated his sartorial selection and hopes it will become a perennial favorite.
You can find Adoraborealis’s new tune on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Amazon.
Here is the lyric video for “All Dressed Up for Christmas,” produced by animator Jodie Ray Charity:
