Chris Berardo has released his new holiday single titled ‘This Year’. As part of a collaboration between Chris and producer and former Reckless Kelly guitarist David Abeyta which also includes ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’. ‘This Year’ highlights the emotional and cinematic blend of the solid and beautiful diversity within the musicianship while giving the masses a solid holiday track that doesn’t feel as much holiday as it does the meaning of that holiday and that is wishing good will to every one of us.
Powerful and accessible, ‘This year’ could be any year with a timeless sound and heartfelt delivery.
About Chris Berardo & ‘This Year’
Originally, Berardo had planned on recording “This Year” accompanied only by a piano, but things changed after he shared the song with his friend and producer David Abeyta, the long-time guitarist for Texas country rockers Reckless Kelly. “He put his brilliant musical mind into it and we started bouncing ideas around,” Berardo reveals. “He really fleshed it out, playing all the other instruments and I feel like it stands on its own as a song and a record in the style of what he and I have been creating together, which felt really good.”
“This Year” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” mark the latest collaboration between Berardo and Abeyta. The two worked together on Berardo’s successful 2020 single “Somewhere Blue” and his knock-out cover of Badfinger’s classic “Baby Blue” that came out earlier this year.
An innate showman since the age of 12, Berardo’s music channels the AM radio Southern rock and country influences of his youth in Westchester County, NY – the likes of Neil Young, The Eagles, the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Poco, and the Doobie Brothers – while also exhibiting the songcraft he honed writing with the legendary Four Seasons tunesmith Bob Crewe, one of Berardo’s earlier, influential mentors.
Berardo’s breakthrough album Ignoring All The Warning Signs (2006) spent two months in the Top Ten at Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country and hit #49 on the Billboard Americana/Folk Album Chart. Through his recordings and charismatic live performances, Berardo and his band have earned a loyal fanbase, critical accolades, and peer respect for the sheer quality and sincerity of their dynamic rootsy Americana rock. It’s a nuanced, genre-straddling sound that resonates widely through both pop sensibilities and outlaw attitude.
Americana UK has hailed Berardo’s sound as “Americana in its truest sense…both keeping the flame alive and moving it forward,” while TMT Radio/Americana Music Times declared The DesBerardos as “one of the finest Americana bands out there.” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member Richie Furay proclaimed Berardo “a special musical talent and his music shows off the gift he’s been blessed with. You can hear it in each song, songs that are more than just another musical project – they are his heart poured out to you and a passion to share it that can’t be denied.”
While there is a wry, worldly-wise character to the Connecticut-based musician’s songs, his pure, heartfelt message is ultimately inspiring and optimistic. These qualities are wonderfully exemplified in his latest single. “This Year” exudes a life-affirming joyfulness that captures, yet also transcends, its holiday setting.
“It’s not ‘Jingle Bells’,” Berardo admits. “But I hope it just might evoke a few warm memories and remind a listener how lucky we are for the time we have and the love we share in this world. Oh, and we did ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ too, and it was fun and joyful, just as I had predicted!”
LINKS:
http://www.chrisberardo.com
https://www.facebook.com/DesBerardos
https://twitter.com/desberardos
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDesBerardos
