S’Aints concert, CD help charities

It’s never easy to predict how a song will turn out heading into a recording, says bassist David Cyrenne.

But when Windsor-Essex rock group The S’Aints got together for Do You Hear What I Hear? the results were pretty amazing.

“It becomes a big rocker,” said drummer Jeff Burrows, adding that the sound is rich with a chorus and drum line. “It’s pretty spectacular.”

Do You Hear What I Hear is one of the songs on an S’Aints holiday album to be performed at a Christmas concert raising funds for Windsor food banks. Proceeds go to the Downtown Mission, Outreach for Hunger and St. Clair College.

Each day leading up to the Dec. 20 show, the Star will be sharing a video of one of the group’s songs on windsorstar.com.

This year the band — which includes drummer Burrows, singersongwriter Jody Raffoul, multiinstrumentalist Kelly Hoppe, and others — will hold its fifth fundraising show.

The S’Aints Holiday Harvest concert includes some favourites from years past, along with the new original song Look What You’ve Done.

Burrows said the very first song the group tried is still one that gets him into the Christmas mood: We Three Kings.

“It’s so heavy; it’s got that early heavy rock vibe to it, a bit of blues vibe to it,” he said. “It’s got everything that I love about this band.”

Burrows said they never expected it to grow as it has. Last year’s Holiday Harvest campaign raised $45,000 for local food banks.

Already this year, most of the front-row seats are sold out, although there are other floor seats and many left in the mezzanine, Burrows said.

He said the event’s popularity has made it tough to find yet another set of old Christmas standards to add to the mix.

“Now it’s more an album about the holiday spirit, the Christmas spirit and about hope,” he said.

This year’s album includes a cover of U2’s Pride and a Motown style of the popular hit Merry Christmas, Baby, sung by keyboardist Kelly Authier. The Holiday Harvest CD costs $10, and also includes the classic What Child is This.

What it won’t have are the group’s least favourite songs. For Burrows, that’s Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime.

Visit holidayharvest.ca to learn more.