Greetings and Good News! After much prompting by promoters,friends and family,my new Christmas CD 'Gifts of the Season' is finally here! I am SO excited about this CD! It still amazes me to have an idea (let's create a new Christmas CD!) and then see it become a reality! It has been a great journey and I learn more everytime I finish a CD.I have my great musicians that are on all my other CD's. Piano player Randy Halberstadt is always a dream to work with. He comes up with great ideas on the spot for new arrangements and really is a wonderful accompanist. Next is my buddy Jeff Johnson with his soulful bass playing and great spirit. Finally, drum and percussion player Mark Ivester gave a powerful yet gentle touch to these songs with great rythems. There is a total of 13 songs on the CD, three of which are original songs that I co-wrote with my brother, David Gerstenberger. We have a system down where I write the lyrics and a form of the melody, and then my very talented brother helps create the music. Two of the original songs were already produced as singles. A new original 'Christmas Time' was added along with the others. In this new song I love the message of taking time out of our busy schedules during the Christmas season and enjoy our loved ones along with helping someone less fortunate than ourselves. I would love to see these original songs become classics someday! The other ten songs are great old fashioned Christmas Songs. On two of these classic Christmas songs I have two featured vocalists. On 'Baby It's Cold Outside' my duet partner is Johnathan Ries. He is dear friend with a great voice whom I have performed musical theatre with and actually produced,directed and performed our own Christmas show together! My next fabulous guest was brought to me by my promoter Michael Sutton. He suggested that I invite a Philippine singer to join me on the CD and sing in Tagolag, the native language. This I thought was a great idea, as the CD will be distributed by Mondo Distribution in the Philippines! My guest vocalist in 'Silent Night', Norm Santorin(stage name:Tony Martin on VIVA Records) is a great surprise! Not only is he a wonderful person, his voice is fabulous! What a blessing to have both of these gentlemen on the CD! So, I hope I have tweaked your curiousity and can't wait for you to hear this great CD! I would also like to invite you to join my guestbook and let me know what you think! Until next time, enjoy each moment life brings... and may 'Gifts of the Season' bring you cozy, peaceful moments with your loved ones!