Music Monday: All Is Well

This has to be one of my favorite Christmas songs, from one of my favorite CDs. To me, Michael W. Smith’s 1989 “Christmas” album represents the man at his best. The guy’s made some good music in his career so far, but this album is in a league of its own. The track I’m featuring today, “All Is Well,” is especially marvelous since it captures the atmosphere as we might imagine it on that night in Bethlehem, starting out simple and peaceful, and ending with an angelic chorus.

The song was written by Michael W. Smith and Wayne Kirkpatrick (who, incidentally, went on to co-write Eric Clapton’s song “Change the World”–the theme to the movie “Phenomenon”). The recording features The Nashville Festival Orchestra conducted by Ronn Huff, who also did the choral arrangement. Michael doesn’t sing or play on the song. It’s performed entirely by the orchestra along with a boy’s choir and a cathedral choir (a young chappie named Nathan Wadley is the soloist, fyi).

For those who are interested, it’s in E major. The chords are basically: E – Emaj7/G#, C#m – G#m/B, A – E/G# – D – Am7b5 – B7 // E – Emaj7/G#, C#m – G#m/B, A – E/G# // Amaj7 – E/G#, Amaj7 – E/G#, Em/G – D/F# – Bsus4 – B7. Then at the end, for big climactic build-up, it goes to: C/G – D/F# – C/E – D – C – Bm7 – E.

One part I find particularly nice is the Amaj7 – E/G#, but if you play it straight like that, you miss so much. It comes at about 1 min 14 secs into the song, and you hear there’s actually a “passing note” for want of a better description. Let me scrawl it out on manuscript paper for you:

I love the way that sounds, the slight dissonance, and the drop to the minor. Wonderful!

When I was at university in the UK, my roommate in my second year was a huge Michael W. Smith fan and had all his albums on tape, including this one. That’s where I first heard it. The day after Christmas, 1990, I flew to the US to visit my then-girlfriend for a few weeks. While out shopping with her, we came upon the CD of “Christmas,” cut-price, if I recall correctly (it was no longer Christmas, after all). Twenty-four years later, the girlfriend is my wife (and has been for the past 23 years as of yesterday), and I still have and enjoy that same copy of Michael W. Smith’s “Christmas.”

Here’s the song for you to listen to. Enjoy!:

Do you have any song suggestions for future “Music Monday” features? Maybe you want help figuring out a song, or you’re just interested in what I might have to say about a particular piece of music. Just mention the song in the comments, or you can tell me via Twitter or email.