The wonder and excitement of the first snowfall of the season was the inspiration behind “(Looks Like It’s Going to Be) A Great Day,” local singer-songwriter Kerry Patrick Clark’s original contribution to “Holiday Wishes.”
“That’s kind of the view of every child, from a holiday standpoint, the first snow, the first time they go on a boat ride, all those kinds of things,” Clark said. “One of the coolest events of the year is the first snowfall because it just makes everything look incredible.”

Kerry Clark

To write the song, Clark drew from his own childhood memories as well as his experiences as a father.
“Now my 8-year-old son is asking those same questions I did growing up,” Clark said. “At the mere thought of snow, he asks, ‘Daddy, can we get the sled out?’ and I say, ‘I hope so, buddy.’ I wrote it from that perspective, but also from the father’s perspective now.”
Clark’s son, Robbie, and wife, Amy, also sing on the track.
Clark said he was thrilled to be part of the project and to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“I love what they’re about and I love what they do,” Clark said. “Anytime there’s something out there for a good cause, I’m there.”
Make-A-Wish’s mission of bringing hope and joy to sick children is near to Clark’s heart. For several years, he has worked with The Songs of Love Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that commissions artists to write original songs for children facing medical, physical or emotional challenges. The lyrics are personalized with the child’s name and references to his or her family, friends, pets and favorite activities.
“The gift of a song to a child is pretty incredible and the cool thing is the song is written specifically for each child,” Clark said. “Can you imagine your entire life spent in the hospital and a CD shows up in the mail celebrating your friends and your life? How cool is that? I think I’ve written about 500 hit songs as far as I’m concerned.”
Clark said he hopes listeners feel more hopeful after listening to “Holiday Wishes.”
“What I’m about is using music to sing hope into the human experience; that’s my desire,” Clark said. “All of us are living crazy lives — house, family, jobs, everything asking a little more, trying to make dollars stretch and time stretch. My hope is this CD will be an opportunity for people to just sit down and breathe, listen and just be. Music has a marvelous and miraculous ability to transport people to peace and hope, so my hope for the CD is that it provides that for other people.”

Singing holiday songs is nothing new for Sheri LaFontaine.
Dubbed “Toledo’s Golden Voice,” LaFontaine contributed a mainstay to “Holiday Wishes” with “Home for the Holidays.”
“It is upbeat and swinging,” LaFontaine said. “I did all three parts on it. It was a dream of mine to do the alto and soprano and it was a lot of fun.”

Sheri LaFontaine

The track was produced for LaFontaine’s Christmas album, “Wonder.”
“Christmas albums bring people together; we all love Christmas,” LaFontaine said. “It has just brought me so many different places around the holidays; I just can’t believe the calls that I am getting in from all over the City of Toledo and down South.”
LaFontaine has been singing professionally since she was 19 years old. She traveled on tour before returning to Toledo to be with her family, taking a radio job hosting “The Ike & Sheri Show” on WPOS 102.3 from 6-9:45 a.m. Monday through Friday.
“Make-A-Wish has a flawless reputation for making a child smile and making dreams come true,” LaFontaine said. “If I can be a part of anything like that, I want to jump on board with that.”

Naama Shafir

The UT women’s basketball team rebounded from its first loss of the season with a 53-39 victory at home over Albany.

“Sometimes you have to grind it out,” Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop said. “It’s not always going to look as pretty as you’d like it to look. If you can play great defense, you’re going to win a lot of nights.”

Senior guard Naama Shafir was held to four points in the first half but finished with a team-high 14 points and three assists.

“They played her a little tighter than they normally would play someone defensively,” Cullop said. “Some of their defense allowed other people to have an opportunity. We weren’t really focusing on going to her.”

Sophomore guard Andola Dortch also scored in double figures with 10 points and had three steals.

Senior guard scored all eight of her points in the first half and finished with six rebounds.

“She played a great defensive game,” Cullop said. “There were several times that they were going to a certain look where we knew her man was the one they were going for. Courtney did a great job of taking them out of their offense by denying some back-door looks.”

Junior center Yolanda Richardson scored eight points with five rebounds, and junior forward Lecretia Smith finished with four points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Guard Cassandra Callaway led Albany (2-3) with 14 points in the first half, but the Rockets limited her to four points with seven turnovers in the second half for game highs of 18 points and 10 turnovers.

“We weren’t able to stop her in the first half,” Shafir said. “We talked about it at halftime and decided we weren’t going to let it happen in the second half.”

“In our scouting report, we knew that she was going to be a good player,” Ingersoll said. “Giving up 14 points to her at halftime, maybe we didn’t expect that. We talk about shutting down their go-to players. We’re going to go back to film, break that down and be able to see what improvements we need to make on defense.”

Julie Forster was Albany’s leading scorer with 16.8 points per game, and UT held her to four points. She finished with game highs of 12 rebounds and four steals.

“We did a good job on defense holding them to 39 points,” Shafir said. “We did a good job on their leading scorer. Overall, I think we won because of our defense.”

The Rockets (2-1) forced 25 turnovers in the game and converted them for 20 points.

“Forcing as many turnovers as we did, I’m really proud of our defense,” Cullop said. “We talked about a lot of things that they ran. Our players did a great job of paying attention to coach Greg’s scouting report and taking away some of the things that they like to do offensively.”

Richardson made a pair of layups early in the game as UT took an 8-4 lead, but Albany responded with a 7-3 run to tie the game with 11:37 remaining in the half. The Rockets answered with eight straight points capped by a layup from junior Kyle Baumgartner with 7:08 remaining. Baumgartner finished with six points and five rebounds.

“It was nice to see Kyle Baumgartner come in and have a strong game,” Cullop said. “She gave us a nice spark off the bench.”

Ingersoll hit a pair of three pointers in the final six minutes to help Toledo take a 27-21 lead into the half.

UT struggled to start the second half with just six points in the first eight minutes. Callaway made a jumper to pull within three points with 1:48 remaining. Shafir made her third basket of the game on the ensuing possession and the Rockets built the lead back up to nine points.

“Naama really stepped it up in the second half and decided she wasn’t going to let us lose,” Cullop said. “It was really exciting to see her drive the basket and have that same intensity that we saw last season.”

Albany pulled back within five points with 6:08 remaining, but Baumgartner hit a deep jumper and the Rockets went on a 14-2 run to take a 53-36 lead with 1:07 remaining.

“They are going to have their runs,” Ingersoll said. “A lot of times basketball is about runs and how you answer. The good thing about that is after they made their run, we got a little spark from Kyle and her [basket] and got some defensive stops.”

The Rockets play at Indiana on Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. Toledo beat the Hoosiers 56-52 at Savage Arena last season.

Game Notes:

-          The Rockets recorded an attendance of 3,323 despite the downpour outside.

-          Toledo hasn’t trailed once in its two home games this season.

-          The Rockets have won 20-straight home games, the second longest streak in school history.

Performing one of the most popular duets of the holidays, Chris Brown and Candice Coleman collaborated to record “Baby It’s Cold Outside” for the “Holiday Wishes” album for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Chris Brown and Candice Coleman

Brown, who has played the past 33 years around Toledo, has been partnering for the last three years with Coleman, a former “American Idol” contestant, for shows around the city.
“It’s been fabulous; she is a breath of fresh air,” Brown said. “I have played with so many people around town. When I play with her, everyone has to stop what they are doing and turn around and listen. She has energy and there is just something about her voice that just catches everybody. I’ve played with a lot of people around town as duos but there is something special about her.”
In 2003, Coleman reached the Top 32 during the second season of “American Idol” before she was eliminated. Brown teaches at the University of Toledo and works locally as a commercial rep.
“I never thought twice about doing it [for Make-A-Wish],” Brown said. “When [Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller] asked me, I said yes. I knew Candice was very involved with a lot of charity things so I knew she would be all for it too. She and I play all over and I thought it would be nice to do together. It was fun.”

Laura Emerson and Shaun Hegarty are used to delivering important information to Toledoans on a nightly basis on FOX Toledo. The co-anchors have different job on the Make-A-Wish Foundation “Holiday Wishes” CD, however — sharing the tale of “Jack Frost.”
“Michael Miller came to us, and had a really good idea, really something interesting to do for the holidays, something unique,” Hegarty said in an interview with Toledo Free Press. “And I really didn’t even give it a second thought — I was on board right away.”
Emerson was right alongside her broadcast partner, though she was surprised by the scope of the CD project.

Laura Emerson and Shaun Hegarty

“At first, I was curious about what this was going to be. And the more I heard about it, the bigger it sounded. And by the end, listening to it, I was just amazed — ‘Wow! They wanted little old us to read a poem on this impressive album? I can’t believe we’re included in such an amazing cast of people,” she said.
Neither was familiar with “Jack Frost” before the recording — Hegarty had never encountered it before, Emerson had heard it once years ago — but both brought great energy to their performance. Once both of them had the time and the voice to do it with, that is.
“As everything is in the newsroom, it’s always finding a moment where you can stop and get something done —there’s so much going on at once,” Emerson said. “So we decided, ‘OK, this time of day, this day, we’re going to record this.’ And I was getting over a cold, so I had a little scratchy voice, so we waited until I sounded like I normally do. Then we went into our little audio booth and recorded it on a little laptop with our professional microphones.”
In the end, both said they are tremendously happy with their track, and Hegarty said he hoped listeners would embrace the opportunity “Holiday Wishes” represents.
“It’s really nice to hear local voices on songs or poems that we may have heard a million times before, and hear a different spin, a different tone, a different kind of voice on them,” Hegarty said. “Any holiday season, you’re gonna hear this kind of music all the time, but this is a nice, unique twist on it you’re gonna get from this album.”

When Wesley Billops, aka Rugby, found out about “Holiday Wishes,” it didn’t take him long to contribute to the project.
In fact, Rugby was so moved he finished the original song “Celebrate” in just a day’s time.
“I really liked it and really felt it,” Rugby said. “We wanted to celebrate this holiday CD. I really just got into it, got into the mood and the feeling and the words just came out. I was doing something positive and the words just came out and it was like magic.”

Rugby

Rugby, who attended Rogers High School, was born in a music-driven family in Detroit before coming to Toledo. He developed his talent in hip-hop before moving away in 2004. He is now based in Columbus.
“I’m bringing it back to the city,” Rugby said of his appearance on the Toledo-based CD. “The main thing I want people to get from my music is that it is more of an experience. It is a certain vibe and a certain aura. I just want to pick up people’s spirits when they turn on the music. That’s why I made that song.”
As for the importance of organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Rugby was eager to be involved with the fundraiser.
“It’s very, very important,” Rugby said. “I want to be more hands-on with charities. I want to find any event that I can, to be involved with charities or anything involved with helping kids in general, including music programs.”

For Reed Russell  —  better known as renowned Toledo Hip-Hop producer ReediusMaximus — the holidays are about family.
For better or worse.
“You don’t know what you’re gonna get when you go over to your relatives’ house. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But that’s what it is,” Russell said in an interview with Toledo Free Press. “Families are all different, no matter what.”
So when Russell was asked  to participate in the Make-A-Wish Foundation “Holiday Wishes” CD, he decided to craft something wholly original — something that would sum up the myriad feelings one gets from visiting relatives in the midst of the season.
“I didn’t wanna go the ‘Jingle Bells’ deal and all that. So I kinda approached it more how it is for me on Christmas, and the feel that I get around that time of the year. So I just try to convey that,” Russell said.
The result is “Christmas Dinner”  — a combination of music, verse and dialogue which captures the chaos and joy of a holiday meal.

ReediusMaximus

“Russell is a founding member of the legendary United Soul Brothers (The U.S.B.s) a collective of talented men who started in the early 1980s with DJs, producers, MCs and dancers,” said DJ and Toledo Free Press Star columnist Martini Rox. “Toledo’s Hip-Hop is the house they built, with more than 50 members musically serving the community today.”
It was Rox who first approached Russell with the idea of contributing.
“She called and just suggested that I would be a part of it — just that I would be a good fit for it, based on the things that I have done previously here in the city,” Russell said. “It was wide open. I could do whatever I wanted, as far as the theme of it and whatnot. So, that’s kind of how I approached it.”
The track follows its lead character as he walks through his family’s Christmas gathering, putting a rhythm and beat to the kind of dialogue we all have as we meet and greet relatives we may only see on holidays.
“It’s how I am, I guess,” Russell said. “I approach everything like that. Everything is off the cuff. I almost look at music more like I’m directing a movie. You give me a title, and I’ll roll with that. That kinda shapes the music, or the theme that I’m doing. I never approach it the standard way, I guess. It’s more of a feeling for me.
“The things that you hear were all pieced together. The guy that’s talking first, he came in and I just basically at the eleventh hour told him what I wanted — and he’s part of a band that I’m with as well. So he just didn’t write anything down, he just did it off the cuff. And my son is actually in there, he plays the little kid that he’s talking to. Again, off the cuff,” Russell said.
Russell can be heard several times, as can Rox, playing the lead character’s grandmother. All the track’s different elements were recorded separately over the course of one furious day of creation, then mixed together by Russell into a symphony of words.
“It just felt right when it was done,” Russell said.
On an album which features performances of many holiday standards, written and musical, Russell’s hybrid track stands out as something unique — a position he’s accustomed to.
“I know it was kind of different, I knew it would be. I always try to do things a little different, as far as the music that I make here in the city. I always try to take a different approach,” Russell said.
He noted that constructing the track ended up being an emotional experience — one which he hopes his audience will share.
“I hope that whoever hears it, it makes them feel like I feel. It makes them feel like they’re going over to their family’s house on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. That’s that family feeling, however it is, I hope that song makes them feel the same way I felt when it was done.
“It made me feel exactly the same way I do when I go over to my family’s houses that day. It makes me feel happy, sometimes sad — all the real feelings, rolled up into one,” he said.

Mighty Wyte is sure to test the limits of any subwoofer with “The Mighty Drummer Boy.” His reworking of “The Little Drummer Boy” builds in intensity as the song progresses.

Mighty Wyte

“I arranged it in the linear dynamic fashion and then really just built and built until the mix was pushing the little red lights on the monitors,” Wyte said. “I was hoping to excite the listener with the size of the mix. The idea was to update a classic without straying too far from what made the original so perfect.”
Wyte initially arranged the piece as background for a spoken-word track by Jamie Farr for the “Holiday Wishes” CD. After a fireplace sound effect was used instead on Farr’s track, Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, who compiled the CD, encouraged Wyte to develop the arrangement into a full song. Wyte took advantage of the opportunity and spent an additional five hours developing the track.
“It’s very dynamic, starting out fairly sparse and building to the volume and size it is at the crescendo,” Wyte said. “I just used a very straightforward ascending dynamic. It gets bigger as the track moves forward. In fact, I cut a lot out. We were short on time for the CD and I had full control over that one track, so I cut about a minute out. There were two other movements, but they didn’t really make or break the instrumental so I trimmed it down.”
Wyte was excited for the opportunity to put his spin on a Christmas classic.
“The arrangement and mix was my personal touch,” Wyte said. “Of course the arrangement is my own, but I put my style into the size of the track. I write quite a bit of music for movie trailers, film libraries and independent film companies so I have a good bit of experience creating dramatic pieces. I am a percussive fanatic and the title gave me free license to make a massive interpretation of what ‘Drummer Boy’ could be.”

In the midst of its 55th season, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and its nearly 80 musicians will be featured on “Holiday Wishes” with its rendition of the holiday song “Sleigh Ride.”
“Come Christmas time, ‘Sleigh Ride’ is the hidden piece in every Christmas show,” said resident conductor Jeffrey Pollock. “It is going to show up; it is just a question of where. It is played at every Christmas show every year and there was no question what would be this orchestra’s contribution.”
Pollock said when he learned of the Make-A-Wish Foundation benefit CD project, he was excited to see the orchestra would be involved.
“I think it is incredibly important for the group to be a part of this project,” Pollock said. “We view ourselves as an integral part of the community. The orchestra had their ‘A’ game and we were fired up to do it.”
Pollock, a California native, has spent the past 15 years conducting for the North Carolina Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony and the past two seasons with the Toledo Symphony.

Nancy Lendrim

“We hope that this will sell a lot and get a lot of money for Make-A-Wish,” Pollock said. “I couldn’t imagine a nicer Christmas gift than to know our work helped raise a lot of money for that foundation. That makes a good Christmas story.”

Toledo Symphony Orchestra principal harpist Nancy Lendrim was among the many Toledo residents to donate a track to the “Holiday Wishes” CD to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
But the experience got more personal for Lendrim just a short time after volunteering her harp solo “Silver Bells.”
“One of my dearest friend’s daughter is going through an illness, which she is recovering from, happily,” Lendrim said. “She is a candidate for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Lendrim assists the family, which travels from Raleigh, N.C., to Detroit to visit a specialist with the University of Michigan, by driving them to and from the doctor from their hotel.
“I had offered before that happened, but now it is taking an incredibly personal turn,” Lendrim said of contributing a track to the CD. “It’s taken on a new meaning for me to just know somebody who will benefit from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Lendrim graduated from Oberlin College and got her master’s degree in harp performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She joined the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in 1981.
The track was recorded by Dave Mariasy at Audio Matrix Recording Studio.
“I was happy with how everything for ‘Silver Bells’ went together,” Lendrim said.

A group of museum staff calling themselves the Toledo Museum of Art Choraliers brought their voices together for the first time during the studio recording session for the “Holiday Wishes” CD.
Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, who compiled the CD to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation, said he wanted the museum to be represented on the project and asked Program Coordinator Judy Weinberg for help in assembling a contribution.

Toledo Museum of Art Choraliers members, from left Heather Hughes-Meek, Judy Weinberg, Kathy Miller and Connie Karcher. Not pictured are Audrey Berning-Matell and Matt Pohlad.

With six different schedules, the group had rehearsed in threes and fours until coming together to record “Frosty the Snowman” for the benefit CD.
“We didn’t know how we sounded together until we came together at the studio,” said corporate development officer Connie Karcher. “That was the first time all of us were together. Luckily, we said, ‘Hey, this is going to sound OK.’”
The Choraliers consisted of five vocalists — Karcher; Weinberg; Glass Pavilion technician Heather Hughes-Meek; Kathy Miller, development officer for major gifts; and Audrey Berning-Matell, professional services team coordinator — accompanied by Matt Pohlad of the facilities department on piano.
The group wanted its contribution to be a fun winter song that everyone knows. Several of their choices had already been picked by another artist, but they were excited to claim “Frosty the Snowman.”
“It’s fun and feel-good,” Karcher said of the song choice. “Who doesn’t want to feel good?”
Kathy Miller said the group just focused on having a good time.
“We just wanted to have fun with the song and make it come out in our singing,” she said.
Karcher said the museum staff members were happy to be asked to donate a track.
“It was wonderful way to recognize Toledo Museum of Art’s involvement in the community,” Karcher said. “TMA has always been about giving back to the community.”
Weinberg said no one in the group is a trained singer, but they have a lot of heart.
“I think what we brought to the song was an enthusiasm for singing together and for wanting to do the best because we believed in this project,” Weinberg said. “I think our voices blended well together. We just focused on having fun with the song.”