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Warm In December
Penni Layne
Label: Upside
Released: 2024
Duration: 31:50
Views: 44
Tracks
Winter Wonderland Warm In December The Christmas Song Let It Snow At The First Snowfall I’ll Be Home For Christmas I Love The Winter Weather A Christmas Love Song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Sleigh Ride
Personnel
Penni Layne
vocals
Michael Kanan
piano
Neal Miner
bass, acoustic
Greg Ruggiero
guitar
Keith Balla
drumsAdditional Personnel / Information
Produced by Larry Jackson & Penni Layne Song Arrangements by Larry Jackson, Penni Layne & Michael Kanan Recorded at Sear Sound, NYC Lead Engineer, Mixing & Mastering by Steven Sacco Recording Assistants - Maximilian Troppe & Mose Wheeler Graphics Design by Alan Evans “At The First Snowfall” written by Penni Layne & Larry Jackson.
Album Description
Warm in December is our take on the music of the holiday season - intimate, romantic and rooted in jazz, with a little winter magic thrown in.
Larry and I have always loved the songs that come around every December. There’s something different about holiday music: you don’t just remember the songs, you remember where you were when you heard them. They carry people, places, Christmases past, first snowfalls, late nights, warm rooms and all those little traditions we return to year after year.
For Warm in December, we wanted to take some of those familiar songs and bring them into our own musical world. We recorded with Michael Kanan on piano, Neal Miner on upright bass and Greg Ruggiero on guitar - musicians we trust completely and who understand the beauty of leaving space around a song. The result is a holiday record that feels less like a collection of Christmas standards and more like an evening spent together.
“Winter Wonderland” opens the album with exactly the spirit we wanted — playful, bright and full of that particular excitement that comes with the first real signs of winter. It sets the scene without taking itself too seriously.
The title track, “Warm in December,” gets right to the heart of the record. I’ve always loved the contrast in that idea: everything outside may be cold, but there are people who make the world feel warmer just by being in it. It’s romantic, a little dreamy, and exactly the feeling we wanted surrounding this album.
“The Christmas Song” is one of those songs you almost don’t need to introduce. The images are so familiar that the challenge is finding your own way into them. For me, it’s about keeping it intimate and letting that beautiful melody and lyric do what they’ve always done.
“Let It Snow” brings out the flirtier side of winter. The weather outside can do whatever it wants — there’s nowhere else these two people would rather be. I love that underneath all the snow and holiday imagery, it’s really just a great love song.
“At the First Snowfall” is especially personal because Larry and I wrote it together. We wanted to capture that moment when the first snow changes everything for a little while - the world gets quieter, familiar places suddenly look different, and even as adults, there can still be something magical about seeing those first flakes come down. Having one of our own songs sitting among music we’ve known and loved for years makes it an important part of the record for us.
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” begins the second half of the album in a more reflective place. There’s so much longing inside that song. For all the warmth we associate with Christmas, the holidays can also make us acutely aware of distance and of the people and places we wish we could get back to. I wanted to honor that tenderness rather than rush past it.
“I Love the Winter Weather” brings the smile back. It has that wonderful old-school charm and gives us a chance to celebrate winter itself - cold air, snow, bundling up and all the things that somehow become romantic when you have the right person beside you.
“A Christmas Love Song” may say most directly what runs through the entire album: for us, holiday music and love songs have always belonged together. Christmas creates this little world of its own, and there’s something beautiful about having someone with whom you get to share it.
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has always felt deeper to me than simply being a Christmas song. There’s hope in it, but also an awareness that life changes, people come and go, and being together in this particular moment is something worth noticing. We wanted to leave room for all of that emotion.
“Sleigh Ride” closes the album by letting everybody have some fun. After the romance, nostalgia and quieter moments, it felt right to finish with something joyful and full of movement — a last dash through the snow before heading home.
That balance is really what Warm in December is about for us. There’s joy here, but there’s also longing. There are songs about snow and Christmas trees and being home, but underneath them are songs about people - missing them, loving them, remembering them and being grateful for the ones sitting beside us.
Working with Michael, Neal and Greg allowed us to approach these songs the way we love to approach jazz: with trust, conversation and room for the music to breathe. We didn’t want to bury songs this good under too much production. We wanted warmth, intimacy and performances that felt human.
And tucked among these songs that have accompanied so many of us through so many Decembers is one of our own, “At the First Snowfall” - our little contribution to that tradition.
Warm in December is the kind of holiday record we wanted to have playing in our own house: familiar but personal, romantic but not overly sentimental, and warm enough to make you forget, at least for a little while, how cold it is outside.
Album uploaded by Larry Jackson / Penni Layne
