Get physical CDS of "The Christmas Collection" and "The Christmas Collection, Vol. II"!

“The Christmas Collection” 1. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (feat. Plumb) 2. Silver Bells (feat. Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith) 3. The Christmas Song (feat. Scott Mulvahill) 4. All I Want For Christmas Is You 5. Christmastime Is Here 6. O Come All Ye Faithful (feat. Jason Gray) 7. What Child Is This? (feat. Ron Block of Alison Krauss & Union Station) 8. Mary, Did You Know? (feat. Buddy Greene) 9. Ave Maria 10. The First Noel 11. How Many Kings (feat. Downhere) 12. Little Drummer Boy 13. The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s "Messiah" 14. Noisy Day 15. Silent Night 16. In The Bleak Midwinter 17. O Little Town of Bethlehem 18. O Come, Emmanuel 19. O Holy Night 20. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 21. How Many Kings (Reboot)

“The Christmas Collection, Vol. II” Zat You Santa Claus? (feat. Jared James Nichols) It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year What Christmas Means To Me The Christmas Waltz with Amy Grant Light Of The World Labor Of Love Welcome To Our World with Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer) White Christmas Last Christmas with Arnel Pineda (Journey) Blue Christmas (feat. Joe Bonamassa) Silver Bells with Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith (Acoustic Version) The Grinch Run Run Rudolph (feat. Reese Wynans of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble) Thank God It’s Christmas What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? I’ll Be Home For Christmas Hark! The Herald Angels Sing I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

The Christmas Collection features an all-star cast of collaborators (Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Jason Gray, Buddy Greene, Plumb, Scott Mulvahill, and Ron Block of Alison Krauss & Union Station), some of whom have graced the top of the Christmas charts on multiple occasions themselves.

This 21-track project includes Martel’s four AC Billboard Top 10s: “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”, “What Child Is This?”, “O Come, All Ye Faithful”, along with his majestic rendition of “The First Noel.” And brand new for Christmas 2019, Martel has teamed up with two of his own music heroes,Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, for a fresh take on “Silver Bells.” The rest of this comprehensive mix of sentimental classics and yuletide hymns beckons the listener on an expertly-paced journey from cozy fireside, to lively annual get-togethers, to the quiet hillsides of Bethlehem, covering an extremely satisfying gamut of all that is the most wonderful time of the year.

The new album is chock-full of amazing duets with artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Arnel Pineda (Journey), blues guitar legend Joe Bonamassa, Leigh Nash (Sixpence None The Richer), Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble), and rock guitar powerhouse Jared James Nichols. While Martel has always taken a don’t-fix-what-ain’t-broke approach to his arrangements — keeping as a prime directive the listener’s ability to sing along — each recording brings a thoughtfully surprising twist to classics, whether teamed up with producers like Ben Shive (Andrew Peterson, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith), Warren Huart (Aeorsmith, The Fray, Ace Frehley), Greg Collins (U2, Gwen Stefani, Kiss) or self-producing. Despite having recorded many of the world’s most popular Christmas songs early on in his now over 40-song journey, Martel has managed to make each new release more interesting than the last, while throwing in some lesser-known gems into his repertoire.

Side A: 1. 'Zat You, Santa Claus? (feat. Jarad James Nichols) 2. Silver Bells (feat. Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith) 3. Blue Christmas (feat. Joe Bonamassa) 4. Last Christmas (feat. Arnel Pineda) 5. O Come All Ye Faithful (feat. Jason Gray) 6. How Many Kings (feat. Downhere)

Side B: 1. Run Run Rudolph (feat. Reese Wynans) 2. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (feat. Plumb) 3. The Christmas Waltz (feat. Amy Grant) 4. Welcome To Our World (feat. Leigh Nash) 5. What Child Is This? (feat. Ron Block) 6. Mary, Did You Know? (feat. Buddy Greene)

Track Listing: 01. Tie Your Mother Down
02. You're My Best Friend
03. Killer Queen
04. Hammer To Fall
05. Fat Bottomed Girls
06. Save Me
07. Ave Maria
08. Bohemian Rhapsody
09. One Vision
10. I Want It All
11. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
12. Another One Bites The Dust
13. Don't Stop Me Now
14. Love Of My Life
15. Radio Ga Ga
16. Somebody To Love
17. We Will Rock You
18. We Are The Champions

Recorded at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany

Track Listing: 1. One Vision 2. Seven Seas Of Rye 3. Bicycle Race 4. Under Pressure 5. A Kind Of Magic 6. I Want To Break Free 7. Bohemian Rhapsody 8. Flash 9. Death On Two Legs 10. I Want It All 11. Seaside Rendezvous 12. Radio Ga Ga 13. We Will Rock You 14. We Are The Champions Recorded at Háskólabíó Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland

Reimagining well-loved songs always comes with an appropriate sense of risk, danger, and terrifying moments of self doubt. When it comes to artists like Queen, though, who are veritable giants of recording history, that feeling is magnified. Throughout their career, they apparently set out to avoid all shortcuts; were never happy to merely repeat sections of songs (as is quite customary in all genres of popular music), and everything was through-composed. They habitually pushed the boundaries of available technology beyond what even its inventors envisioned. Queen are the progenitors of many studio tricks and processes which have since become commonplace, and even some that have never been successfully replicated. Über-ambitious multitrack layering, Wagnerian vocal arrangements, guitar tones that mimic the sound of other instruments, and lyrical rhythm parts, are just a few of the ways they cut their unique path through the wilds of a recording industry in its adolescence. They set the bar high, and they got it right the first time.

Like technology, music has this uncanny transformative nature; taking on different shapes and telling equally true stories that the original composer never intended. Perhaps like a crab moving from conch shell to conch shell. And we music lovers possess the strange capacity to fool ourselves into a sense of ownership of this immaterial thing whose creation we’ve played no part in. Couples do it all the time. “Hey, that’s our song!” A great song can forge a bond with its listener so strong that one becomes incredulous, and even jealous, to think that anyone else could have the same, never mind stronger, experience with that very same song.

So, who am I to come along three, four decades later, spending the time, energy and resources to reinterpret these already flawless songs? Having gradually immersed myself over the last seven years in the music of Queen, I’ve developed a sort of stepchild-esque kinship with it, along with a growing desire to place a more pronounced emphasis on the latter half of the term “tribute artist” - a role I never imagined myself playing earlier in my musical career. And as a songwriter myself, I do know a little bit what it feels like to have a song of mine covered. I’ve heard some pretty good, and some less good renditions of my own tunes, but the fact is, it’s always a huge compliment.

Clearly, I could never dream of improving on what, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon created together. That was never the spirit of this project. Rather, I hope you’ll approach this EP with an inquisitive, openminded attitude that is something like, “What if Queen had recorded these songs in an alternate universe?” And if that’s a little too sci-fi for your blood then, “Hey… why not?” will do just fine.

Marc Martel keeps you guessing at what he might take on next with his latest, Forte, a duets album with Italian opera singer Jonathan Cilia Faro. The five-track EP is a pop/classical crossover project aiming for a broader international audience than his already large Queen fanbase, showcasing a mix of styles and languages. Indeed five different languages are employed throughout the album, including English, Italian, French, Spanish and German. Martel, having dipped a toe in opera a few years ago with his viral video “The Mercurotti” (in which he shaved one side of his beard and performed the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma” while emulating two of his favorite singers: Freddie Mercury and Luciano Pavarotti), is no stranger to singing in languages other than his native tongue. Not not to mention, he is already bilingual, having grown up in Québec.

The title, Forte, is a nod to the collaboration between the two artists, bringing their respective strengths to the project, leaning on one another’s expertise in very different musical worlds. “I’ve always wanted to do a version of “Barcelona,” but didn’t know anyone who could do justice to what Monserrat Caballé sang opposite Freddie Mercury. Jonathan’s classical training enables him to take on that challenge with a lot of grace. Never mind the huge undertaking of the orchestration, which also gave me the chance to enlist the incredible talents of David Hamilton, who I’ve wanted to team up with ever since meeting him as Michael W. Smith’s band leader on our 2019 Christmas tour.”

The project has given both artists the ability to record songs not possible on their own. Much like “Barcelona,” the international juggernaut “Miserere,” (which ignited Andrea Bocelli’s explosion onto the scene in the early 90s) was also written specifically for two styles of singing: opera and rock. “These massive songs that I’ve loved for so long are now possible to record and perform, with Marc’s help,” says Faro.

Queen fans will rejoice that of Forte’s five tracks, two are plucked from Freddie Mercury’s repertoire, including Brian May’s heart wrenching “Too Much Love Will Kill You.” And more traditional-minded music lovers will delight in Martel and Faro’s more impassioned version of “Nessun Dorma” in which Martel sings for the first time in German.

The track list ties up with a tribute to the strong women in Martel and Faro’s lives. “Non, je ne regrette rien,” (“No, I do not regret anything”) originally recorded by Edith Piaf, one of the very musical pillars of French culture.

Forte’s initial release will be one track at a time, but will be offered as a whole package in September, following the project’s incremental rollout.

Track Listing:

1. Miserere
2. Barcelona
3. Non, rien de rien
4. Too Much Love Will Kill You
5. Nessun Dorma