Artist: Becky Buller
Hometown: St. James, Minnesota; now Manchester, Tennessee
Song: “Last Christmas”
Album: The Perfect Gift
Label: Dark Shadow Recordings
In Their Words: “Folks react strongly to this song. They either love, love, love it or they absolutely cannot bear to hear it; there is NO in-between. So … was including it on my first-ever Christmas record a risky move? Probably. Is kicking off the album with it complete insanity? Yup! But y’all know how crazy I am by now. It’s our daughter Romy’s fault I even considered trying ‘Last Christmas’ in the first place. She was having a Wham! moment during the 2021 holiday season. I guess I just heard the song so many times, my mind started studying on how I could bluegrass it up. What my guest dream team of that day (Barry Bales, Ron Block, Sierra Hull, Todd Livingston, Stephen Mougin, and Dan Tyminski) came up with is a little bit different from the original version … But I hope you’ll give our rendition of ‘Last Christmas’ a spin and have a Totally ‘80s Christmas party while you’re listening!” — Becky Buller
“Honestly, when Becky brought me this idea, I wasn’t too sure about it. It’s a little far out — on paper. As we all started to arrange it, experimenting with different ideas, the song really blossomed into a FUN bluegrassy track. The more they played it, the more it grew. The players all really brought their ‘A’ game and turned this tune into an energetic cut that puts a unique stamp on the song.” — Stephen Mougin, Producer
