Christmas with Ox

Growing up, Mark Browning liked Christmas just as much as the next kid.

Over the past few years, he has been toying with the idea of capturing the “magical time of year.”

“I decided it was the time now,” Browning said.

This year, Silent Nights and Other Cowboy Songs came out.

Recorded by Browning and Ryan Bishops, who are collectively known as Ox, the album features a number of tradition songs as well as some originals.

Browning said his inspiration came from the historical aspects of some familiar holiday songs.

“I just started to listen to the actual songs, and I started to really respect the songwriting,” he said. “We really take Christmas music for granted.”

Some of the songs on the album weren't his favourites, until he began his research.

He said he particularly liked the story behind Coventry Carol.

“Once I looked it, it has such an amazing history and story to it,” he said. “By the time I finished reading the Wikipedia link to it, I knew I had to do it.”

Coventry Carol and many of the other songs we sing at Christmas date back at least 100 years.

“It really is probably the most long-lived form of folk music we have,” he said. “Most of the other music we know, songs that are part of the public conscious, are 50 or 70 years old at the most.”

With traditional values in check, Browning went ahead recording the album.

It was recorded mostly between Christmas and New Years last year.

“I tried to get as close as I could to finishing it (between the holidays),” Browning said.

Some finishing touches were added last summer though.

“We had done the whole record, excluding White Christmas,” Browning said. “It seemed like a short album, and it just seemed like it needed another semi-up tempo traditional well-known Christmas song.”

He said it was “so strange” to be singing about a white Christmas during the hot summer months.

Now that the album is complete, Browning said he'd like to add a few more tracks before stamping it onto vinyl next year.

To pick up a copy of Silent Nights and Other Cowboy Songs, stop by Cosmic Dave's Vinyl Emporium, located at 595 Kathleen St.

To read more about Ox, visit www.oxmusic.ws.