Credit: Deborah AndersonJust in the Saint Nick of time, founding Yes singer Jon Anderson has debuted a new holiday song on YouTube called “Love Is Everything.”
The gentle acoustic tune is accompanied by animated scenes and images that evoke the holiday, including snow-covered houses decorated with lights, pine trees that transform into Christmas trees, a snowman, Santa Claus on his flying reindeer-drawn sleigh, a fireplace with Christmas stocking hung on the mantle, and close-up views of ornaments. As the video comes to an end, a message that reads “Happy Everything” appears above some holly.
The video also includes images of floating human hands, a reference to Anderson’s upcoming solo album, 1000 Hands, which, he reveals in a recent video interview with GrowingBolder.com, he’s hoping to release in the spring of 2019. Anderson says he began work on 1000 Hands about 28 years ago, but he only recently revisited the project after veteran producer and pianist Michael Franklin contacted hi m about a year ago and asked him if he’d be interested in completing it.
“[T]he tapes got put in my garage, and I forgot about them, ’cause I was on tour with Yes and recording other albums, and things like that,” Anderson explains. “So Michael, bless him, we got together in California, where I live, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come over to Orlando and do some work on the tapes and make the music happen.'”
According to Jon’s rep, 1000 Hands will feature contributions from musicians including late Yes bassist Chris Squire; the band’s longtime guitarist and drummer, Steve Howe and Alan White; Jethro Tull‘s Ian Anderson; and jazz greats Billy Cobham, Jean Luc Ponty and Chick Corea.
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