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ng worse The weather's chill, but I'll not curse The snowfall on our hovel As I march outdoors with shovel CHORUS Let's count our lucky stars, just you and I String up some lights, hang the tinsel high Appreciate the now And should the fates allow We'll have a Merry Christmas... anyhow. Can't say it was the best of years Had some setbacks, yes - we've shed some tears But in this broken bed we lie in There's someone there to dry them Our credit cards are near maxed-out Still we're fortunate, I have no doubt If it's all too much to handle There's wine - let's light some candles - and CHORUS Never saw the sense in common greed 'May not have all we want, but we have all we need There's always something in the stove for us Like there's someone watching over us. Let's CHORUS Have a Merry Christmas Have a Merry Christmas... anyhow. Words: Tim Lucas Music: Dorothy Moskowitz Falarski Copyright (c) 2019 by Lucas / Moskowitz, Oh You Kid BMI. Cover Art: Joe Busam ______ ABOUT THE ARTIST AND SONGWRITER You may remember Dorothy Moskowitz Falarski as the former lead singer of The United States of America, a psychedelic/electronic group whose only album for Columbia Records became a cult favorite in 1968. To this day, the album is commonly included on lists of the great avant-garde rock albums of the Sixties and it has been singled out as an inspiration by such artists as Trish Keenan of Broadcast, guitar virtuoso Gary Lucas, and The Fall's Mark E. Smith. She subsequently sang and played piano for Country Joe McDonald's Allstar Band in the 1970s, playing Elton John's piano on Joe's PARIS SESSIONS album; then she married and settled down to raise a family and teach brass in the Piedmont, California School District. Today she plays viola with the Community Women's Orchestra of Oakland, while continuing to write new music. ABOUT THE LYRICIST Tim Lucas is a film historian, with more than 100 audio commentaries for movies on Blu-ray and DVD to his credit, and also a novelist. His latest work of fiction - entitled UNDER THE NINE (forthcoming from PS Publishing in 2020) - is about the role that love songs play in a songwriter's life and it incorporates the lyrics of five original songs. Tim is a longtime fan of Dorothy's work and, at some point after they became friends on Facebook, she asked to read his manuscript and then asked if he had any music to go with the songs. He didn't - and so began their fruitful collaboration as songwriters. The five songs written for UNDER THE NINE will be released when the book becomes available. ABOUT "MERRY CHRISTMAS ANYHOW" "Merry Christmas Anyhow" actually followed their initial collaboration and is something of a genuine Christmas miracle. They were not intending to write a Christmas song; it took the initial form of a mutual gift. Tim wanted to send Dorothy a holiday token of his appreciation and, before he knew it, he had written out the words in a single burst of inspiration - thinking of it as a holiday poem. He sent it off to her in an email - and then, literally within the hour - Dorothy sent back a telephone recording of herself singing the song over her spontaneously written vocal piano accompaniment. It was that easy. The holidays were already upon them, so it was too late to make the song public then, but Dorothy was able to assemble a more polished recording for this December 2019 debut. Mind you, this is home recording, a demo if you like - with Dorothy singing and providing all instrumentation. We believe the song has the potential to become a holiday standard and we welcome interest from other performers who feel moved to lend it their own interpretation. Dorothy's performance of "Merry Christmas Anyhow" is available as a download from most streaming outlets.