Minnesota singer-songwriter Erik Koskinen is embarking on a December U.K. tour, opening for Duluth band Low. While rehearsing for the tour, the members of Low — Alan Sparkhawk, Mimi Parker and Steve Garrington — had a question Koskinen didn't expect. "Alan, Mimi, and Steve wanted to know if I had any Christmas songs," Koskinen recalls. "I didn't. So I went down the basement and wrote the song one afternoon."

The resulting song, "On Christmas Day," is tinged with a bit of nostalgic wistfulness, as many holiday songs are. Koskinen says he was intending to capture that feeling. "[The holiday season] is a happy time," Koskinen says, "but people are hurting out there."

The video for the song accentuates that mood, consisting entirely of archival footage taken by the U.S. Army's Combat Camera Unit in 1944, depicting U.S. service personnel hosting a Christmas party for children displaced by the air raids in London.

Mike Pengra, program director of Radio Heartland, will begin spinning Koskinen's new single on Thursday, Dec. 1. Koskinen's most recent album is Live at the Real-Phonic Radio Hour, about which Koskinen spoke with Pengra in 2015.

Resources

Erik Koskinen - official site

Related

• Erik Koskinen chats about his new album (2015)
• Erik Koskinen performs in the Radio Heartland studio (2014)