From the very bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for listening and for all of your support along the way! I hope the record brings you much joy and love.

NEW MUSIC!
• Our New record of Praise and Worship Music, We Feel Your Love is alllllllmost done! and we have a whole nother record planned and coming out right behind it in the Spring!
• We’re working with a transcriptionist to bring you printed Sheet Music for SATB Choral and Solo Arrangements of our original compositions!

WEB UPDATES
• The Complete Video from our 2009 Christmas Concert is now posted on the Video Page!!
• A New LINKS page is up on my website!
• BIG plans for my website including Chrissy Internet Radio! a totally new page with streaming music

And I’m saving the Biggest News for later….I promise to update this page Very Soon!

Our pals guitarist Kevin Leary, drummer Pete Adams, and percussionists Alfonso Guarino and Greg Pehrson joined Dave and I to deliver jubilant and rousing renditions of popular Christmas hymns.  Our arrangements drew on all of our individual strengths and talents, tapping into pop, rock, jazz, latin and world music styles for inspiration!

The church is used to seeing Dave behind the organ and piano, and myself either leading the choir or singing. We took this opportunity to step out and perform on our second instruments! Dave performed mostly on guitar, and I handled the bass guitar and the vocals. Dave and I both come from a background of pop and jazz styles. Kevin, Pete and Alfonso have all enjoyed success in hard rock bands, and Greg is well versed in latin music. It was so much fun for us to bring these exciting styles to our church to praise God and commemorate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ this Christmas season!

The concert was a tremendous success and we are so pleased that everyone had such a great time! The audience was clapping and singing along, and a few inspired folks even got up to dance in the back of the church! We’d like to especially thank our friends Andrew Martin who manned the soundboard, and Art Strafuss for videotaping. Special thanks are owed to the ushers, and everyone involved who volunteered their time to help with printing flyers and programs, and decorating the sanctuary. And we wish to express our sincerest gratitude to everyone who participated in the offering to support our church!

Happy Holidays and Big Hugs!
Chrissy

Check Out Video Clips Online!
Go To: www.cumcwayland.org and click on “Video” on the left sidebar

See The Full Concert On TV!
The concert is currently running on public access television in the towns of Wayland and Billerica!!
Check back soon, we’ll post the programming schedule 

Meet The Musicians!
Chrissy Almeida    Vocals & Bass Guitar
Dave Shrewsbury    Guitar & Keyboards
Kevin Leary        Guitar
Pete Adams        Drums
Alfonso Guarino    Percussion
Greg Pehrson        Percussion
Andrew Martin        Sound

DAVE SHREWSBURY, the organist of Community U.M.C. since 2001, is a graduate of Berklee College of Music. Having played piano since the age of 5, Dave currently produces music for radio and television ads that are heard throughout New England.  Dave released a CD of spiritual piano music in 2007, and often performs with the country group, Taylor Made in his hometown of Beckley, West Virginia.

Since 2006, CHRISSY ALMEIDA has served as the Director of the Community U.M.C. Chancel Choir and has over 12 years professional experience in liturgical and worship music. A classically trained pianist and vocalist from Waterbury, Connecticut, Chrissy graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2001. She frequently collaborates with Dave Shrewsbury and is currently recording a solo album of Christian praise and worship music.

Guitarist KEVIN LEARY is originally from Oxford, Connecticut where he professionally built and tuned NHRA Pro Import race cars. A musician for over 20 years, Kevin now combines his passion for music and his technical expertise by building custom guitar effects pedals in his spare time.

PETE ADAMS has been a professional drummer for over 20 years and has performed with numerous bands including the New Hampshire rock group, Mongrel. Pete is a veteran of the Gulf War, having served in the United States Army Infantry. He has self published a science fiction novel and is currently writing children’s stories.

ALFONSO GUARINO, a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter has toured the East Coast as the frontman and founding member of the hard rock group, Humans Being, a Pressure Point Records recording artist. An avid soccer enthusiast, Alfonso can also be found serving as goalie or referee in local soccer leagues.

GREG PEHRSON is the founder and executive director of Fuerza Laboral, a community service organization that provides assistance to immigrants.  A graduate of Brown University, Greg is a talented multi-instrumentalist and also plays the flute and trumpet.

• I’m STILL working on recording my Mistrence originals. Can’t give any reasonable excuses for the delay, but we are still working on them, one little piece at a time

• Also working on another album of hymns. In June Dave and I recorded a special EP to benefit Community UMC at their annual Strawberry Fair. 10 signed and numbered (and in some cases, doodled on) CDs brought in a significant sum at their silent auction. We are so pleased at the very positive feedback we’ve rec’d. Some of the songs we’ve recorded are “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “In the Garden.” You can listen to “Be Thou My Vision” on my Audio page. We’ll be adding more songs and instruments to the arrangements and anticipate an early Fall release.

• All other free time is being spent renovating our choir room. Our very loved room hasn’t been updated in decades. Fresh paint, a new layout and a brand new media center are all in the plans!

And that’s why I’ve been so busy! Hope everyone is having a fantastic, fun-filled summer!!

JUL 5 w/ CHRIS EVES AND FRIENDS

Last weekend we played two sets w/ Chris Eves in his hometown Hamilton, NY. We had too much fun rocking out some good old 80′s anthems. We had a great crowd considering it was a holiday weekend, cheering, singing along and even some dancing. I’ve uploaded a few pictures and video. It was wicked late and we were tired but we still had a great time! Dave was hiding in the dark behind his keyboards, but you can clearly hear him on the video – especially in Jump!

Chris is a friend from Berklee and recently released a new album “…Somewhere In Between” in which he not only wrote and sang all of the songs, he also played every instrument on the record, including the guitars, drums, Hammond organ, and Rhodes keyboard. The catchy songs have the body of solid pop rock w/ a heart of folk sincerity and poetic lyrics. It’s been playing in my car non-stop for days now! Can’t wait to play w/ Chris again!

JUL 19 DAVE w/ TAYLOR MADE Opening for RANDY TRAVIS

Beckley, WV native Dave is still pals w/ his first guitar teacher Dan Bailey. Dan has called on Dave recently to record keyboard tracks, and also invited Dave to join his band Taylor Made for a gig in Beckley this July. Dave of course jumped at the chance to play in his old stomping ground.

Sat Jul 19 at 7p Taylor Made w/ Dave Shrewsbury will be opening for Randy Travis at the Friends of Coal Auto Fair, a 3 day long car show in Beckley WV. Dan reported that over 25,000 tickets have already been sold for their show!! Many congratulations to Dave! To all of our friends in the Beckley area, we’ll see you there. I’ll be playing “photographer”

Taylor Made is the REAL thing, pure, powerful Country music, and they rock! Their songs make me want to go out and buy a pickup truck. Check ‘em out

We’ll be performing an uplifting set of classical and contemporary works including two choral pieces composed by Dave Shrewsbury and myself. I’ll be soloing on a few pieces, and we’ll be featuring friends Erin Vulgamore and Andrew Martin from Brookridge Church in Andover! Come down for a visit and join us in the Spirit!

5 Damon Street (Corner of Damon and Main) Wayland, Mass.

Christmas at Community United Methodist Church

Over 2 feet of snow fell in our Boston area during December, forcing us at Community United Methodist Church to cancel several rehearsals and reschedule our Christmas Pageant. By His grace and through the efforts of our entire community, our 25 choir members and a cast of over 20 actors of all ages offered a re-telling of the First Christmas on Sun, Dec 24th through Scripture readings, congregational hymns, choir anthems and solos. I chose six contemporary and upbeat anthems for our choir including the arrangement of “Joyful, Joyful” that was performed in Sister Act II. Our group got quite a kick out of our first foray into the contemporary gospel style! Featured soloists included mezzo Brittany Wells on “The Christmas Star,” a pop ballad recorded by CeCe Winans. Tenor Justin Chase offered a pop rendition of “Mary, Did You Know?” and also performed a duet w/ soprano Deb Strafuss on a Joseph M. Martin arrangement of “Still, Still, Still.” Tenor Anold Baker offered a beautiful solo as the angel Gabriel, and baritone Arnold Goldenbaum performed a moving solo as Joseph. I sang our arrangement of “Breath of Heaven” which I had also recorded w/ Dave Shrewsbury for his 2004 Christmas CD.

On Christmas Eve, we opened the worship service w/ a 30 minute acoustic concert of Christmas hymns w/ Dave Shrewsbury, Bryce Rabideau and Justin Chase on acoustic guitars, I played my newly restored double bass, and Greg Perhson joined us on percussion. During the candlelit service, I sang our arrangement of “O Holy Night” beginning acapella. The services at our church this Christmas season were full of a deep sense of praise, gratitude and joyous celebration. Thank you to everyone who joined us!