It’s Christmas in Omaha this week.

At Mannheim Steamroller’s offices, that is. Founder Chip Davis is in the middle of writing the group’s 2007 Christmas album.

“I’m on Track 11 right now,” he says by phone from his studio. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I was two-thirds of the way through ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ when I went to bed. I tossed and turned and finally got up at 1 o’clock and worked until 4.”

The Grammy winner finished the song, but the CD is hardly complete. To get the Christmas album in stores before December, Davis says he started working on it almost as soon as the 2006 holiday tour ended. To discover which songs fans wanted (from more than 15,000 possibilities), he put out the word on Mannheim’s Web site. “We got 100,000 hits,” he says.

The No. 1 request: “O Holy Night.” While Mannheim already has that in its repertoire, there were some surprises — some contemporary songs mixed with some traditional choices. Additionally, Davis will bring back “Christmas Lullaby,” a cut from the 1988 album — this time with words. “I’m hoping Olivia Newton-John will sing the song.”

Since Mannheim hasn’t produced a Christmas album in five years, “it was time.” Deadlines for other projects caused the delay.

Now, after a three-week holiday break, he’s deep into Christmas once again.

Taken from the Sioux City Journal