Civic pride and pandemic cabin fever lead to Christmas album for Buchanan's Dave Van Dyke

Dave Van Dyke's new album is the product of civic pride and cabin fever.

A canceled parade and an improvised march set a whole series of events in motion. Van Dyke has always loved the annual Memorial Day parade in Buchanan, but he understood the necessity for its cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was impressed at how the city was able to pivot the plan into a set of 103 placards honoring the city's service members. The images were posted on banners all over town, thus honoring the military members even though the parade couldn't happen. Then, after the killing of George Floyd, Van Dyke admired the work of another concerned citizen, Deejra Lee, and the response she got.

"She organized a Black Lives Matter march through downtown Buchanan," Van Dyke says. "She was joined by our police officers. They didn't just protect her right to do that. They marched with her and knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds."

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Inspired by this, Van Dyke nominated his hometown in the Reader's Digest "Nicest Place in America" contest. Buchanan ended up taking the prize, and the win was announced everywhere from NBC's "Today Show" to a spot on BBC radio in England.

Van Dyke topped it all off by composing a new song about the city, titled "Small Town Come on Home to Me."

This was all happening when much of society was still in lockdown phase. A prolific songwriter stuck at home all day in a self-described "cabin out in the woods" is bound to have a burst of creativity, and sometimes the writer just has to follow the muse wherever it leads.

"I wrote a Christmas album," Van Dyke says with a laugh.

He ended up with 11 holiday-themed songs. He paired them with his paean to Buchanan and now he's releasing a full digital-only album, "Small Town Come on Home to Me & Other Songs."

It's available for downloading and streaming via Spotify, Apple Music, the iTunes Store and Deezer. He's celebrating with a three-night launch party that will commemorate his achievement. The gigs will be held Nov. 24, 26 and 27 at The Tin Shop Theatre in Buchanan.

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The album has songs from a healthy variety of musical genres, and many of the lyrics focus on people who often get overlooked in traditional Christmas songs.

"Another Truck Stop Christmas," for example, tells of a trucker who can't pass up a good-paying haul, thus missing his family again on the big day, while "Christmas on Credit" is all too familiar to anyone who goes into debt for presents.

A widower faces his first Christmas alone in "Paul Lost Lorraine in July," and an addict sweats out a white-knuckle holiday in "Christmas in Withdrawal."

There are light-hearted numbers as well, such as "Boxing Day Lullaby," in which Van Dyke frankly admits that he has come to enjoy Boxing Day better than Christmas itself.

In "No Christmas Songs Before Halloween," Van Dyke expresses his annoyance at hearing "Silent Night" when it is still time for "Monster Mash."

He even goes cross-denominational in "H-A-N-U-K-K-A-H," which opens with the noteworthy couplet, "Listen to me everybody if you please / The Romans got whooped by the Maccabees."

Although he's a longtime member of the Van Dyke Revue and the Backsliders, this is a solo venture, credited to Dave Van Dyke and Friends. Van Dyke handles most of the lead singing as well as guitar and some banjitar.

Additional guitar, accordion and bass was provided by Jason Speigel and Mike Davis. Two background vocalists enliven several of the tracks. Caitlyn Faust, on loan from her regular gig with the Justin Staublin Band, contributes pristine bluegrass-tinged singing and some tasty violin obbligato to several songs. Her fiddle-work on "Christmas in Withdrawal" is a highlight of the entire project.

Van Dyke says that he so admires Merry Clayton's vocal performance on The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" that he's always wished the band had let her sing the lead vocal on it. Van Dyke attempted his own version of that plan by encouraging gospel singer LaShawne Suggs to turn it loose on her appearances.

"I love having her on there," Van Dyke says. "I didn't want to feature LaShawne any more than I did in the long run, because I was afraid that people would want to hear her more than me."

On "George Bailey Never Left Home," both backup singers join together in harmony.

"That's my favorite song on the album," Van Dyke says. "They help me get that doo-wop groove."

In concert

• Who: Dave Van Dyke's "Nicest Place in America Concert" and album release party

• Where: Tin Shop Theatre, 108 E. Roe St., Buchanan

• When: 7 p.m. Nov. 24, 26 and 27

• Cost: $12-$10

• For more information: Call 269-695-6464 or visit tinshoptheatre.org

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Buchanan's Dave Van Dyke records Christmas album, promotes hometown