Rebel Records is joining in the Christmas cheer with a new single release from High Fidelity, their remake of a classic Country Gentlemen number.
It’s Christmas Time Back Home, written by John Duffey and Ann Streeter, and recorded by the Gents for Rebel back in 1962. High Fidelity stuck largely to the original arrangement, but added twin banjos, as suggested by label owner Mark Freeman.
HiFi has been playing this one at the December shows for the last few years, and was only too happy to cut it for the 2025 holiday season.
Guitarist, vocalist, and second banjo man Jeremy Stephens shared a word about this new recording.
“Christmas Time Back Home is one of the few quintessential classic bluegrass Christmas songs, and is a song that has been in our High Fidelity collective consciousness for some time. The inspiration for the arrangement comes from the Country Gentlemen’s original 1962 recording of the song for Rebel, with the feel of the twin banjos coming from the work of Eddie Adcock and Pete Kuykendall on the Gents’ 1963 cut of This Morning at Nine.”
His wife, fiddler Corrina Rose Logston Stephens, adds that they all like the homey feel of the song.
“We’ve always loved this song for the beautiful picture it paints of an ideal Christmas, like the early Currier & Ives lithographs, or the scenes we imagine when a fresh snowfall covers the ground. We hope listeners feel the same warmth and joy in hearing it that we felt in singing and playing it.”
Kurt Stephenson plays banjo, and Daniel Amick mandolin. Jeremy also plays bass on the track.
High Fidelity specializes in the bluegrass sound of the 1950s and ’60s, and their expertise shows through here.
Check it out.
Christmas Time Back Home is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link.
