Sounds of December: Davitt Sigerson's 'Big Country' stands apart from a kind of scary album.

I picked up the “A Christmas Record” back when I was in college because it was the only album at the time that had The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping.”

I didn’t recognize any of the other songs, and I kind of knew some of the artists. It was worth a chance, since I really liked “Christmas Wrapping.” Plus, the cover was cool.

It turned out the artists were all from the same label. ZE Records had a pretty eclectic collection of performers. It should have been a clue that with bands like Suicide and songs like “Christmas with Satan” that this might be my cup of tea.

Working my way through the cuts I concluded that the album was kind of like a Christmas album for people who hate Christmas. It was an album for people who hate everything.

I trudged through to the last cut. It was by Davitt Sigerson. I was unfamiliar with his work. But his song, “It’s a Big Country,” was different than the others. It was happy. A bouncy tune with acoustic guitars and pianos, it was like one of those Christmas year-in-review letters, only set to music, shouting out to relatives spread out across the country.

“Got a niece down in Virginia

Hard to picture how she’s grown

It’s your uncle calling, Angel!

Can you put your mama on the phone?”

And the chorus:

“It’s a big country

Merry Christmas, everybody

Just a word from me and Ann

To say we’re fine.”

I love it. And I was imagining Davitt sitting with the other artists at the ZE Records staff meetings, sitting off by himself, very afraid.

Turns out Davitt is a journalist, record company executive and songwriter with a couple CDs out there. Get this: One of his songwriting credits is with Gene Simmons of Kiss. Davitt co-wrote “Good Girl Gone Bad” on the album “Crazy Nights.” I just learned this part today, but it helps explain why I love “It’s a Big Country.”

Naturally the song was a mix tape favorite. But the record went out of print when the world moved from vinyl to compact disk and ZE Record shuttered in 1984.

By this time, “Christmas Wrapping” was a hit and was appearing on a bunch of compilations. But I was really missing having “Big Country” as part of our holiday soundtrack.

I did find a record store that advertised it would convert out-of-print vinyl to CD. It was a little pricey. And I really only wanted it for one song. Goodness knows I was never going to play “Christmas with Satan” a second time.

Of course I went for it. I love "It's a Big Country."

And, of course, a couple years later the label was resurrected and reissued “A Christmas Record” on CD. And this year I was very excited to see it was on Spotify – where you can select just one song from the collection.