It's been 19 years since Point of Grace formed as college friends at Ouachita Baptist University. Since then, they've gone on to sell more than 6 million albums, earn 24 No. 1 singles, win numerous Dove Awards and a pair of Grammy nominations. But little gets these women jazzed up more than Christmas and making holiday albums. With the recent release of Home for the Holidays, the group has now released four yule projects in 11 years—A Christmas Story (1999), Winter Wonderland (2005), Tennessee Christmas (2008), and now this. Tennessee Christmas was essentially a re-release of songs from the previous two albums, plus one new song, but you get the point.
Leigh Cappillino
The group has seen some personnel changes over the decades. Two of the original four—Terry Jones and Heather Payne—left in 2003 and 2008, respectively, to spend more time with their families. Leigh Cappillino joined the group in 2004, and the group, including originals Shelley Breen and Denise Jones, is now a trio.
We recently caught up with Cappillino to talk about the new Christmas album, the song selection, and why the group has such staying power after all these years.
Why another Christmas album?
For us, Christmastime is when we're at our best. We do our longest tour, for several weeks. The rest of the year we do little legs—two days here, three days there. But Christmas is when we pull out all the stops, bells and whistles. It's an opportunity for our vocals to really shine. Also, the fact that we're three girls now [instead of four], and we're older, and there is a new sound. We wanted a more acoustic driven, Americana feel of a Christmas record. It's different from any of the Christmas records we've done in the past, where we had such big, slick production and live symphony orchestras.
Tell me about the recording process.
We did it in three days in May, and we did it old-school: We learned our music and went into the studio, like they did back in the '40s and '50s, and we went live on tape with all our voices and instruments. It was the most exhilarating thing I've done musically in a very long time. After we finished recording, we were like "We're going to have to do this every time, because there's such magic in it." It gives you the live feel that we really believe really translates even better for a Christmas record. It was just like what we hope people will encounter when they hear us do it live.
Sometimes when groups make Christmas albums, there are some feisty discussions about what songs to include. Tell me about the song selection process.
When you start going through the Christmas songs, it's either got to be a timeless song that you haven't recorded before, or it's got to be an original. And if it's an original, it's got to be really good, because a lot of people fast forward on original Christmas songs; they want to be familiar with the song so they can sing along.
We had already recorded many of the great Christmas classics on our previous albums, so that narrowed it down. We wanted the selections to be 50 percent the timeless, traditional, sacred Christmas songs, then 20 percent the fun secular songs like "Holly, Jolly Christmas," and the other 30 percent original songs that we feel may eventually be a timeless song, like "Mary, Did You Know?" [which POG has not recorded]. We had not recorded "Joy to the World" before, so we started from there. We added "Holly Jolly Christmas" and "White Christmas." Once we had about 70 percent of the songs picked, it was a matter of just finding the jewels we thought would be unique and original. One of those was a very cheeky song called "Candy Cane Lane" [written by Jennifer Zuffinetti], and it's a throwback to the Andrews Sisters—the bright colors, the whimsy, the doo-wop and all that.
You also included "Labor of Love," from Andrew Peterson's awesome Christmas album. Great choice.
Living in Nashville, it's always humbling to know that somebody so much more talented is just down the street from you, even though a lot of the world may never hear of them. And that's Andrew Peterson. He's getting the song out there, and is making quite an impact with it, but his audience is not necessarily our audience, and so it just allows more people in the world to hear this message. It's such a beautiful song, and because it celebrates Mary, we think it's a great opportunity to reach beyond just the Protestant world. Our pastor was preaching several Sundays back about how we as believers should admire Mary just as much as we admire Paul and other strong pillars of the Bible.
What's your favorite Christmas album of all time?
Gosh, there's just so many. One that I listen to over and over is 4Him's The Season of Love. It's wonderful. And I love Bing Crosby's and Frank Sinatra's Christmas records. Diana Krall's and Harry Connick's; I just love that jazz-meets-classical feel.
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Why do you think Point of Grace has such staying power? Twenty years is a long time. Of course, there have been some personnel changes, and you've only been with them for six years. But still.
We just keep showing up. When people don't want to do it anymore, they close the door to opportunities, but we just keep saying yes. And we keep showing up because we still love what we're doing. Denise and Shelley are not just cohorts to me. They are dear friends. I love them, and I love being with them. Whether I was doing a record with them or going to the mall, we love being around each other. We have such a friendship and fellowship that the music is just an added bonus. And we have great support systems through our awesome husbands, our communities, our churches, and the women that we surround ourselves with, who hold us accountable.
POG is Denise Jones, Leigh Cappillino, and Shelley Breen
Are there times where you just go, Oh man, this is getting too hard, where you feel the tug of just wanting to be a mom and with your family?
Yeah. And there are struggles when suffering takes place—like when my daddy was struggling through leukemia and I wanted to be by his bedside. There was a time where Shelley was struggling with anxiety, and she didn't want to leave the house. And there was a time when Denise watched one of her best friends lose a husband, and she wanted to be there. So, yeah, it does get difficult when it represents real life and the people that are real in your life. You want to be with them. You want to not only nurture your kids, but you want to nurture the people that are your community and are your heartbeat. That's when it gets tough, but not because we question what we're doing.
Shelley has often said that we know when our time will be up—when we no longer connect with the people God puts in front of us. When we no longer connect, we know it's time.
But for now, the struggle comes when we are unable to put our arms around those people that we're very close to during times of need, when we need that physical touch. My little girl's birthday is in December, and unfortunately I've missed a few of those birthdays because we've been on tour. Now she's saying, "Mom, you have to promise you're going to be here for my birthday." I said, "Sweetie, I promise. I will be here for your birthday." So I told our booking agent that December seventh is like Sabbath. You cannot book that date.
And this is another God thing: All three of us are sort of in the same rhythm, because we are in the same place as moms and wives. We understand the give and take. And if I'm not giving, somebody else is taking, and if I'm not taking, somebody else is giving. That's what I love about the saying that there's strength in numbers. That's so true because when I'm exhausted emotionally and spiritually, the other two are probably able to help me. We're that close to one another.
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