"Cold Dark Night," Sam Phillips (Littlebox)

Sam, a longtime singer-songwriter who started out in the Christian field, went secular, and then became the soundtrack composer for "Gilmore Girls," has now joined the pledge-drive movement with her "Long Play" project, in which listeners are asked to spend $52 in advance for five EPs and a full album of material, garnished with videos, journals and other special material. This 2009 song is part of that, but she's thoughtfully made it available to Amazon for individual download as well. It's the Nativity story rendered in the kind of low-fi approach Sam has been following on her last couple of major-label discs, and it's not bad at all. I've been a Sam fan for a while, so I'll be interested to see how she does with the "Long Play." Sam previously did a version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" that is difficult to find, though her arrangement was used by Bruce Cockburn on his Christmas album. UPDATE: "It Came" is on Sony's Acoustic Christmas, which is out of print but still turns up at retail during Christmas. Oops, that's Rosanne Cash's version on that disc; how I made that boo-boo I don't know, but thanks to seanmusic14 in comments for snapping us back to accuracy. Sam's "Long Play" EP with "Cold Dark Night" also has another original, "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas," plus "It Came," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night." That EP will only be available to "Long Play" subscribers for the time being. FURTHER UPDATE: "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas" was given away free on her website as of Dec. 23, 2009. Go here. Stylewise, it's a bit of a throwback to her Martinis and Bikinis album, poppier than her last couple of albums. And then there's this video of her doing "Away In a Manger":