Please check out our latest music video. It’s called December Dance. The music is taken from the new A Midnight Clear – Christmas in Mitford album. The video features some gorgeous watercolors from William Mangum of Greensboro. William graciously allowed us to use some of his art work to help capture the mood of mythical Mitford.

http://www.billleslie.com/apps/videos/videos/show/15316775-december-dance

Starting with a 59 cent tray of watercolors Mangum has painted more than 3,000 glorious scenes across North Carolina. Tonight UNC Television is presenting a documentary on Mangum at 8:00PM. The program features scenes from his new book North Carolina Beautiful. I recently interviewed William at WRAL and he is a wonderful man with a heart of gold and genuine love for North Carolina. In many ways his paintings reflect the same kind of pastoral serenity that I try to portray in my songs about North Carolina.

December Dance was inspired by my own memories of a Christmas Eve church dance in Western North Carolina where I grew up. I hope you enjoy the stunning visuals of Bill Mangum and the music featuring a strong cast of guest musicians mandolinist John Santa. John volunteered himself for this CD and I am glad he did. He said “every Christmas album needs a Santa!”