"While he's out taking care of the world, you're the one girl who he kissed goodbye / He's a beautiful man, and he's so far from home / Children dance and sing wherever he goes."
I wouldn't be surprised if Dan Wilson was wearing a red suit when he wrote that. If you didn't know it was a Christmas song, one might easily mistake "Are You Lonely Tonight, Mrs. Claus?" -- newly recorded and posted online in time for (and in the spirit of) the holiday -- as something of an autobiographical composition. Even the drawings that make up a YouTube version of the tune were done by Wilson himself.
Wilson has been living out in Los Angeles in recent months, where he has worked up quite a reputation as a song craftsman after working with such worldly artists as Weezer, Josh Groban and Adele. I'm seriously waiting to hear of a Slayer/DW hook-up any day now. In the meantime, though, it sure sounds like Dan is pining for home. Maybe he didn't hear that our winter wonderland is a snowy abyss this Christmas. Either way, though, this song will help make you glad to be home this weekend.
