The Central Standards technically broke up in 2008, but my longtime friend and musical companion, Jeff Capps, and I never really stopped collaborating whether it was on music or family vacations. We’ve played shows together and even had a full band reunion of the four-piece Central Standards with bassist Casey Smith and drummer Marty Christopher in 2022. That being said, there has not been an official “new” song by The Central Standards in more than 18 years. We did perform an awesome song of Jeff’s called Like a Long Goodbye in a remote video collaboration in 2020, but it was never officially released (but you can check it out here if you’d like!).
The songless streak will end Wednesday (we’re told) as The Central Standards are contributing an original Christmas song, Let Us Be Still, to the latest holiday compilation from the fine folks at Small Batch Records. The song will be available for download or purchase at their BandCamp page, and we’ll be sure and share the details when we have them, but I can tell you a little about the song.
I wrote a draft of Let Us Be Still on December 21st, 2021; then came back to it over the Christmas holidays in 2023; made a few more tweaks and posted a Facebook video of me playing it on Christmas Eve Eve, 2024; recorded a home recording with two acoustic guitars and a lead vocal on November 11th of 2025; sent it to the aforementioned Jeff Capps on November 13th; followed up with a bass part from Casey Smith on November 30th; and after Jeff worked it over in his home studio in Iowa City, we submitted it to our friend Jeff Hulett with Small Batch Records today (just in the St. Nick of time!).
Jeff Capps has become quite a home recording whiz, and his production captures the warm, lo-fi, and hopefully timeless simplicity that the song is meant to evoke. We can’t wait to share it with you and you MIGHT even get a preview of some sort if you sign up for the Ted Horrell Music mailing list here in the next day or so…
Hope your holiday season is off to a rocking start, and we’ll be in touch!