Stephen Fearing was coming to Kent in just a few days. We offered him a chance to contribute something to Ornaments, but he'd have to have it ready by the time he got here, because our deadline was already long gone. We could record it here, if that pleased him, but we had to have something quick.

Then we discovered that, yes, we needed something, but it had to be less than two minutes! Such is life when you're producing shows locked into fifty-nine minute hours. We were nervous. How do you ask a gifted artist to keep an entire song contribution to under two minutes? (Never mind that two other songs on the show already were under that.) It was with some trepidation that we called him. And before we could even tell him, he said, "You know, this thing I'm working on is coming along fine..." (He immediately started playing it over the phone.) "...But I don't know how I'm going to make it last for even two minutes!" We laughed and told him how relieved we were.

He originally called his little ditty, "Teddy Bear's Christmas." We understand his wife nixed that title. "Whoville" works just fine. Especially since Stephen's played there so often...He did record it here, at WKSU.

When he's not entertaining Dr. Seuss characters, he is playing his guitar with a vengeance and singing with a passion. The one man show he did in Kent had the audience spellbound. How can a guitar make that many notes? Canada sent a wonderful present to us when Stephen arrived.

Learn more about Stephen Fearing at stephenfearing.com.