Three years ago, the Philly Specials were a mere twinkle in the eyes of some of Philadelphia’s finest creatives and football players. Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Connor Barwin and Charlie Hall sat around a fire pit in Barwin’s backyard, beers in hand, and devised three tenets their group would have to follow.
#1 – The record had to be good. “This isn’t a joke. We want this to be to be really high quality,” Barwin remembers.
#2 – “At any point, we can’t sacrifice having fun. This is about being together, having fun at all times,” he continues.
#3 – “Let’s make sure we’re doing something special for kids around the holidays,” Barwin finishes.
From the first Philly Specials Christmas album, A Philly Special Christmas, to A Philly Special Christmas Special in 2023 and the upcoming A Philly Special Christmas Party, to be released November 22, the crew has never compromised on any of those three points.
With former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Barwin and Hall, the drummer for The War on Drugs, as executive producer and producer respectively, their leadership has vaulted former Philadelphia Eagles lineman Kelce and current linemen Johnson and Mailata to a new frontier of stardom.
Mailata has gone from protecting quarterback Jalen Hurts’ blindside to sharing a studio with Boyz II Men, as has right tackle Johnson. And what more can be said about the rising stardom of Jason Kelce, who’s been everywhere from on commercials to with the Monday Night Football crew to on a duet with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks?
After doing two Philly Special albums in 2022 and 2023, Kelce has begun to build some serious musical talent, and that’s not just on the microphone, but in production, too. For Kelce, Mailata and Johnson, “they have spent their lives being the best at this thing they do, football, football, football, and then they take the same approach with this,” Hall observes. “Jason’s got such an incredible ear. He’s [become] really involved in the minute musical decision-making.”
With Kelce now retired from football, he’s had more time and energy to follow his other pursuits. Even Barwin, who’s around the studio a little bit less than Hall has, noticed Kelce’s touch on the album.
“This record’s got even more of Jason’s fingerprints and creativity on it big time compared to the first two,” Barwin says. “I mean, you could tell he has even more creative space to get into this record.”
Along with Kelce, Johnson and Mailata provided meaningful creative and musical contributions to the album. Both Hall and Barwin were blown away by Mailata’s rendition of “Feliz Navidad.”
“It’s incredible,” Hall says. “He sounds like a fluent native speaker of the language.”
“He is something, man,” Barwin echoes.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s dulcet tones echo throughout the record on tracks like “Christmas Don’t Be Late,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “The Parting Glass,” the latter which features a three-part harmony.
The crew’s stardom has continued to rise, and listeners to this year’s album might notice more recognizable names and faces joining the Party. The shortlist of guest stars includes the aforementioned Nicks and Boyz II Men, but also Devon Gilfillian, Immanuel Wilkins, The Hooters’ Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, DM Hotep, Kevin Hanson, Luke Carlos O’Reilly, members of The War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, The Roots, mewithoutYou, The Silver Ages Choir, The Philly Special Children’s Choir and many more.
Though they might not verbalize it, each year Barwin and Hall sense a need to outdo their previous work, and each year the Philly Specials find bigger musicians to join their ranks while retaining a sense of familiarity.
“[A Philly Special Christmas Party] is literally bigger because we took the approach that all of these wonderful musicians that are part of this… everyone that’s been involved in it… is all of a sudden like a new family member,” Hall says. “We have this entire cast of characters, and I think this year we made a concerted effort to involve everyone more together, in addition to bringing in new people to expand both the sonic palette and the reach and the whole spirit of this thing.”
That family aspect shines throughout all facets of the album. For example, Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper of Mt. Joy came by the studio one day to say hello and, in the short hours they were there, came up with yet another track to add to the record. The duo sat down with Kelce and reworked their hook, “Jesus drives an Astrovan,” from the hit song “Astrovan” into “Santa drives an Astrovan.”
More than the celebrities, the music and the publicity the album generates, each Philly Specials album thus far has had a focus on giving back to the community. For the third straight year, all profit from the sales of A Philly Special Christmas Party will go to the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center’s Holiday Toy Drive and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Snowflake Station.
Marketed as the third and final entry in the Philly Special Christmas trilogy, fans of the group should be sure to enjoy this album to the fullest. This might be the last we hear from our favorite musical linemen…or not.
Will there ever be another album down the line?
“I would say, ‘Who knows?'” Barwin replies. “This family is getting pretty good at making music, and we all love being together.”
Listen to the full album now:
Related: Eagles Players Debut A Philly Special Christmas Special Album
