Musician, Author Join Forces to Create Christmas Song

Several years ago, Jim Weagley of Atglen had a melody and lyrics in his head, but with no musical expertise, he could not find a way to bring them to life. That is when Lancaster County musician Juliana Lane came into the picture and together the two strangers produced a song, "Do You Believe? (The Christmas Story)."

Weagley, who retired from the field of sports medicine, is the author of several books, including "Bet on the Turtle: My Long, Slow Journey of Faith." After coming up with the tune, he searched online and found Lane, who is the worship leader at Manheim Grace Church.

"I had the tune and lyrics and started looking on the internet to see if I could find a singer/songwriter and producer in the Lancaster area," Weagley explained. "I love music, but don't play an instrument and I can't read music and I have no musical ability. I sent me singing my song a cappella. I asked them to not judge my voice, but to judge the song based on what they think it could be."

Enter Lane, who provides vocals and plays the piano on the recently released song. "I have been writing songs since I was 11 years old," she said. "I had not met (Weagley) before, but he came across my website and music online. He contacted me, and the project began from there. It surprised me, but it ended up being a really cool collaboration."

Lane sang the song and added instrumentation, including violins, guitar and flute. "He sent me an audio file of him singing the tune, and I ended up taking that and fully producing it and turning it into what it is now," she stated. "I am a self-taught musician, and I mostly play by ear. I took what he had and developed chords around it."

The process of producing the song took nearly a year to complete. "I met with (Lane) initially last July (of 2024). I told her to take her time," said Weagley. "She would send me a version of her simply singing and playing piano, and bit by bit instruments were added in."

"It is a very long process," Lane added. "We go through sourcing the song and the chorus and finalizing the arrangement that (Weagley) was happy with and we move onto production - bringing on musicians to play the different parts and arranging those."

Lane completed the recording in her in-home music studio. She explained that accompanying musicians did not gather to play the song; rather they contributed their parts via online audio files. "I gave notes to each musician of what I was looking for them to play, and they sent me their files and we collaborated online digitally," she said. "I recorded my piano and vocals in my studio, and for all the other musicians, we collaborated over Zoom. They each had their own studios and they each recorded their parts. I had to mix everything and piece everything together."

Today, the song is completed and ready for people to enjoy. "As soon as I heard the song, I thought it was beautiful and I saw so much potential in it," said Lane, noting that her favorite part of the song is the violin solo. "It was fun watching the song grow from the first demo to now."

"The most amazing thing to me is I had lyrics and a tune in my head (and) to envision what she did with it is incredible," Weagley added. "I hope people enjoy the song and hope they welcome it into their hearts."

"Do You Believe? (The Christmas Story)," which was released on Nov. 20, is currently available for downloading on major music platforms, including Spotify, Amazon, YouTube and Apple. The majority of money from sales will be donated to the Lancaster County Food Bank, Chester County Food Bank, St. Jude Children's Hospital and Compassion International.