P.E.I. teen pens Christmas song to raise money for Feed a Family campaign

Liah Clayton has penned and performed another original Christmas tune for the CBC Feed a Family Campaign to benefit Island food banks and those who need them.

Christmas Without You is the 17-year-old's third annual holiday fundraising song, which also features her friend, Gordon Butler.

"I love writing songs, and I love donating to a good cause," Clayton told Matt Rainnie, host of CBC Radio: Mainstreet P.E.I.The teen goes to Bluefield High School.

Clayton wrote her first Christmas fundraising song two years ago with friend Allie MacLeod.They were completing the Duke of Edinburgh awardsand needed to prove a skill, so theylanded on songwriting.

"It was around Christmastime, so we made it a Christmas song," she said. Noting "there's a lot of people in need at Christmastime," they decided to donate money to a good cause, and picked Feed a Family.

"We want it to be a happy time for everybody," she said.

Clayton estimates she raised $1,500 for the firsttwo years of the fundraiser, and another $500 so far this year.

The 2018 song waswas Hurry Santa. In 2019, she wrote another called Dear Old Santa.

This year's Christmas Without Youcame from Clayton's realization that many people won't be able to spend Christmas with loved ones due toCOVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

"I just wanted to make something relatable this year," she said.

Clayton's been learning to play guitar, and said she started by finding a few chords she liked and then writing the lyrics.

"It kind of just all comes out, once I geta tune," she said.

'The coolest feeling'

It's handy that her uncle happens to be an award-winning music producer:Jon Matthews. He recorded the songat The Sound Mill Studio.

"I just can just sort of walk next door and record a song and he's so amazing," she said. "I just sort of tell him what I want and he does everything I want with it and more."

She calls recording and listening backto a song "the coolest feeling." She hopes to make songwriting her career.

Clayton and Butler are alsoset to release another song soon, which they co-wrote with another friend and recorded this past summer.

You can donate to the campaign by purchasing her song from herBandcamppage, with amounts starting at $1.

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