Performing arts group Ashe Company hopes to provide quality entertainment for its audience come this Christmas with their second EP Follow The Star.

“We are expecting a very good reception, as Ashe is very well anticipated every Christmas for good entertainment and content. We are anticipating that our audiences will be quite stunned as this is one of our first EPs in a long time,” Faybian Grizzle, communications coordinator of the group, told the Jamaica Observer.

The project is being produced by the performing arts outfit and features seven tracks; six covers and an original. The titles are Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord, It’s The Most Wonderful Time, Little Altar Boy, All Through The House, For Unto Us A Child Is Born, Do You Hear What I Hear? and the original I Remember Christmas, written by Michael Holgate, artistic director of Ashe.

It will be released later this month.

Grizzle also said listeners can expect a multiplicity of genres on the project.

“No one genre, just compilation of popular Christmas songs from different genres — reggae, pop, seasonal, musical theatre, classical music,” he said.

Approximately 11 years ago the group released their first album called Different Kinda Youth.

With the suspension of live shows due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, entertainers and entertainment groups have had to create ways to stay relevant. The Ashe Group has used social media to its advantage to stay in touch with its audience.

“We have had to pivot with the demands of a society and entertainment industry that has become heavily digital and online. Last year we did a social media Christmas campaign called Ashe’s 12 Days of Christmas, where we shot and released 12 music videos to covers of popular local and international Christmas songs. It garnered a lot of interest and helped us to increase engagement, subscription and monetisation on our YouTube page. Earlier this year we released a YouTube series called CHILL, which gave us over 500,000 views during its airing from March to May 2021 and created waves all over Jamaica as being one of a kind… good Jamaican series,” Grizzle added.

Started in 1993 by Paulette Bellamy and Joseph Robinson, Ashe Company has established itself as one of Jamaica’s premier ensembles. The group’s signature works include Curfew – The Musical, Ded Leff, Marcus Garvey: The Musical in collaboration with University Players.