Detroit — Just in time for holiday listening, St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak has issued a new compact disc recording, “Songs of Advent & Christmas.”

With 15 songs by the parish’s Folk Ensemble and one by its Adult Choir, the disc includes such favorites as “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “O Holy Night,” “Ave Maria,” “Angels We Have heard on High” and “We Three Kings,” among others.

The idea for the CD came as the result of requests by people who had attended Christmas concerts at St. Mary Church over the years, said Paula Savaglio, the parish’s music director.

St. Mary’s pastor, Fr. Steven Wertanen, who has a background in graphic arts, designed the cover for the CD, she said.

Savaglio said the hardest part of producing the CD was obtaining the licensing rights to all the music: “Even with many that you’d think would just be ‘traditional’ (and in the public domain), somebody owns the rights to a particular version. And in some cases, someone ones the rights to part of the song and someone else has the rights to another part.”

But she said she enjoyed the actual recording aspect of the process, and working with the sound recording engineer, Rock Morey, whose wife, Cathy, is a Folk Ensemble member.

The Folk Ensemble is made up of Brenda Braidwood, soprano; Cathy Morey, alto and 12-string guitar; Dan Greenia, guitar and voice; Rob Persinger, electric guitar, bass guitar and voice; Stan Mikelsavage, percussion; Chuck Quinn, bass guitar and voice; and Savaglio on piano.

Adult choir members are Anne Ahola, Sue Allen, Winifred Beltowski, Linda Fabrizio-Corn, Connie Farlow, Maria Faarlow, Mary Haas, Richard Johnson, Thomas Larabell, Mariln Lee, Jeniece Parent, Phil Pugsley and James Torres.