Kevin Elias of Streator says he feels great.

And so will you if you take a few minutes to listen to the song he and his partner Richard Fey wrote and produced.

Their message is simple: the Christmas spirit is all around us, which is important to those who cannot be home for the holiday, especially our troops overseas.

Elias was excited this week when he learned he and Fey won third place (or was it first place?) with their "Christmas Everywhere" country tune in the Chicago Tribune songwriting contest. Voting ended Sunday evening.

The song had the most votes of any song after the first day and the Trib reporter who talked to Kevin said their song was a staff favorite and would be featured in the paper Wednesday.

Actually, as far as we're concerned the song won first place. In its Wednesday article, the Trib noted there was an abnormal surge in online voting so they set up a mechanism to deter computer-aided blasts (or bots), which ended the voting bursts.

After the adjustment, the Trib reported "Christmas Everywhere" had the most votes with 3,208 responses. (It did not hurt that the song with a great slide show was posted to YouTube, which continues to get views.)

First place or third place does not seem to matter. Elias and his partner are getting great and well-deserved exposure.

The song also was featured with other winning songs on WGN radio Wednesday.

"That's a lot of exposure and it's great for us," Elias told The Times. "I'd like to thank the people in Streatorland for their support. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have gotten all those votes."

Fey, who now lives in Bourbonnais, came up with the idea for the song.

"I was out and about during Christmas time, and I realized Christmas is everywhere," said Fey. "I know it sounds corny, but I just got to thinking about that and wanted to write a song about it."

This is their third Christmas song together, and they have recorded a version of "Christmas Everywhere" as a lighthearted rock song.

The duo also has produced "New Horizons," a vocal tribute to Pluto founder and Streator native Clyde Tombaugh, and it will be featured on the NOVA TV channel. (Streatorite Mike Gardner provided guitar for that song.)

This was a great story for The Times to report. (If you missed the articles, do "kevin elias" keyword search at www.mywebtimes.com.)

Congrats to Elias and Fey. This news — and their song — come at a good time. We all need something to lift us over a troubled economy and personal worries about financial security.

Their song is about "magic in the air" — a warm thought for all of us.