Acclaimed Show Dog Nashville singer, songwriter and performer Krystal Keith has recorded her first piece of Christmas music. “O Holy Night” will be released on all digital platforms Nov. 16.
Produced by noted songwriter/producer Tommy Cecil (Luke Bryan, Jake Owen, Parmalee), the song follows the recent release of her acclaimed Boulder EP. “One of my favorite things about the holidays is Christmas music,” Keith says. “The second it comes on the radio, I’m tuned in. I’ve always wanted to record some holiday songs, and this year being pregnant I thought it was the right time to have something new over the winter for fans.”
Keith is currently expecting her second child, limiting a touring schedule that recently had her performing at her father Toby Keith’s shows with “Anyone Else” duet partner and label mate Lance Carpenter.
Deciding on “O Holy Night” as her first holiday release was a thoughtful endeavor. “I gave my team a few songs I thought I could really bring a fresh spin to,” she says. “We decided on this because it’s a classic and gives me the opportunity to do something suited to a simple production that showcases the vocal and sentiment.”
The production approach was unlike anything Keith had done previously. “Usually you track a song with a room full of musicians and then go back and add final vocals,” she says. “With this, Tommy had a piano track laid down and I sang over that, which allowed me to stop and say, ‘I think we need more time here.’ Tommy could go in and stretch or compress things to fit the vocal. Then we finished the track. So the vocals really led in terms of the timing and feel. You can’t typically do that, but it really worked for this.”
And while fans will likely be ecstatic to add a Krystal song to their holiday favorites, the real test comes at home. “The joke in my family is if I’m going to make the cut for our Christmas music,” Krystal says. “My mom has a six-disc CD changer and three of the slots are my dad’s holiday albums. The other three are empty, so that’s all we listen to every year. I may have to burn a disc with 12 tracks of my song and slip it in there.”
For more info on Krystal Keith, visit krystalkeith.com.
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