Scotty McCreery Gets In The Christmas Spirit With New Album

Scotty McCreery is set to release a holiday album, “Christmas with Scotty McCreery,” on Oct. 16. It will include nine Christmas standards, plus two new, original songs.

“Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year,” McCreery says in a press release announcing the project. “And what is Christmas without music? We start listening to Christmas songs early in the McCreery household, so it felt right. I’ve always wanted to record a Christmas album since I’ve had my music career,” which began when he won “American Idol” 15 months ago.

The included standards are “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Santa Claus Is Back In Town,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Jingle Bells,” “Let It Snow,” “The Christmas Song,” “O Holy Night,”  “Mary, Did You Know?” and “The First Noel.”

McCreery says of his goal for the holiday album, “I just wanted it to be holly and jolly and really lift people’s spirits in the Christmas season because it’s supposed to be a really happy time. But I also wanted to get across the real reason for the season. ‘Christmas in Heaven’ is my favorite song on the album and it really speaks to that.”

That song is one of the two new tracks that made the album. Says McCreery, “When I heard ‘Christmas in Heaven,’ I listened to the first verse and automatically said, ‘You can stop it. That is on the album.’

“The other new song is called ‘Christmas Is Coming Around,’” he continues. “That’s just a great story about Christmas time and really just lifting people’s spirits. Times may be tough, but during Christmas, it needs to be a happy time.”

McCreery also says he’s changed up his sound a bit on some of the tracks. “There will be some songs that sound like a different Scotty—not different as far as not country, but a different sound than they heard on the first album,” he says. “Hopefully, [fans] will be pleasantly surprised.”

The project will be McCreery’s second album release, following his platinum-selling 2011 debut, “Clear As Day.”

To help promote the new album, McCreery will be making Christmas calls to 100 random fans who purchase it from his Web site.