Every Christmas seems to bring out former American Idol contestants; they're drawn to the holiday like ants to sugar. Danny Gokey finished third in Idol's eighth season (2009). Gokey signed with RCA Nashville and his debut album from earlier this year, "My Best Days", climbed to #3 on the Country charts and #4 on the album charts. For the holidays, Danny covers Amy Grant's "Tennessee Christmas" convincingly enough. Pick it up at either Amazon MP3 or iTunes.
Not to be out-Santified, Aaron Kelly also released a digital single for the holidays over the weekend. Still in his teens, Kelly finished fifth in the most recent season of American Idol (it's ninth) and his Christmas song is his first post-Idol recording. Unlike Danny, Aaron went with an original; "I Can't Wait For Christmas" was written by Kelly, James House and Debby Throckmorton. But, just like Danny, it's a Country song. The track will work its way to Amazon and iTunes, but you can get it now via Aaron's Nimbit player. You can catch a listen on the AINow web site.
Country group Firefly (not to be confused with the dozen or so other groups with the same or similar name) have just released their take on a classic Christmas song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas". Not the bravest of choices, I suppose, but I do love harmony singing. The ladies do this one up in Bluegrass blush, so it's worth checking out. You'll find it on iTunes. And quite possibly you'll want to stop by the Firefly website, just to see what you can see.
And just a reminder as we go that we're only a week away from the new Killers' Christmas single, "Boots". Earlier today, the group released the artwork, so here it is. Sort of a Citizen Kane-y look.
I'm sure there's more comin', so I'll be back.