Photo: Robby Klein
Gabby Barrett reminisced on the festive wake-up call she heard every morning during the holiday season when she was growing up.
Barrett, 24, said her father was always “a very early bird.” From November 1 through December 31, he started playing the same song every morning at 7 a.m. “A Christmas to Remember” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers filled the family’s home “from the floor to the ceiling,” Barrett remembered. “It was hilarious because, you know, as grumpy teenagers we were so irritated, but you couldn’t resist that the song was so good. …That’s a memory that I have specifically tied to that song that is near and dear to me for sure.”
Barrett quickly knew that she wanted to record her own version of the 1980s duet on her first-ever Christmas album, Carols and Candlelight. The 11-track collection made its debut this year. Barrett filled the record with her renditions of holiday classics, including “Mary, Did You Know?,” “Baby It’s Cold Outside” featuring Cade Foehner, “Go Tell It On The Mountain” with for KING & COUNTRY, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” featuring The Piano Guys, “Silent Night” and more. Carols and Candlelight is Barrett’s first Christmas album and her second album to release in 2024, following her sophomore project, Chapter & Verse, which offered an intimate glimpse of the singer-songwriter’s life.
Barrett said during a recent interview with iHeartCountry that she selected many of the songs on Carols and Candlelight by taking requests from her social media followers.
“I think something that’s special with this album in particular, Carols and Candlelight, is that half of it — if not more — was actually fan-picked,” she said, adding that many fans wanted a collaboration with Barrett’s husband, Foehner. “I did a poll on my social media back in the summer, as I was spinning through the idea of going a Christmas album. And I had just asked fans, ‘if I did a Christmas project, what would everybody want to hear?’ And so, it was really fun to be able to just go through and hand pick what a lot of the comments were saying. a lot of them were traditional, classic Christmas songs, like ‘Mary, Did You Know?,’ and ‘O Holy Night,’ and ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas,’ songs like that that I also really enjoy as well. So, the fans got to pick a lot of it. I sprinkled in a few, like ‘A Christmas to Remember,’ ‘Grown-Up Christmas List,’ some that were like that, that were very memorable and extra sentimental and special to me, that I have memories with as a kid with my parents and doing all the fun little Christmas traditions with them. So, a lot of it was fan-picked and then I sprinkled in a few of my absolute favorites, and ones that I’ve always wanted to re-create.”
1. “Mary, Did You Know?” (Mark Lowry, Buddy Greene)*
2. “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” (Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram)*
3. “Christmas To Remember” (Chris Eaton, Beverly Darnall, Amy Grant)*
4. “The First Noel” (Public Domain)*
5. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside (feat. Cade Foehner)” (Frank Loesser)*
6. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (feat. The Piano Guys)”*
7. “Go Tell It On The Mountain” (for KING & COUNTRY feat. Gabby Barrett)+
8. “O Holy Night” (Public Domain)*
9. “Last Christmas” (George Michael)*
10. “Grown-Up Christmas List” (David Foster, Linda Thompson-Jenner)*
11. “Silent Night” (Public Domain)*
* Produced by Ross Copperman
+ Produced by Tedd T. and for KING & COUNTRY; Co-Produced by Benjamin Backus; Additional Vocal Production on “Go Tell It On The Mountain (feat. Gabby Barrett)” by Ross Copperman
Barrett said it “just felt right” to include the collaboration with her husband on “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” Barrett and Foehner met as contestants on American Idol in 2018. They got married the following year in Texas, and have since welcomed three children together: daughter Baylah May, turning 4 next month, son Augustine Boone, who turned 2 in October, and daughter Ivy Josephine, who celebrates her first birthday in February 2025. Barrett also teamed up with for KING & COUNTRY and The Piano Guys, noting that she was “a fan for several years,” and knew immediately upon hearing their rendition of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that she wanted to collaborate.
Barrett also marked the holiday season with her headlining debut in Nashville, Tennessee. She played her third Giving For Good show at the CMA Theater inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in an effort to support MURPHSLIFE, run by Aaron Murphy. The organization aims to help those struggling with poverty in El Salvador, “and it’s really touching,” Barrett said.
“Oh, my goodness. I would say ‘get ready for the roller coaster, girl. It’s gonna be a wild one.’ That’s what I would say. ‘Hold onto your britches,’” Barrett said when asked the advice she would give to her younger self about the life she lives now. “Personally and professionally, it’s been wild for me, the past I’d say five years. Really, whenever I got to Nashville and started writing. You know, I was releasing music while also having a family. A lot of people kind of do one at a time or you get one side established and then move to the other, you know? And so, for me, it was kind of like doing both at the same time. It’s been crazy. It’s been amazing, but it has been a journey to remember for sure, and something so fun that I get to take my kids along on on the ride for, now that I have three little ones. And it’s amazing to see them enjoy the music and dance to it, and be at the shows and tour with us through the summer. And just get to be mom and be the artist is really special. So, I would just tell (my) younger self to hold on for the ride. That’s the best advice I got for that.”