A Dan + Shay Christmas Album? ‘Maybe in the Next Couple of Years’
Country duo Dan + Shay returned to the CMA Country Christmas stage for a second year in a row in 2018, looking to, as they explained beforehand, shake up their performance a bit.
"Everybody's fallen in love with these Christmas songs over generations and generations, and traditionally, we've stuck pretty true to the song," the duo's Dan Smyers told The Boot and other media. "This year, we spiced it up a bit with a little bit of a different arrangement on "I'll Be Home for Christmas.""
The singer added that his and duo partner Shay Mooney's interpretation of the iconic holiday hit allows room for a playful, loose performance. "It's a little more rockin', and we're moving around a little more than we've traditionally done in the past," Smyers continued.
Dan + Shay are veteran holiday performers at this point, with plenty of experience in delivering both classic performances and more liberal interpretations of a number of different Christmas hits. In fact, Mooney jokes, they've performed enough holiday tunes to record a full Christmas album -- or, at the very least, an EP.
"Yeah, we're just gonna record all these performances and put them together," he says.
All jokes aside, however, the duo has thought about putting out their own holiday album: "We've been spending a couple of years making our record that came out this year, and we've been doing all these different versions -- alternate versions, acoustic versions, all these things -- and I was like, 'Let's do a Christmas version!'" Smyers adds. "But it's hard to find the time, you know? When you make a Christmas record, you have to kind of get started in, like, March or April to get it turned around in time."
While fans hoping for a Dan + Shay Christmas album in their stocking this year will be disappointed, the duo says it's possible that they will be ready to share some holiday tunes within the next few years. "Like Shay said, we've got a catalog: all the songs we've done at the CMA Country Christmas performances," Smyers says. "So maybe in the next couple of years, I don't know."
"We always say we're getting closer and closer," he continues. "But at least we know the lyrics to four or five of them, so that's a start."
The ninth annual CMA Country Christmas TV special will air on Dec. 10 at 8PM ET on ABC. In the meantime, readers can check out a sneak peek of some of the performances.
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