Brad Paisley is giving fans an early Christmas gift with the release of his brand-new album, Snow Globe Town, out today (Friday, Nov. 7). The warm holiday-themed offering includes 16 tracks, half of which are originals co-penned by the country star himself and the other half are fan-favorite reimagined classics.
Paisley is no stranger to getting into the Christmas spirit (he released a holiday album in 2006), but Snow Globe Town wasn’t part of any grand plan. In fact, the country superstar didn’t have a thought about creating the project until Hallmark reached out.
“If you had asked me what my next project was in July. I would’ve told you I was just writing songs…. I didn’t know I was doing a Christmas album,” the country star told Music Mayhem and other media during a recent round-robin. “It was around that time that Hallmark approached me about being part of this Opry movie they were making. I said, Sure. And then they asked if I would write a song, and then they asked if I would write three songs….”
Before long, Paisley found himself not only starring in the upcoming movie A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, but also crafting an entire seasonal album tied to its spirit. What began as a side project quickly turned into a full-blown creative journey blending nostalgia, humor, and heart.
Two songs from Snow Globe Town, “Falling Just Like the Snow” and “Leave the Christmas Lights On For Me,” co-written alongside Chris DuBois are featured in the Hallmark film while a third original “Counting Down The Days,” also penned with DuBois, holds the title as the official anthem of Hallmark Channel’s 16th annual Countdown To Christmas season run of classics.
Of the latter of those three, Paisley says, “They wanted a song that basically says, this is something we’re going to use as our countdown. And they had some things they threw out that were sort of titles, but I’m like, ‘Let’s just lean into the fact that that’s what we all are doing. ’ It is a better time. It is a time when to me there’s more joy, there’s more peace there. In the chorus, it says, ‘The world’s a better place this time of year,’ and I can’t wait every year. I’m just all about it.”
As for the title track, “Snow Globe Town,” Paisley says he drew inspiration from his co-writer Clint Lagerberg, who put him on the idea that Franklin, Tennessee is a snow globe town in the winter time where “It looks like they just shook it up, and it’s got the tree in the middle of the town square and every shop has lights, and it’s just magic.”
That same visualization lends itself to the album artwork, which became a family affair, with Paisley’s eldest son, William Huckleberry “Huck” Paisley, 18, receiving credit for the imagery on Snow Globe Town.
Of his original concept for the cover art, Paisley said, “I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bunch of snow globe-making supplies. I thought I’d make a snow globe and take a picture of it. Then I realized, I didn’t have a month to do that.”
So he sketched a snow globe instead. “I drew a rough outline myself, tried different backgrounds, and then my son Huck looked at it and said, ‘You’ve got this all wrong,” he laughs. “He redrew it and added this really cool touch. He added this wear on an old record sleeve. It looks like an older album with drawings on it. That’s his handwriting on the cover, too. So he basically took what was a concept I had and did it right.”
The result captures the warmth Paisley wanted the music to evoke, and a playfulness that reminds him of A Charlie Brown Christmas, with what he calls “that jazziness and the adventurousness in the music that we played.”
In putting together Snow Globe Town, Paisley paid attention to the sequencing, with hopes that folks would listen to the entire album from top to bottom. In addition to that, he focused on the lyrics of his original songs with the idea that they would become timeless, so people can listen to them for years to come.
“It’s funny, a term like lit… It’s the oldest one on here,” Paisley explained of the track titled “Lit” on the album. “I wrote that last year around Christmastime. And so with ‘Lit,’ I looked it up because I was like, how new of an expression is it? And I mean, I think it goes back to the 50s. People would say it.”
“I was surprised by that,” he continued. “I thought it would be a recent thing, but no, it’s in The Andy Griffith Show. So it felt good to find a new way to express, one way to cope with the holidays. And then the other is to, it’s like it says in the songs, ‘every year I’m reminded why dry January is a thing.’ And my wife always does dry January, which is, I just don’t drink enough to need to, that’s all.”
As for the sequencing behind the project, Paisley notes, “It’s asking too much, it seems these days to say, ‘Here’s an album, listen from beginning to end’ when everything gets busy. But at Christmas, it’s just a slower time. I don’t know, it seems like it’s just a whole lot more of a chance that people just don’t hit shuffle and hit play, and they don’t have to listen…I think your best shot in this modern consumption era [for people to listen straight through] is with a Christmas record.”
Snow Globe Town opens with “Plug it in, Sparky,” featuring behind-the-scenes studio chatter, which captures the warmth and camaraderie of the sessions. From there, it moves through songs that mirror the emotional rhythm of the holidays.
It starts with that excitement, Paisley says, “In ‘Counting Down the Days’ where it goes ’I can’t wait,’ And it goes through the warmth of chestnuts and all that stuff to the midpoint of the record.
“Once you come out of ‘O Holy Night,’ by the time you hit the midpoint with ‘Lit,’ it’s like, okay, enough now I’m ready for these people to leave. I love these people, but when do they leave?” he jokes. “And that’s around the halfway point, and that’s inevitable. As much as I love this time of year more than anything, there is a moment when I look at my wife and go, When do they go?…. Then by the end, you’re ready for it again, so we end the album with ‘Christmastime’s A Comin’,’ it’s kind of like, here it comes again. We’re going to do it again because Christmas is a loop.”
The lighter side of the holidays comes through in songs like “That Crazy Elf (On The Shelf)” inspired by real-life chaos at the Paisley household. “Our elves are nuts,” he admits. “They’ve filled a whole shower with ball pit balls…broken a window… made hot tubs out of Cool Whip containers. Every year, they have a big concert the day before they leave… It’s ridiculous, but it’s tradition.”
At the heart of it all is home, though. Paisley and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, host Christmas on their Tennessee farm each year, turning the special occasion into a lively, laughter-filled gathering of family, friends, and unforgettable memories to look back on.
“We’ve celebrated every Christmas here since having kids,” Paisley says. “We were the first to have kids in the family. We built this, and we’re like, ‘We’re first, you have to come here.’ …It’s Christmas Central. There’s a leg lamp over there, we’re ready… It’s decorated already, lights everywhere. I told my family this year, forget Halloween decorations, let’s just skip to Christmas. I love the gathering of family.”
Last year, 21 family members gathered under the Paisley roof. “The longer time goes, the more you realize [how precious that is],” the artist says quietly, before revealing that feeling is captured in “Last Year” — one of the album’s most poignant tracks.
“I wrote it after losing my wife’s cousin, Steven,” Paisley explains, revealing that he passed away young, right before Christmas. “That was the worst year… he died of an infection. He was 40. He had a five-year-old…. His family and his wife and son still came here for Christmas… and somehow we got through it. But that song is about cherishing the memories you’ve already made.”
Paisley, who enjoys making Shirley temples for the younger folks in his family, laughs when asked about touring a Christmas record. “You could, but I don’t want to spend my Christmas on the road,” he says. “I’d rather play a few things here and there and be home. There’s even a song about that.”
After a year that included playing the historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado for the first time, collaborating with Walker Hayes on the “Zady Tour,” and creating a Hallmark movie soundtrack, Paisley is ready to be at home, surrounded by family, guitars, and a whole lot of twinkling lights.
Folks can find him soon, however, as he will make his cameo in the A Grand Ole Opry Christmas film. The new, original movie set to air over Thanksgiving weekend stars Nikki DeLoach (Curious Caterer Mysteries, Our Holiday Story) and Kristoffer Polaha (A Biltmore Christmas, The Christmas Quest). A Grand Ole Opry Christmas premieres Saturday, November 29. at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel. The film is also available to stream the next day on Hallmark+.
