Faith Hill photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Nashville.
Dec. 2, 2008 — Faith Hill released her first Christmas album this year and titled it Joy To The World. It’s an appropriate name, not only because she recorded a version of the holiday classic with that name, but also because it was a joyful experience in the studio.
Current studio techniques usually employ a lot of overdubbing, but in this situation, Faith brought the whole orchestra into the studio and did it all live with the musicians.
"It was awesome," she told Dial-Global. "I mean, any singer would die at the chance to sing with an orchestra. And horns, too — I mean, just to have live horns there and percussion. We did have a small band for 'Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town,' 'Winter Wonderland,' the more jazz-type, big band songs. They were there live as well. It just adds an element of excitement that we don't get the opportunity to have every recording."
The album peaked last week at No. 2 on the Billboard country albums chart. And Faith will appropriately be singing holiday music Wednesday during the NBC special "Christmas In Rockefeller Center." Also on board for that show will be Rascal Flatts, Miley Cyrus, Tony Bennett and Kermit The Frog.
Tune in to GAC this Saturday, December 6 at 10 p.m. ET to watch Faith's intimate concert — originally filmed for PBS Soundstage and re-airing on GAC — featuring songs from Joy To The World!