Just In Time For Christmas, Wes Brown Gives Us A New Album Of Holiday Tunes

Your Christmas dinner soundtrack is sorted.

For years, Louisiana native Wes Brown has been a staple of our holiday movie marathons as a regular leading man in the Hallmark universe. In fact, this year, in the feel good network’s Countdown to Christmas lineup we see him in not one but two festive flicks. He stars opposite Lacey Chabert in Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up, the sequel to last year’s comedy hit. But, eagle-eyed viewers would have also noticed that he popped up in another of our new favorites, A Biltmore Christmas. Did you catch it?

Not only has Brown become a regular visitor to our homes via our television screens, but something else kept happening in his Hallmark movies. He was being cast in roles where he was also asked to perform music. We all remember the two movies he starred in opposite Kellie Pickler that were filmed at Graceland, right? “I was so happy that they kept pairing me with music and movies. Music and movies. I was like, well at this point maybe I should feel it out and put a couple things out to see if anyone really likes them,” Brown recently told Southern Living.  So back in 2020, that’s what he did. He put out a few singles just ahead of the holidays and turns out, folks loved it.

“I always had it in mind that one day we’ll do a full record. But I don’t have a music manager.  I'm an independent artist. No one’s paying for this other than me. So I had to find the right time and place and so yeah this felt like the right time and the right place.”

My Kind of Christmas is that full album, complete with eleven songs, and it is available now. Not only can you stream, you can buy it on vinyl and have it as a part of your permanent holiday collection. Brown says he draws his inspiration from some of his biggest idols. “Some of my biggest heroes that I’ve always looked up to like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin. I loved the fact that they were actors and musicians and they combined both of them.” He also notes that Harry Connick Jr, fellow Louisiana native, is also on that list.

There is one original in the line up, “Snowed In With You,” that Brown wrote for his wife, inspired by a night they did get snowed in together. But as for the rest of the line up, they are Brown’s own take on some Christmas classics. “I titled the album My Kind of Christmas. I like that nostalgia of ‘40s ‘50s New York/New Orleans so I took the songs that best represent that era. Those jazzy, timeless classics.”

He notes that he did take a little input when selecting which tunes would make the cut. “My daughter asked me to please do either ‘Frosty the Snowman’ or ‘Jingle Bells.’ I didn’t really want to do those two but she asked so i said well you can pick one. Not two. So she picked Frosty. So that’s why Frosty is on there.”

Brown recorded the album live with a group of local musicians in Nashville. They were all together in the studio performing the music at the same time, which Brown notes is a “really old school way” of recording. What comes out of it is the perfect soundtrack for your Christmas dinner party.

The veteran actor has been humbled by the response of fans so far, and says he feels honored that first with his holiday films and now this album, “I get to be a further small part of someone’s holidays and traditions.”

We know what we’ll have playing on repeat all season long.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.