Brandon Heath Live: CCM Christmas Celebration

For Brandon Heath, Christmas doesn’t begin with a quiet moment. It begins with noise, movement, and music turned up loud enough to fill the house.

“Our tradition is taking down all the, ornaments, decorations, box by box from our attic… and we just blare classic Christmas music like Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, that kind of jazz ensemble vibe.”

That image of ladders, boxes, classic records echoing through the house, is the foundation of Long Expected, Heath’s new Christmas album, and the newly released title track of the same name, available now. From the very start, Heath wanted the album to feel like Christmas feels in real life.

“So, for me, the beginning of a Christmas album should sound like that,” he explains. “It’s what the beginning of a Christmas season is at my house. And so, this whole record is really kind of what it is in my family.”

That initial explosion of excitement eventually settles into something deeper. Heath describes the season as a gradual narrowing of focus; it’s a movement from celebration into reflection.

“You know, we kind of take the bow off the gift and it just explodes,” he says. “But then as we focus in, as we get into the season, advent begins and we start honing in on the message of Christ and the manger. (This is) what God has been doing since the beginning of time in the garden. Prophesying that Jesus is coming,” he says. “I have two little girls, and we spend a lot of time teaching and reminding them what the season is about. And that’s what I wanted to do with the record.”

Heath’s first Christmas album leaned heavily into tradition, revisiting the songs he grew up singing. “My first album that I put out in 2013, I really wanted to rework some of the classics, because that’s what I love when I listen to Christmas music,” he says, “but on this one it’s 90% original,” Heath explains. “The last song a traditional. And I kept it very simple. O Holy night… I just sang it like we would at church.”

Writing original Christmas songs comes naturally for him, partly because of the creative boundaries the season provides.

“These are easier for me to write than my traditional CCM songs,” he says. “Number one, because I love Christmas. But as a songwriter, it is so nice to have a box because you know what Christmas is when you have the confines of a box.” While some writers resist limitation, Heath welcomes it.

“To me, it’s so much easier to write because I know what I’m doing,” he says. “So, a lot of these I’ve written by myself, I’ve had help from a few other people. But for me, it’s so easy to write an original because I just love it.” That love shows up not only in original songs, but in creative reimaginings of familiar ideas.

“For me, I love also taking a classic and putting a new spin on it, like Away in a Manger,” Heath says. “I thought, well, how can we make that clever? And so I was like, okay, God made a way… a way in a manger.”

Some of Long Expected comes straight from Heath’s own childhood memories. When he describes them, they are clearly vivid decades later.

“I actually I have a song on this new album called Santa Claus Will Find You,” he says. “And it was literally written about the fact that I didn’t have a chimney when I grew up, because we had we lived in an apartment complex, so I was I was always worried that Santa wouldn’t find me because there was no chimney to come down.”

His mom found a solution.

“But our stockings hung on an entertainment center,” Heath recalls. “You know, it was like one of those old school Walmart entertainment. Probably not even real wood laminate, entertainment centers. And she would hang our stockings over the television and Santa Claus always found us.”

Now, life looks different. The apartment is gone, replaced by a house with a yard, but moments of wonder remain.

“A couple of years ago, we had a snow, and it rarely snows in Nashville,” he says. “But it snowed on Christmas morning, and it was just so magic to run out in our snow gear. And just thank God that he decided to give us a white Christmas.”

This Christmas season finds Heath balancing gratitude and longing while on the road.

“I have been on the road, with Tasha Layton, who makes some of my favorite Christmas music,” he says. “Her husband, Keith, is her producer, and together they always create this amazing Christmas capsule like time moment in their music.” The shows are joyful, the friendships deep, but there’s an ache that comes with being away. “But then I remember my girls are at home doing the advent calendar without me this year,” Heath admits. That tension is something he’s learned to live with. “I have such gratitude that music is my job, that I get to be out with such great friends who it’s easy to be with them,” he says. “But they’re not my family and they feel the same thing.” Eventually, the road leads home. “I can’t wait to get home and just be in my PJ’s every day until Christmas.”

At the heart of the album and its title track is a hymn that has stayed with Heath for years.

“I love the old hymns,” he says. “I think of my granddad when I think about these old hymns that we would sing in church.” He remembers standing beside him, feeling the sound physically. “My granddad had this low baritone,” Heath says. “I would hug him and put my head up against him because I could literally, I could feel his body vibrating from how low his baritone base was.”

Musically, Heath wanted Long Expected to feel timeless. “So, I got the idea for a long expected from the old Charles Wesley hymn,” he says. “But I really wanted to give it this throwback Phil Spector Motown feel.”

That vision led to a special collaboration. “So, I called Alvin Love III in to write Long Expected with me, along with our friend Dan Muckala, who produced it,” Heath says. “And, we just we nailed it.” The song features a duet that Heath still marvels at. “We had Francesca Battistelli as the duet,” he says. “I mean, one of my favorite vocals and Christian music.” Looking back on it all, Heath smiles. “So, you know, all my CCM dreams came true.”

Brandon Heath’s Long Expected is available now.