Christmastime is great.

Country artists have always been great at recording the holiday classics. Newcomer Craig Campbell has released his first holiday tune. It’s the classic version of I’ll Be Home For Christmas. It’s one of my personal favorite songs and I think Craig does a great job on it.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Craig Campbell

Craig has a great country voice. He sounds like he could have recorded in any era. There is a classic appeal in his voice yet he comes across as updated and modern with his original material. I think he’s been one of the under appreciated stories of the last year or so in country music.

With I’ll Be Home For Christmas Craig shows off his talents once again. The song is slow. It’s a little somber, but the promise of the song is in the title. There is hope that the lead character will make it home to see his family. Craig nails this feeling in the vocals. You can feel the yearning to get home and see his family. I’m sure there are people in Craig’s life he’s excited to see this time of year. He’s been out touring and playing for radio stations all year and it’s probably been a nonstop affair.

Hopefully Craig can find some time for family over the holidays before heading back out to keep the momentum riding in 2012. I think he could continue to climb the charts and see success in the new year, possibly with a new record out next fall. We’ll see.

I have to give a little nod to the director of the video, Marcel. You might recognize the name from a few country hits. He’s been a songwriter including having a co-write on the #1 Josh Gracin hit Nothin’ To Lose. For the last couple years he’s been directing country music videos and it seems like one of his new videos comes out just about every week these days.

The video is great. It highlights a few of the emotions military folks feel when they see their families for the holidays.

I like the moment at the end when Craig is reunited with his family. He even decorated the bus for them. I guess home can be anywhere even out on the road with your family.

For a time you can even get a free download of the song at Craig’s official site.