The multi-platinum, Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Hunters Hayes brings the traditional holiday playlist to homes everywhere with the Evergreen Christmas Sessions EP. The four nostalgic cover songs, tinged with jazz, echo the innocent vocals of Hayes, whose wide vocal range helps him sound like he was made for festive mornings around the tree.
Since breakout hits ‘Wanted' (2012) and ‘I Want Crazy' (2014), which helped Hunter earn GRAMMY nominations, as well as American Country Awards acknowledgement, Hayes has evolved from a youthful country-pop breakout into a more genre-spanning artist, experimenting with production and instrumentation, as evidenced on the ‘Wild Blue' (2021) and independently released ‘Red Sky' albums (2023), which offer a beautifully harmonious and layered approach to music.
The holiday release of the four festive covers starts with ‘Winter Wonderland’ a gentle telling of building a snowman on a lovely afternoon’s wander. The follow up, and equally mellow, track encourages us to ditch our worries for three minutes in ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, which wouldn’t actually be a bad thing.
Hayes kicks things up a couple of tempos, putting his own upbeat spin on the Chuck Berry classic, ‘Run Run Rudolph’. It sort of works, and showcases great guitar skills, but at two minutes longer than the original, it goes on a little too long and loses impact.
The EP closes with the strongest track on the album, ‘Silent Night’, a paired back faithful nod to the Christmas classic, written in 1818 by Gruber and Mohr (the ‘90s film reference is an unexpected nostalgic nod I can get behind: yes, ‘Die Hard' is a Christmas film). Hayes’ control of his vocal delivery offers depth for less on the melody. Of the EP, Hayes shares, “I hope these songs become as much a part of your holiday season as they have mine for so long. These songs have been the soundtrack to so many Christmas memories for me and my family through the years, and it means the world to share them in a new way!”
While the four song EP will remind wider audiences of Hayes – especially the holiday music collecting fans – these tracks do sort of wander off the path forged with his more recent albums, that the now independent artist is taking musically. We're here to remind you that they are definitely worth a listen after you’ve had these fifteen minutes of Christmas from Hayes!
Track list: 1. Winter Wonderland 2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 3. Run Run Rudolph 4. Silent Night Record Label: LP Entertainment Release date: 7th November 2025.
