''Santa Will Find You!'' is an

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

released by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Chely Wright Chely Wright (born Richell Rene Wright; October 25, 1970) is an American Activism, activist, author, and country music artist. She initially rose to fame as a commercial country recording artist with several charting singles, including the numb ...

. It was released on October 26, 2018 by Painted Red Music Group, and The Orchard. ''Santa Will Find You'' was Wright's first album collection of

holiday songs A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

and her third extended play release in her career. It contained a total of six tracks.

Background and content

Since the release of 2016's '' I Am the Rain,'' Chely Wright had not recorded new music. For several years, she had been contemplating the recording of a holiday record. She was partly inspired by the album's title track, which was originally included on

Mindy Smith Melinda Leigh Smith (born June 1, 1972, Long Island, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. Her first record deal came after she sang a cover version of the song " Jolene" by Dolly Parton. Music career Smith was adopted at birth by a non-d ...

's 2007 album, '' My Holiday.'' The song had originally been composed in tribute to military men and women overseas. However, Wright felt the song took new meaning in her recent role of becoming a mother. The extended play contained a total of six new holiday tracks. In a 2018 interview with ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

,'' Wright said that she felt ready to make a holiday album: "It's been tugging at me to make a holiday record for a long time, especially since I had a couple songs that have a track record already. I felt like I had a head start on it." Along with its title track, additional songs on the record were first cut by other performers. The track, "It Really Is (A Wonderful Life)" was first recorded by the

Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duet (music), duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in Primary school, elementary school and began performing together as Secondary school, hig ...

. Wright later performed the tune at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

before officially recording it for the album. "Christmas Isn't Christmas Time" was composed by Wright and her friend,

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with " What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers ...

. A second version of the track was included on the album that was made to resemble that of producer,

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

. "When I hear a Spector record, even when it’s not a Christmas song, it just takes me to Christmas," Wright commented to ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

.'' The project was recorded at three separate studios in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

: The 515 Studio, Sputnik Sound and the Jigsaw Studio. It was co-produced by Jeremy Lister and Dustin Ransom.

Release and reception

''Santa Will Find You!'' was first released on October 26, 2018 in conjunction with the Painted Red Music Group (Wright's own label), The Orchard and her own self-released company, Chely Wright. The album was offered as a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

and a digital download. Following its release, Wright commented to ''Taste of Country'' that she "hope this music becomes part of a new emotional landscape for listeners." ''Santa Will Find You!'' was reviewed positively by Bobby Moore of the music publication, ''Stomp and Stammer.'' Moore called its five songs to be "dripping with the down-home vibes craved by her longtime fans and new listeners ." In addition, Moore concluded: "The vibe of this release owes a lot to music still relatively new in ’73, copying the sounds of the season from the singer’s own childhood. That’s not to timestamp songs that sound relevant in 2018 and should beckon new rounds of holiday cheer for years to come." In addition, Robert Crawford of ''Rolling Stone'' named its title track one of the magazine's "10 Best Country Songs of the Week" in December 2018.

Track listing

Personnel

All credits are adapted from the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

of ''Santa Willd Find You!'' and

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Musical personnel * Vinnie Ciesielski –

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Court Clement –

12-string electric guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

* Eleonore Denig –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

* Tara Johnson –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

* Emily Kohavi –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

, violin * Besty Lamb – viola * Jeremy Lister –

Tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

, background vocals * Richard Marx – featured artist * Emily Nelson –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

* Dustin Ransom – Background vocals,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

fender rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in Sout ...

, hand-clapping,

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, sleigh bells, tambourine,

toy piano The toy piano, also known as the ( in German), is a small piano-like musical instrument. Most modern toy pianos use round metal rods, as opposed to strings in a regular piano, to produce sound. The U.S. Library of Congress recognizes the toy pia ...

tubular bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

, Wurlitzer piano * Tyler Summers –

Baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

* Oscar Utterström –

Trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

* Kevin Whitsett –

Upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Chely Wright – lead vocals, background vocals Technical personnel * Adam Bokesch – engineer * Joe Causey – mastering * Mitch Dane – additional production, engineer * Charlene Daniels – photography * Marla Frazee – cover art * Jeremy Lister – orchestral arrangements, producer * Jonathan Lister – mixing assistant * Richie Lister – orchestral arrangements * Dustin Ransom – engineer, mixing, orchestral arrangements, producer * Koehn Terry – assistant engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Chely Wright 2018 EPs Chely Wright albums Christmas EPs Country Christmas albums