Luke Bryan Reigns At Spring Break Panama City

CRAIG MORGAN THROWS A YULE LOG ON THE “BONFIRE”

NEW CHRISTMAS VERSION OF HIT SINGLE RECORDED IN HOTEL BATHROOM --REALLY

“But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night..."

Craig Morgan is throwing a fresh Yule log on the bonfire this season, releasing an all-new holiday-themed version of his current Top 5 smash hit single “Bonfire.” “Bonfire,” from Craig’s BNA Records CD That’s Why, is in its fourth week as country radio listeners’ current favorite song, topping all radio research surveys and heading for the top of the country radio charts. The new version of the song shipped to country radio last week and will be digitally available for purchase beginning December 21st.

“This song is getting huge crowd response at all of my shows, and I’ve played it live A LOT over the past few months,” says Craig. “When you tour like I do, you spend a lot of hours on the bus, and one day I was just playing around with this song and also riffing on some Christmas stuff I was thinking about putting in the show, and then I started messing with the lyrics. Within about ten minutes I had this new version, and everyone got a kick out of the idea...my band, family, even management and the label, so we decided to run with it!”

But running with it was easier said than done, given Craig’s unrelenting schedule, and the new version of the song was literally recorded in a hotel bathroom. The bathroom of Room 418 of the Holiday Inn Express in Kennesaw, Georgia to be exact. Since his return from entertaining the troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Germany earlier this fall, Craig has been on the road constantly and the new version of the song had to be recorded and shipped for Christmas. So, Craig’s co-producer Phil O’Donnell and engineer Mitch Malloy packed up some portable recording gear and headed to Kennesaw to meet Morgan in Georgia before a gig.

O’Donnell and Malloy set up their gear and converted Room 418 into a studio, using the bathroom as an isolation booth for vocals. When Craig arrived, they were ready to go and recorded the new version in just under an hour. “Talk about working in crappy conditions,” Craig joked about his make-shift vocal booth.

The next day, O’Donnell and Malloy returned to Nashville, where they finished the holiday track by adding jingle bells (borrowed from Malloy’s daughter’s toy box), tambourine, some percussion, and even their own vocals for background. Malloy mixed and mastered the song, sent it around for quick approval, and within four days the “Bonfire” Christmas Version was on its way to radio.

To hear the new Christmas Version of “Bonfire,” click here: http://www.myspace.com/craigmorgan.  

Craig is finishing out the year with a run of tour dates leading up to a USO trip later this month, his second time to entertain our US troops overseas since October. He is also filming episodes of his own TV series, Craig Morgan: All Access Outdoors. The show will begin airing in 2010 on both GAC and the Outdoor Channel.