Lainey, Ashley, Trisha On ‘CMA Country Christmas’

The Country Music Association has revealed this year's hosts and performers for its 14th annual holiday television special, CMA Country Christmas.

Hosted by country music stars Amy Grant and Trisha Yearwood, CMA Country Christmas features performances by Jordan Davis, Grant, Lady A, Ashley McBryde, Jon Pardi, Lindsey Stirling, The War And Treaty, Zach Williams, Lainey Wilson, and Yearwood.

We talked with Lainey about her first performance on the CMA country music show, which has become a Nashville tradition. She told us, "Yeah, so I got to do 'Go Tell It On The Mountian' with Zach Williams; I'm a big fan of Zach Wiliams, just like the grot in his voice. We met the day we actually recorded the song, and we hit it off immediately. He's just a good dude."

Wilson is no stranger to the classic song. She said, "I grew up singing that song. I remember singing 'Go Tell It On The Mountain' at a church special at Baskin Baptist church. I think it was the same night that I got the words wrong to 'Silent Night' and ran off the stage crying."

She laughed, "So, I was trying to redeem myself with this one, you know?"

Filmed in Nashville in front of a live audience, the holiday special showcases one-of-a-kind musical performances of festive classics from country music's biggest stars. CMA Country Christmas airs Thursday, December 14 (8:00-9:02 PM/EST) on ABC and the next day on Hulu and Disney+.

Starting in 2010, CMA Country Christmas rings in the holiday season annually. The event is filmed in Nashville and airs each holiday season on ABC. ABC is the network home to the CMA Awards and CMA's summer concert TV special "CMA Fest."

Lainey Wilson, crowned CMA's Entertainer of the Year in November, spent the summer opening shows on a number of tours, including Eric Church's "Outsiders Revival Tour." Lainey even joined Eric on stage recnetly in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The two sang "Over When It's Over," and one fan captured the performance on TikTok.

Church's camp posted images from night two of his Orange Beach, Alabama show, including a shot from Lainey and him on stage during soundcheck. His team captioned the images, "Night 20 of #TheOutsidersRevivalTour 8.18.23 // Orange Beach, AL (Night 2) // The Wharf Amphitheater."

See that post here.

Lainey posted along with several photos of herself with Eric on stage during sound check and then at the show, "Had the time of my life with ya this weekend @ericchurchmusic! Thank ya for bringing me out. Orange Beach, y'all were awesome."

Several fans reacted to her post, including one who commented, "Girl, U Can Rock Anything!" Another fan wrote, "The best in country music to me." One more fan said, "We were there Friday & Saturday nights & it was amazing! How y'all performed the way you did & we were soaking wet from sweating while just watching!"

See that post here.

Country icon Dolly Parton revealed earlier this year to ET Canada that she and Wilson would release a duet in honor of The Judds, for the tribute album that was released in October. Dolly said when asked about it, "With Lainey Wilson…. I just did with her; we've got a song we did for The Judds. They're doing an album for The Judds for mental illness and some of the problems that [Naomi Judd] had."

She added, "So they're doing a whole album of the songs, and I got to do 'Mama He's Crazy' with Lainey. I don't even know her. So, I'm going to get a chance to visit."

The duet came out in October.

We gathered four of what we believe are Wilson's top collaborations to date. We have a feeling there will be many more to come.

This fun song started a viral trend that had Blake Shelton and Kane Brown among the country stars joining Lauren on social media to dance. Lainey shines on this song, as does Lauren. The lyrics include, "Thelma and Louise and some faded blue denim / Jumpin' in them Wranglers, barely gettin' in em / Buttons hangin' on, thank god they ain't givin' / Flauntin' what we got like we do it for a livin' / Dressed to kill (Dressed to kill), to the nines (To the nines) / I got her back (She got my back), and she got mine."

The chorus includes the lyrics, "We're thicker than our accents, thicker than our hair / Thicker than the Georgia and Louisiana air / Thicker than molasses from the patches to the seams / Stealin' hearts is in our jeans / Us southern girls, we're thick as thieves, we're thick as thieves / We're thick as thieves, we're thick as thieves."

This collaboration came as a surprise when Lainey joined Jelly to sign it at the 58th ACM Awards in May. The song will be released as a single for these two label mates. Lainey said of Jelly in a recent interview, "I was an extra in a music video of his in, like, 2013. It was one that he did with Uncle Kracker. I was a drunk girl, passed out on the ground." She said it was her first interaction with Jelly, and even then, she could tell he was a "good dude."

A powerful duet with Cole Swindell that topped Billboard's Country Airplay chart. Cole said of the song when it came out, "I wrote 'Never Say Never' with Jessi Alexander and Chase McGill in 2018 about a relationship you just can't stay away from; I have been a fan of Lainey Wilson's for a while now and what she brings to this song is everything it needed."

"Wait In The Truck" is one of country music's best murder songs. She and HARDY show off some impressive acting chops in the dramatic video for the song that won Collaborative Music Video of the Year at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. "Wait In The Truck" also won ACM awards in 2023 for Visual Media of the Year (video) and Musical Event of the Year. When HARDY and Wilson won their ACM awards, HARDY said on the stage, “Man, thank you, Lainey. You absolutely killed it. There was never a doubt that you were always the one to make people believe this song.”