Brooks & Dunn Hook Up The Sleigh, Change Christmas Title -- It Won't Be Christmas Without You Is Now Official, Still Due 10/22

Nashville: When it comes time for thoughts to turn to Christmas, those seasonal elves on Music Row have a way of getting into some pretty deep discussions. And when talk turned to what was Hangin' 'Round The Mistletoe, B&D's first ever Christmas album, one song kept surfacing as being the stand-out cut: the tear-stained ballad of the Christmas-that-will-not-be "It Won't Be Christmas Without You."

"No matter who we talked to, that title kept coming up," says Dunn, "and then people started talking about it maybe getting played on the radio. You know, you never know with these things… Do you go with the fun title? Or the more gut-wrenching one? We weren't sure, either. But it just seemed like folks were trying to tell us something.

And so Hangin' 'Round The Mistletoe became It Won't Be Christmas Without You. Like the song, it is a title as timeless and as plummeting as the deepest of holiday regrets. Written by Dunn with Tulsa-era Eric Clapton alum Jerry Lynn Williams -- and featuring a strong chart by David (Aerosmith, Beck) Campbell, "It Won't Be Christmas Without You" sets the lights down low, the emotions up high and the holiday regrets on stun.

The reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainers of the Year fill out their holiday debut with a few soon to be classics (including the Kostas-penned bit of whimsy and tinsel "Hangin' 'Round The Mistletoe," Deborah Allen's rollicking "Rockin' Little Christmas" and Kix Brooks' plinking perspective adjustment tale "Who Says There Ain't No Santa Claus") as well as songs that're loved by countless generations (the string-soaked "Christmas Song," the high-honky-tonk, twin-fiddled and B-3 encrusted "Winter Wonderland," the Western-swung "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and the low-lights heartbreak cha-cha that "Blue Christmas" has morphed into).

Having seen their last three country singles go straight to #1 -- the 6-week chart-topper "There Ain't Nothing 'Bout You," which was Billboard's Most Played Song of 2001, "Only In America" and the aching "The Long Good-Bye" -- marking the first time the precedent-making duo had gone three-in-a-row since their multi-, multi-platinum Brand New Man debut, it's hard to imagine just what Ronnie and Kix might want Santa to leave under their tree. But with an album destined to be a honky tonk holiday classic in the chute, the ringleaders of the Neon Circus & Wild West Show, hands down the greatest show on hooves, may well have given fans of no-punches-pulled country music a pretty frolicsome gift pretty early in the season.

With an Oct 22 street date on It Won't Be Christmas Without You and the Entertainer and Duo of the Year nominations from the 36th annual Country Music Association Awards, Brooks & Dunn are in the chute and ready to rock. Just watch'em.

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