It’s that time of year. Chestnuts are roasting. Egg nog is being sipped. There are open fires, and Christmas songs are bringing festive cheer. Folk singer Danielle Cormier even has her own offering for the holiday season with “Coming Home This Christmas.” As the title suggests, the song—a follow up to her 2018 track “Christmas is You,” which gained more than three million listens on Spotify—is about being with the ones you love during Christmastime.
Videos by American Songwriter
“This song is about being with the ones you love for the holiday,” Cormier tells American Songwriter. “Sometimes it is the only time of year that you get to spend together.”
For Cormier, who grew up in Pinehurst, NC and now resides in Nashville, the song hits home for the singer since she spends more of her time away from family. Visually, the video, directed by Kimberly Nail, evokes the warmness of the season with Cormier, sat by a fireplace, singing No matter where I go no distance comes between us, I’m coming home.
Touching and deep in emotion, there was more levity in the actual shooting of the video. “We went to the store and found as many Christmas decorations that we could [find] and decorated this house,” she says. “Along with the performance sections sitting by the fire, we added in reflective moments and the moments leading up to me coming home for Christmas.”
Cormier, now 23, first studied musical theater at New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Society. Growing up, she learned piano and guitar and started singing early on in order to better mimic idols like Stevie Nicks and Norah Jones. After studying and realizing that music was her true calling, she released her first EP, Casino Sessions, packed everything up and moved to Nashville to pursue her dream.
Her career has been moving ever since. For her debut album, 2018’s Fire and Ice, she penned nine of the 10 tracks and pulled in Australian producer Adam Lester (John Mayer, Jewel), a guitarist for Peter Frampton. In a twist, Lester told the young singer that Frampton liked what he heard on Cormier’s song “Can’t Quit You,” so much that he went ahead and recorded a guitar solo, which is featured on the track.
Peter Frampton on her debut album and two holiday tracks under her belt—Cormier also has more new music in the works for 2020.
