Amanda Shires has announced her first-ever Christmas album, For Christmas, Due November 12 via Silver Knife/Thirty Tigers (pre-order). It has nine originals and two covers (one of Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and one of "Silent Night"), and the first single is the original "Gone for Christmas," a brooding country/gospel/rock song featuring gospel singers The McCrary Sisters that doesn't exactly exude typical holiday cheer.
"'Gone for Christmas’ is a truth," Amanda says. "You're going to ask for things for Christmas, so what do you really want? I liked the idea of the outlandish mixed with how you actually feel. We actually feel like, ‘Oh my, I'm so tired of all this shit, and I want a different scene.’ But maybe you don't want really that, but you just want to say extreme things. I was thinking of the ultimate Christmas list, and then at the end, I was thinking about how most of the items on it were impossible."