When you think of Christmas music, it’s a natural to think of Bing Crosby‘s “White Christmas,” but not everyone remembers that Der Bingle actually sang about both sides of the holiday weather spectrum. He teamed with The Andrews Sisters to help popularize a Hawaiian-themed Christmas song called “Mele Kalikimaka.” So what does all this have to do with country music? Well, for snowless Florida native Jake Owen, he says the song was a perfect fit, and just the right touch of fun, to sing on the new CD, A Very Country Christmas. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• Also featuring Brad Paisley, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans, and more, A Very Country Christmas is available now, exclusively at Target.
• One song that sounds amazing year-round is Jake’s hot new single, “Alone with You,” the second favorite from Jake’s Barefoot Blue Jean Night album — and hey, Barefoot makes a great stocking stuffer!
• And speaking of “Alone with You,” yesterday, Jake premiered his video for the song on Facebook, and you can see it, right . About the song and the video, Jake says, “I think a lot of people can relate to to the lyrical content of ‘Alone with You.’ The line in the song ‘But you kiss me when you’re drunk’ is so real, and the music video is true to the storyline of the song. Basically, it’s about not finding love but comfort in someone’s arms who really isn’t the one for you, and sometimes no one else knows about it but the two of you. The video also features a supporting role by my bulldog Merle. He should win an award.” 

  Jake Owen shares the inspiration behind his song choice for the new CD, A Very Country Christmas. (:38)
“I just remember that song by Bing Crosby, ‘Mele Kalikimaka,’ which is Hawaiian for ‘merry Christmas.’ And in the song, it’s (singing) ‘mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day, that’s the island greeting we send to you from the land where palm trees sway.’ And that’s just…that’s where, you know, where I grew up, there’s palm trees, it’s always bright and sunny on Christmas Day. So, I wanted to do that instead of doin’, like, the whole ‘Silent Night’ or ‘Little Drummer Boy’ or somethin’ like that. I wanted to kind of bring it back to where I’m from, as well, so that’s why I did the ‘Mele Kalikimaka.’ You gotta bring some fun into Christmas, as well.”

  Jake Owen says that “White Christmas” was a holiday fantasy where he grew up. (:27)
“Where I grew up in Florida, we didn’t have snowy white Christmases like you hear about. You know, it’s kind of weird. You grow up, and Christmas is always portrayed as this cold and snow-white (singing) ‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,’ all that stuff, and it’s like, I never got that. I never saw that growin’ up. I had palm trees, and it was always 72 or 75 degrees and sunny on Christmas Day where we were from, and you didn’t get to wear the Christmas sweaters and stuff like that. It was like, we didn’t have that.”