for KING & COUNTRY: A Drummer Boy Christmas
What a Year
In the year of the pandemic, award-winning band for King & Country set out to bring hope to a nation that’s going through unprecedented challenges. Early in 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the duo hosted the critically acclaimed live stream event “TOGETHER: A Night of Hope” to over 2.5 million viewers across all social media platforms. Typical sold-out concerts were off the table, the peak holiday touring season in concert halls took place in stadium parking lots. This was the result of the crippling impact of Covid-19 restrictions on live events. At the shows they had to follow local health guidelines. Everything about their work and touring changed dramatically, but the intrepid brothers adopted a new way to reach their audience. They were one of the few bands to tour and perform concerts at drive-in theaters. To do that they became one of the few groups in Christian music to champion such drive-in concerts with outdoor silver screens last summer.
Little Drummer Boy
Luke and Joel have always seemed to have a special place in their hearts for “The Little Drummer Boy” song. When they first decided to begin their band in 2012, they announced a Christmas tour without releasing any holiday tunes. They rehearsed an early take of the song before taking it on the road. “We were so zealous and excited that we could just play shows and people would show up,” Joel said. They had no Christmas single or album at the time and it worked. The song “went off like a house on fire,” Joel says. It became a staple of the band’s holiday outings and, last year, stole the show on CMA Country Christmas on ABC. The network exposure pushed a 2017 live version of the “Drummer Boy” song to No. 1 on Billboard’s Christian Digital Song Sales chart. The song received over 10 million views on the CMA Facebook page and over 3.4 million via YouTube. With the nation longing for hope, the band wanted to produce a record fit for 2020 and the hope a holiday season can offer. After the challenges of political tension, racial division, the social & economic changes, “…we really feel like Christmas 2020 is going to be one of the great Christmases of our life,” Joel says. “That it owes itself to get back to the heart of Christmas.” The band is holding drive-in tour dates until Dec 20.
