A memorable moment from CBS' Dec. 20 airing of Garth & Trisha Live! A Holiday Concert Event came during Garth Brooks' emotional rendition of "Belleau Wood," a rarely performed cut off his 1997 album Sevens.
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Brooks gets so emotional in the above video from ET Canada that he has to stop and restart the Christmas song he co-wrote with Joe Henry.
"Good luck, buddy," Yearwood said of the song. "This one makes me cry and I never cry."
The holiday special also featured Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's versions of Christmas classics, such as "O Holy Night," "Feliz Navidad," "Santa Baby," "Silent Night" and Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas."
Brooks' holiday tune isn't about 1918's Battle of Belleau Wood, a famous World War I battle in France. Instead, it's based on the series of Christmas truces from four years earlier.
"The Christmas truce was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front around Christmas 1914," reads a description on lyric website Genius. "In the week leading up to the holiday, German and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In areas, men from both sides ventured into no man's land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing."
Brooks and Henry use these historical happenings to champion setting aside our petty differences and striving to get along.
Sevens debuted atop the Billboard 200 as well as the Top Country Albums chart. It later picked up a Grammy nomination (Best Country Album).
Brooks and Yearwood released a collection of holiday songs in 2016 titled Christmas Together. If you've belatedly filled the country music fan in your life's stocking with those songs of the season, don't forget to shop this year for Brooks' dual Nov. 20 releases: new album Fun, featuring Blake Shelton duet "Dive Bar," and a special edition of Triple Live.
Other Nashville stars spreading holiday cheer this season with Christmas specials and holiday albums worthy of future playlist consideration include Parton, Carrie Underwood and CMA Country Christmas hosts Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins.
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"Belleau Wood" Lyrics
Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence
Over Belleau Wood that night
For a Christmas truce had been declared
By both sides of the fight
As we lay there in our trenches
The silence broke in two
By a German soldier singing
A song that we all knew
Though I did not know the language
The song was "Silent Night"
Then I heard my buddy whisper
"All is calm and all is bright"
Then the fear and doubt surrounded me
Because I'd die if I was wrong
But I stood up in my trench
And I began to sing along
Then across the frozen battlefield
Another's voice joined in
Until one by one each man became
A singer of the hymn
Then I thought that I was dreaming
For right there in my sight
Stood the German soldier
'Neath the falling flakes of white
And he raised his hand and smiled at me
As if he seemed to say
Here's hoping we both live to see us
Find a better way
Then the devil's clock struck midnight
And the skies lit up again
And the battlefield where heaven stood
Was blown to hell again
But for just one fleeting moment
The answer seemed so clear
Heaven's not beyond the clouds
It's just beyond the fear
No, heaven's not beyond the clouds
It's for us, to find it, here
Now Watch: Luke Bryan's Family Story
https://rumble.com/embed/u7gve.v58c70/
