Before we're overwhelmed with Christmas music, how about a gentle Thanksgiving song? Like a generous neighbor who leaves a warm pecan pie at our doorstep, Nashville musician Ben Rector is delivering a tasty treat, too.

Enjoy a live performance of "The Thanksgiving Song," then read our Q&A with Ben Rector below the player.

What do you remember most about the shoot for this video?

My team and I felt that the song was really special and we knew we wanted to make a video for it but between my wife and I just having twins, Covid, and the short time frame, it felt really unlikely that we'd be able to pull off an traditional music video. I decided to go into a Nashville production space with some of the guys who made the Christmas record with me and we made this video for CMT.

How does the video bring your song to life?

I hope the video captures the nostalgia that of the song through the lighting, instruments and simplicity of the performance.

What message do you hope your fans take away from the song?

I hope it’s a small respite (even for just a couple of minutes) from the anxious times we’re living in, and helps them to remember what matters most, even in a year where things look different than they have before.

Why did you decide to write a Thanksgiving song? And how did you go about writing it?

I was initially going to write a Christmas song but realized that there are already so many fantastic Christmas songs that I didn't really have anything else to say about Christmas. I started to think about writing a song for Thanksgiving (thinking for sure there was loads of Thanksgiving music I just didn't know about), but after some research I realized there really wasn’t almost any. I decided to take a stab at it, and my secret hope is that it could become the official song of Thanksgiving.

Songwriter: Ben Rector; Director: Matthew Paskert