Ashley Cooke’s Five-Song ‘wrapped’ Is Her First Holiday EP

By Marcus Bennett

Ashley Cooke’s five-song holiday EP, ‘wrapped,’ is available now through Big Loud Records and Back Blocks Music.

Cooke, a country singer-songwriter, uses the record to bring festive romance, Christmas standards and family participation onto one short release. It contains two original songs and three holiday favourites. As her first holiday EP, it works less as a single seasonal gesture than as a compact programme with several centres of gravity.

What does ‘wrapped’ add to Cooke’s holiday catalogue?

Four named tracks show the range:

• “secret santa” opens with Cooke’s specific Christmas wish: “a baby-blue-eyed heartthrob with just the right combination of naughty and nice.” Its bouncy, flirtatious energy gives the project its comic starting point.
• “wrapped,” the title track, treats holiday romance as the excitement of having someone special to celebrate the season with. The song supplies the EP’s direct emotional centre.
• “silent night (with the cooke family)” brings several members of Cooke’s family onto a traditional carol. Pedal steel gives the arrangement a distinct country flavour, while the shared voices make the recording a study in family togetherness.
• “jingle bell rock” closes the named sequence with a retro-inspired sound. Cooke’s sister Jenn Cooke and mother Beth Cooke add sweet harmonies that broaden the track beyond a solo performance.

Across these songs, Cooke moves from flirtatious comedy to direct feeling and family warmth, displaying warmth, humour and vocal range. The family contributions give the collection its own personality and make it feel like an invitation into Cooke’s own Christmas celebrations.

Nashville production

Jacob Durrett produced the EP; his credits include Morgan Wallen and Cole Swindell, while the Nashville lineup features guitarist Tom Bukovac and drummer Jerry Roe. Their playing helps connect the traditional holiday influences with Cooke’s contemporary country sound. It gives the standards a country setting without stripping them of the familiarity listeners expect from the season.

The production choice matters because this is not an artist stepping outside country for one seasonal commission. Durrett, Bukovac and Roe keep the project inside Cooke’s established musical vocabulary, while the relatives supply a different kind of immediacy. That balance makes the EP a holiday offering rather than a genre reset.

‘baby blues’ and the wider career

‘wrapped’ follows Cooke’s self-titled sophomore album, a 15-song collection that includes “the hell you are” and “baby blues.” The latter has surpassed 90.5 million streams and reached No. 1 on SiriusXM The Highway’s Hot 30 Countdown. The “baby blues” music video features comedian Matt Rife.

Those results give the holiday release an established platform. ‘wrapped’ now sits beside a successful contemporary country catalogue and a song with an international audience.

Cooke is continuing her international ‘baby blues world tour’, with upcoming performances in the United Kingdom before the run concludes on February 25, 2027, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The British dates place the holiday EP within an active touring period. Listeners can encounter ‘wrapped’ alongside the songs behind “baby blues” before the Nashville finale.

What changes for Cooke’s listeners?

The practical change is immediate: Cooke now has a five-song seasonal release that foregrounds family voices as clearly as romance. It is brief, direct and built around relatives, harmonies and familiar Christmas material.

For Cooke, the EP establishes a seasonal format built around family performance and a compact five-song programme, adding a distinct holiday context to her contemporary country catalogue. Her United Kingdom performances will place ‘wrapped’ before audiences already familiar with “baby blues.” If the holiday project continues, the family format established here could shape her next seasonal record.