Audrey Assad was born in Secaucus, New Jersey to a Virginian mother and a Syrian father on July 1, 1983, and was raised in a religious Protestant household. She started to play the piano at 2 and spent her youth moving around New Jersey before settling in Scotch Plains from ages 7 to 18. She attended public school until middle school, where her experience there caused her to ask her mother to homeschool her, which she did. Assad spent her adolescence being homeschooled, working at her father's businesses, and attending church events.

When Assad was 18 her family moved to Florida and she spent the next six years there. At 19 she briefly attended college and supported herself with odd jobs while beginning her musical career, writing and composing songs for the first time. Assad spent the next five years playing at various venues performing original songs and covers. Venues ranged from restaurants, weddings and coffee shops to leading and organizing worship concerts at church. Around 2003 Assad recorded a 4-song demo with Drew Middleton, a member of the CCM band Tenth Avenue North at the time, whom Assad toured with occasionally..........

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Kari Jobe grew up knowing God was drawing her toward worship. “I remember hearing a worship song that applied perfectly to a family that I knew, and I knew that I wanted to write songs like that, for people who are hurting, songs that people make their own prayer to the Lord when they can’t find words of their own.”

A featured worship leader on Gateway Worship projects, Living for You and Wake Up ...the World, Kari released her self-titled debut album through Gateway Create Publishing and Integrity Music on February 10, 2009. Produced by Ed Cash, the album contains a collection of worship pop/folk songs written by Kari Jobe as well as co-writes with worship leaders/songwriters Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, Mia Fieldes, Ed Cash and Klaus Kuehn.

The album, Kari Jobe, features new versions of “Revelation Song,” “No Sweeter Name” and “My Beloved,” in addition to new songs of worship taken from Kari’s life and journals. She explains one of her favorites, the deeply personal “You Are for Me,” saying, “This song is gut-wrenching for me. There are times you are so broken that all you can do is sing over yourself with words like, ‘God is for me.’ But I believe it is one song that people can use to remember that God is for us, so who can be against us.” Songs of intimate musings are balanced by songs of joy and praise. The buoyant “Everyone Needs a Little” emanates with expressions of love, joy and hope, while “I’m Singing” conveys a simple happiness of heart in vocal praise to God.

“This album is about hope and life; it’s about lifting the broken off the floor and singing love over them,” says Kari. “The songs create intimate moments and outward shouting, and it’s my hope that these songs find the broken and lift them to a place of praise to God for what He’s done.”....

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The band began when David Crowder, from Texarkana, Texas, realized that almost half of the students at Baylor University were not attending church. Finding this very surprising, since it is a Christian university, he and Chris Seay started University Baptist Church (Waco, Texas) in 1995 while he was still a student. Crowder led worship there and continued to do so throughout the year. The church's congregation grew, as did the band's lineup.

Crowder began writing songs to incorporate into the worship times at the church and eventually the church released an independent CD, Pour Over Me, followed by All I Can Say in 1999. These CDs brought the band to a wider audience and invitations to festivals and events followed. The band was signed to sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records and has released six more albums to date (see discography). The band tours the United States continuously, but make it back to their home church in Waco, Texas relatively often. It has been said[by whom?] that Kyle Lake, University Baptist Church's former pastor and also longtime friend of the band, had a strong influence on the band's music in terms of content and inspiration both during his life and after his death.

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Matthew Joseph West (born April 25, 1977) is a Contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released four studio albums and is known for his #1 hits "More", "You Are Everything", and "The Motions". He was nominated for five Dove Awards in 2005, two of which were for his major label debut album Happy.

First starting out as an independent musician in the late 1990s, he released three independent albums before signing with Universal South Records. With the release of his Dove Award-winning debut album Happy (2003) came the success of his first radio single "More", which stayed at #1 on Christian AC charts for nine weeks and received two Dove Award nominations. His second record History (2005) was followed by a 2006 re-release of the originally independent album Sellout. In 2007 he faced vocal issues which threatened his career with two months of prescribed vocal rest. His third studio album Something to Say (2008) also enjoyed chart success with #1 hits "You Are Everything" and "The Motions".

In addition to his main solo career, West has worked as a songwriter for many Christian musicians and groups such as Point of Grace, Mandisa, and Natalie Grant, as well as mainstream country acts Rascal Flatts and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Matthew West was born on April 25, 1977 in Downers Grove, IL. As a child he was a fan of his hometown baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, and wanted to eventually have a career in baseball. He played baseball throughout high school, becoming team captain as a senior. He was hoping for a college baseball scholarship but instead ended up receiving a four-year music scholarship at Millikin University in Illinois. He graduated from Millikin in 1999...........


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Steven Curtis Chapman - recreation 2011 Biography and History

Steven Curtis Chapman returns with his new album re:creation. The new album features 5 new songs from Steven including the first single “Do Everything”, and all-new recordings of his 8 biggest hits. The entire album has a progressive and fresh acoustic sound, which reflects the energy and life found in the songs. The title speaks to the actual re:creation of these songs, which are re-imagined and ...re-recorded in a new musical space. More and most importantly though, the word re:creation speaks to the new life God is re-creating for Steven and his family as they walk forward in their lives.

“I wrote the song “Do Everything” really to remind myself and also to encourage others that everything matters; everything we do can be done as an act of worship,” says Steven. “I Corinthians 10 says, “Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.” There’s this tendency it seems to think of life with this line drawn down the middle where there’s the spiritual stuff on one side and then just the stuff of life on the other. Really though, I think God wants us to remember, and I’m trying to learn, that whether it’s walking the dog, washing the dishes, taking out the trash... to the really big spiritual moments, that all of that can be done as an act of worship and everything can be done to bring glory to the God who made us for that very purpose..........


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Bethany Dillon - Beautiful The Hits Collection 2011 Biography and history

From her recording debut at age 14, Bethany Dillon was one of those rare young singer/songwriters who did not fit the status quo. Her songs possessed a lyrical depth that belied her age. Her carriage, sense of composure and way of looking at the world revealed a certain maturity, disarming for one so young.

So it almost seems a given, seven years later, that 21-year...-old Bethany Dillon—now married and living in Dallas with her husband, Shane Barnard (Shane & Shane)—would be officially grown up.

That she has something even more complete and compelling to say is a given, too. Major life moments have a way of doing that to anyone.

“The last year has been the sweetest year of my 21...” Bethany says, “There are so many layers to it, and I don’t always feel like a grown up, but it’s been a really sweet time of learning. I can see the grace of God in it. So much has come to the surface.”

Stop & Listen, Bethany’s fourth release on Sparrow Records, reveals a young woman coming to terms with God’s grace in a new season of becoming.

“This record is probably the most confessional record I’ve ever made,” Bethany says. “These songs feel a little more raw to me than usual. It’s probably just true the more life goes on, the more aware you are of your failures and struggles. And with that, in a believer’s life comes—odd as it is—a deeper joy.”

Produced by Marshall Altman (Brooke Frasier, Warren Barfield), a Los Angeles-based producer who persistently sought Bethany out after hearing her acoustic EP, Stop & Listen is a call to peace in the middle of life expectations and the day-to-day chaos that all too often takes over.

“Most of the songs are about the not-so-simple ideas of stopping, listening and waiting,” Bethany explains.

The title track—which she co-wrote with Joy Williams and Ben Glover—sets the tone. “I’m a to-do list person,” Bethany adds, “but I’m still called to know God and have an intimacy with Him, even in busy seasons. That Bible story of Mary and Martha has always bothered me. There’s Martha working so hard to get everything right and Mary sitting at Jesus feet. And Martha, in all her frustration, saying ‘Don’t you care that I’m doing all this?’ And Jesus replying, ‘You’re anxious about a lot of things, but Mary has chosen the one thing necessary...’ That’s such a hard thing for anybody to hear. That haunting call of the Lord... When I see Him face to face, I want to know Him. I’m called to know Him.”

“The Way I Come To You,” perhaps as much as any song on the CD, reflects this singer/songwriter’s spiritual journey as of late: “I love being married to Shane for lots of reasons—one being, how much I’ve learned about loving Jesus from him. He is constantly talking about the glory of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The more time I spend with him, the more I’m hit with the reality... the forgiveness and reconciliation found in Jesus is staggering. The freedom that we who are in Christ have is ETERNAL!”

“Get Up and Walk,” a song inspired by stories of healing throughout the New Testament, is a powerful reminder that God still restores the broken: “The promises in the Bible that grip me the most are the ones of contrast,” Bethany explains, “turning ashes into beauty, heaviness into a garment of praise, being transferred from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of light. The words of Jesus ring true today, that he (or she) who’s forgiven much, loves much.... I’ve been forgiven of much; I was deaf, blind, and completely lost. But He broke through my deafness, and has forgiven me of much, and I can’t help but love Him much in return.”

“Reach Out,” continues the thread, inspired by an outcast woman in the Gospels (Mark 5; Luke 8). “What’s so moving about her story for me is her abandon,” Bethany says. “She had reached this point, this depth of need, that she was willing to risk her life to get healed by this man named Jesus. Her urgency is tangible on those pages—she couldn’t reveal her presence there, so she pushed her way through until she could just touch [Him],

--more--

...she took advantage of being in Jesus’ presence.” Such a story, she says, begs the question of us: are we desperate enough to have that kind of faith, to pursue Jesus at any cost?

Always one to push herself to write deeper and truer songs, Bethany says Stop & Listen is a big step forward. “I’ve always felt a sense of direction and focus in my writing, even back at age 14 and 15,” she says, “but I think even that has been honed and sharpened. The things I want to write about, the desire to tell a complete story, I think that’s really fresh.” The result on this record, she says, has been in being able to push through the anxiety that plagues the process and instead, relax and stretch.

Longtime producer and co-writer, Ed Cash collaborated with Bethany on two songs, including the first single, “Everyone To Know,” a simple, carefree song that sticks with you, long after the track is over.

I want everyone to know, everyone to know
I wanna tell the world about your love

“We wrote it in two hours... very simple, played the melody on the piano, and I was so drawn to it,” Bethany says. “It’s about how my life is so different, what I thought was freedom wasn’t... I remember chasing after things that didn’t satisfy me, and how now, being in a simple place, learning how to depend on God, I can finally see how much freedom there is. This song seemed like such a divine appointment, a reminder that the love of God in Jesus is so satisfying. Honestly, its one of the first singles I’ve felt really connected to.”

Sonically, Stop & Listen takes a decidedly different turn as well, not completely removing Bethany from the acoustic pop space she’s settled into, but giving her songs the layered, detailed attention they deserve. “Production-wise, a lot is going on,” she says. “But Marshall was really drawn toward the songs more than production, so there isn’t much in the way of huge dynamics—ear candy, strings, etc.—but rather simple, five or six instruments playing on a song. The players were so good, they spoke the same vocabulary to each other, and they really listened to the lyrics.........


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Peter Andrew Furler (born September 8, 1966) is an Australian musician, songwriter, producer, and record executive but is best known as the former lead singer for the Christian rock band Newsboys.Furler was born in McLaren Vale.........



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Matt Redman (born 14 February 1974) is an English Christian worship leader, songwriter and author based in Atlanta. He was one of the main worship leaders associated with the Soul Survivor youth organisation.....



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