praise music

Brian Connelly, guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, discusses his new single, "The Best is Yet to Come," the role modern praise and worship plays in the Mass and playing guitar on tour with CCM artist Francesca Battistelli.

SUMMARY:
With nine Grammy nominations and a GMA Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year, Matt Maher is one of the leading songwriters in contemporary Christian music. He joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, collaboration, and and his evolving career. 

PART ONE:
Paul and Scott talk about the recent Ed Sheeran copyright infringement trial.

PART TWO:
Our in-depth conversation with Matt Maher

ABOUT MATT MAHER:
Matt Maher is one of the leading songwriters in contemporary Christian music. Raised in Canada, he studied jazz at Arizona State University before launching an artist career and releasing his major label debut, Empty & Beautiful, in 2008. The album spawned the Top 5 single “Your Grace is Enough.” He went on to find further success as an artist with self-penned songs such as “Alive Again,” “Hold Us Together,” “All the People Said Amen,” and the double platinum single “Lord, I Need You.” He has been nominated for nine Grammy awards and was named the GMA Dove Award Songwriter of the Year in 2015. Finding great success with parenthetical titles, Matt has written four songs that have hit #1 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart for him as an artist: “Because He Lives (Amen),” “Glory (Let There Be Peace),” “Alive & Breathing” (no parentheses), and “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours),” Additionally, he’s hit #1 by writing for other artists, including “I Lift My Hands” (with Chris Tomlin) and “Come As You” (with David Crowder). Further successes writing for other artists includes Chris Tomlin’s “I Will Rise,” “Third Day’s “Soul on Fire,” and Cody Carnes’s “Run to the Father,” among many others. Matt’s most recent album as a songwriting artist is called The Stories I Tell Myself.   

New Episode Today!! 
Today we’ll come around these intriguing questions: What if His presence is really His plan for us? And, what if His will for our lives is simply to walk with Him and treasure His “withness” with us more than anything? 

The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that the mundane really is the platform that God uses to refine us and grow us…to even shape our lives for longevity! Our part in it is learning to be aware of His presence and being willing to consistently meet with Him in the rhythm of our ordinary days. I know for me, it’s easy to allow the thing I’m building FOR Him to blind me from truly just seeing Him. 

I’m also going to share a song with you today called “Evermore” that comes around this beautiful theme of His presence being what He values most on our behalf! 

I’ll talk to you soon! 
-Christy

Listen to 'You Revive Me'
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Orenthia's Picks:

• Make Me Over, Tonex
• You Are Might, Nathanial Bassey & Chandler Moore
• Hold My Hand Today, Glacia Robinson

Camille's Picks:

• It Is Well With My Soul, Horatio Spafford
• No More Night, David Phelps
• Praise Him In Advance, Marvin Sapp

Part One:
Paul and Scott pay tribute to ZZ Top's Dusty Hill, talk about bands with unchanging lineups, delve into the particulars of magnificent Songcraft beards, and take a closer look at Billboard's Christian music charts.  

Part Two:
Our in-depth conversation with David Crowder

ABOUT DAVID CROWDER:
David Crowder is a phenomenally successful singer, songwriter, and musician in Christian music. He first rose to prominence with The David Crowder Band, which introduced church communities to songs such as “O Praise Him,” “Here is Our King,” and “How He Loves,” which has earned nearly 60 million streams on Spotify. The five-time Grammy nominee began a genre-bending solo career under the mononymous stage name Crowder in 2012, and has released four albums and a string of Top 10 singles including “I Am,” “Come As You Are,” “Forgiven,” “All My Hope,” “Red Letters,” and “Let it Rain.” Other staples from the Crowder songbook include “Open Skies,” “Everything Glorious,” “This I Know,” and “I’m Leaning on You.” Crowder has collaborated with a range of artists, including Chris Tomlin, Tauren Wells, Riley Clemmons, Maverick City Music, Marty Stuart, and Emmylou Harris, and has earned 16 GMA Dove Awards. His most recent album, Milk & Honey hit #1 on the US Christian charts, and the lead single “Good God Almighty” became his first song to hit #1 on all four Billboard Christian music charts. 

This week we are LIVE from the BBC sanctuary as Danny and the Praise team sing and share a devotion in a setting. 

ABOUT MAC POWELL

Mac Powell is best known as the lead singer of the contemporary Christian band Third Day, which sold more than 12 million albums in the US, earned two dozen Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and won four of the eleven Grammy awards for which they were nominated. Powell was a writer on most of Third Day’s singles, nearly 20 of which hit #1 on Billboard’s Christian charts. These include “Nothing At All,” which was also a Top 40 hit on the rock charts; “Alien,” “Sky Falls Down,” “40 Days,” and the gold-certified single “Cry Out to Jesus”—all of which won Dove Awards for rock song of the year; as well as the church standard “Your Love Oh Lord,” “Sing a Song,” “Mountain of God,” “Revelation,” “Born Again,” I Need a Miracle, the gold-certified “Soul on Fire,” and “Call My Name,” which was subsequently covered by Keith Urban. In addition to his work with Third Day, Powell has released four albums, either solo or with his group Mac Powell and the Family Reunion. He is an inductee into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame alongside fellow Songcraft guests including Mac Davis, Bill Anderson, William Bell, and Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls. 

American Songwriter Podcast Network