Bringing Peace on Earth

Call it life feeding art. Call it truth in advertising. Call it a vintage Francesca moment. It happened as Francesca Battistelli was working on the follow-up to My Paper Heart, one of the most joyful and successful national debuts in recent memory, and it provides a telling glimpse into the mindset that makes her art so powerfully uplifting.

“I’ve heard it said that music is the language of the soul,” says internationally-renowned recording artist Jason Castro. “I think it’s something God created for our souls to be able to rejoice in.”

Their background may have made it look easy—after all, Sidewalk Prophets toured with Jeremy Camp and Audio Adrenaline on the strength of independent albums, then rode the popularity of their first Word Records release, These Simple Truths, to a Dove Award for Best New Artist and a nomination for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. "The Words I Would Say" hit #3, "You Can Have Me" went Top 20, a Christmas single, "Hope Was Born This Night," hit the Top 10, and "You Love Me Anyway" went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Christian Singles chart. The band has toured with the Rock and Worship Roadshow with MercyMe and Francesca Battistelli, among others, and landed another Dove nomination for Group of the Year in 2011.

Listeners have come to expect inspiring and remarkable stories in songs from Mark Schultz, a 14-time Dove Award nominee and platinum-selling artist who touches hearts whether he sings about parents praying for a sick child (“He’s My Son”), or writes in honor of his great-grandmother’s sons who fought in World War II (“Letters From War”).

Turn on your TV or radio and you’ll find no shortage of next-big-things and overnight successes. But in the midst of all of that noise, you may find yourself craving something more. Something authentic, something familiar, yet fresh.

Bear Rinehart (vocals, guitar, piano)—Bo Rinehart (guitar, backing vocals)—Seth Bolt (bass, backing vocals)—Joe Stillwell (drums, backing vocals)

Musical depth and Christian joy have rarely come together as compellingly as they do in the music of Dara Maclean. Hers is a joyful mix of pop idioms and eternal truths, danceable beats and the good news.

If there’s one word to aptly describe both Group 1 Crew’s artistic ingenuity and personal growth since we last heard from the five-time Dove Award-winning troupe, it’s certainly Fearless as the title to their fourth studio CD so boldly proclaims. Besides pushing the musical envelope towards an endlessly infectious stream of hip-hop, rap, pop, rock and inspirational confections, it’s impossible not to notice the exponential personal growth for co-vocalists Manwell Reyes and Blanca Reyes Callahan.

“When we live the love of the Gospel out loud, a revolution will occur.”

Have you ever watched a movie scene where the seasons change in a matter of seconds, progressing the story from the present to the future? There, in one sweeping scene, you can witness the passage of time and its impact on people’s lives.