Michael W.Smith

Michael W.Smith is our artist of the Mont, here below is a big bio about him, so much has happen in his career we thought we had to show you all. With a new album out, we thought it would be good to learn a bit more of the history of Mr Micahel W.Smith

Michael W. Smith (born October 7, 1957) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, musician, recording artist, composer, and actor. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in Contemporary Christian Music, and he has achieved considerable success in the mainstream music industry as well.Smith is a three-time Grammy Award winner, and he has earned 34 Dove Awards. Over the course of his 24-year career, he has sold more than 13 million albums and he has recorded 29 number-one hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums.

Michael Whitaker Smith was born to Paul and Barbara Smith in Richmond Hill, West Virginia. His father was an oil refinery worker and his mother was a caterer. He inherited his love of baseball from his father, who had played in the minor leagues. As a child, he developed a love of music through his church. He learned piano at an early age and sang in his church choir.

In 1981, Smith was signed as a writer to Meadowgreen Music, where he racked up a number of highly successful gospel hits penned for artists like Sandi Patty, Kathy Troccoli, Bill Gaither, and Amy Grant. Some of these worship songs can be found in church hymnals. The following year, Smith began touring as a keyboardist for Grant on her Age to Age tour. He would eventually become Grant's opening act and recorded his first Grammy nominated solo album: The Michael W. Smith Project (which he also produced), in 1983, on the Reunion Records label; a label started by Grant's brother-in-law, Dan Harrell, along with Michael Blanton. This album contained the first recording of his hit "Friends", which he co-wrote with his wife Deborah. They wrote it one afternoon for a friend who was moving away.

By the time Smith's second pop album was released in 1984, he was headlining his own tours. In 1986, Smith released the critically acclaimed rock album The Big Picture, with well known record producer Johnny Potoker (Brian Eno, Genesis, Madonna, No Doubt, Talking Heads, etc). On a track titled "Tearing Down The Walls" from The Big Picture, Smith intros with an Amy Grant recording of "Emmanuel" played backwards via the CD search button. He has explained that he and Potoker were trying to come up with a different way to go into the song.After the release of his 1988 effort, i 2 (EYE), Smith once again teamed up with Grant for her "Lead Me On World Tour". The following year, Smith recorded his first Christmas album.

Smith released some songs over his career into the Mainstream ,In 1990, Smith released Go West Young Man, his first mainstream effort, including the mainstream crossover hit "Place in This World," which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1992, he released Change Your World (which included the #1 adult contemporary hit "I Will Be Here For You"), 1995's I'll Lead You Home, and 1998's Live the Life. Also in 1998, Smith released his second Christmas effort, Christmastime. In 1999, Smith released "This Is Your Time" (which is about Cassie Bernall, one of the students who was killed during the Columbine massacre. She was killed when one of the shooters reportedly asked her if she believed in God, and she said yes (although some reports of the killings indicate that a different girl who was shot but survived was asked that question).

Smith's album, Healing Rain, was released in 2004 and debuted at #11 on the Billboard Hot 200 Chart. The title track rose to #1 on the Radio & Records Charts and a music video for the song was released. The album nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album, combines the pop style of his previous recordings with the religious feel of his two releases in that genre. A new album, Stand, was released in November 2006.

Smith and his wife have written the theme songs for Kanakuk Kamps for the past two decades. The theme songs have birthed such hits as "Love Crusade", "Live the Life", and "Straight to the Heart".At a concert in Wabash, Indiana on April 29, 2007, Smith announced that he was soon headed to London to begin recording his third Christmas album. It was reported in Christian Today that the new album would be a collection of all-original Christmas songs. The album, It’s A Wonderful Christmas, was released on October 16, 2007.

On June 20, 2008, Smith recorded his third live Christian-themed album at the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, to be titled A New Hallelujah. It was released on October 28, 2008 On October 9, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio, he will unite with his friend and fellow Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman, beginning a multi-city concert series called The United Tour.

Chris Tomlin

As his new album Hello Love came out this month, we have decided to make Chris Tomlin our Artist of The Month, read below for info about Mr Chris Tomlin, and keep checking back to our review page for our view on his latest album

Christopher Dwayne Tomlin (born May 4, 1972) is a Christian worship leader and songwriter from Grand Saline, Texas, United States. He is a former staff member at Austin Stone Community Church and is signed to EMI's sixstepsrecords. Tomlin also leads worship at many Passion events. Some of his most well-known songs are "How Great Is Our God", "Indescribable", "Forever", "Famous One", "We Fall Down", "Holy Is the Lord" and "Made to Worship".

According to the Christian Copyright Licensing International, Tomlin is the most sung Christian artist in the United States. He was awarded Male Vocalist at the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Gospel Music Awards, and was named Artist of the Year in 2007 and 2008. Chris Tomlin released his seventh studio album Hello Love on September 2, 2008. Tomlin is one of the members of Compassionart, a charity founded by Martin Smith

Following on from the success of Arrival and See The Morning – Chris Tomlin returns with his new album HELLO LOVE produced by Ed Cash who produced both previous albums. With recent appearances at Passion London, a return visit to Frenzy Festival, concerts in Belfast and Stoke, Chris Tomlin’s impact in the UK worship and Christian music communities has been very substantial.

Hello Love, communicates what he describes as the “need to introduce ourselves to love again.” The album endeavours to give voice to the Church to worship their Creator. Songs including “Love,” “God of This City,” “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “I Will Rise,” and “Jesus Messiah” are already impacting worshippers across the globe, as Tomlin debuts his new music on Passion’s first ever world tour. Check out more about everything at his website http://www.christomlin.com/

David Crowder Band

"We perceive music as a means of empathizing with one another and enunciating something common among us in our experiences of life and faith. Our band's latest musical offering is for us the next available step in this journey; musically, lyrically, and thematically it is the sound of one foot coming down firmly in the present while the other simultaneously rises, exiting the space previously occupied, throwing our weight in a forward direction of momentum and consequence toward whatever lies ahead." David Crowder

In this life, it's not uncommon to feel the weight of sadness. People in the proximity of our affections die. Grief resides in our chest as a result of loss, or tragedy, or some other pain. Yet by some miracle, God pours Himself into us. He shines in our deepest despair, and somehow repairs what's been torn apart.

David Crowder Band's newest offering, Remedy, combines their trademark unique and energetic style with band leader Crowder's inventive self-production. Remedy features ten tracks in perpetual motion, from opener, "The Glory of It All," to closing track, "Surely We Can Change," hope and a call to action are consistently present. Tracks "Can You Feel It" and the first single, "Everything Glorious," convey that God is everywhere even during times when we can't feel Him. Title cut, "Remedy", accentuates the wounded human condition, while simultaneously challenging people to be the remedy in a world that is broken.

With the belief that it is people who evoke change in the world and not just songs themselves, the band's most recent project dares their audience to look outward, so that the songs they sing are more than just words, but instead are momentum toward change. "It seems like from the moment we get here, we breathe in individualism," Crowder says. "And so, this record is, for us, an answer to the question of how we interact with something much broader than ourselves. It's to provoke change in ourselves, and to export that change to others."

Building on this idea, touring will start to take on the responsibility of exporting change, providing an opportunity for immediate action, leveraging each night with a chance for fans to put legs to the message that is thread throughout the album: Individuals can, and do, change the planet, and the Church can, and should, be at the front of that change. Check out the band website here