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Artist Description | NewSong
Dove Award-winning, Grammy-nominated hitmaker, NewSong, has been writing and performing unforgettable songs about life and faith since their beginning. Classics, including Arise, My Love, Red Letter Day, People Get Ready and The Christmas Shoes, which became a No. 1 mainstream AC radio single, have become radio and fan favourites. In 1994, they launched the first-of-its-kind ‘Jam’ concert series - multi-artist, ticketless concerts that give thousands the opportunity to not only hear incredible music, but also to hear the gospel message.
And the people responded, rewarding NewSong with 17 No. 1 singles, five of the Top 100 Christian radio singles of the past decade, and over two million units sold to date. The group has performed before over one million people in the past five years, and over 250,000 in the past year alone. Most importantly, during their first 22 dates of 2005, over 7,787 people made decisions for Christ and over 4,300 child sponsorships were acquired for World Vision.
But for this band of experienced musicians and artists, the success, the songs, the longevity; these things have been the result of following the lead of God.
In 2005, nothing… and everything… has changed with the release of Rescue (Integrity Records), NewSong’s debut worship project and first live album.
“Recording a worship project has been on our hearts for a while,” says NewSong co-founder Eddie Carswell of the album. “I had been praying about it for a few years. So, when we connected with Integrity, we knew it was the right season. I believe this project is part of a fresh wind that God is blowing across our ministry.”
Carswell and fellow NewSong members Billy Goodwin, Michael O’Brien, Scotty Wilbanks and Matt Butler recorded the album with producer Paul Mills at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia. The group arranged all of the songs with Wilbanks co-producing the live tracks. According to Carswell, the location and live aspect of the recording was a “homecoming” for the group. “First Baptist is the church home for several of us in the band,” says Carswell. “And because we have always put so much effort into our concert performances, doing a live recording just seemed natural.”
The big challenge, they all agree, was simply getting out of the way of what God wanted to do. “When you do a worship record like this, it’s not like you want to force people into worship, you want to lead them, model worship for them, focus in on what you’re singing about,” says Michael O’Brien of the live event. “I was really overwhelmed. We’d rehearsed for weeks, but there were songs I learned the night before that I didn’t know the words to. I didn’t know how I was going to get through it, but I was amazed at how God took us through it. God’s grace made it possible. It was life-changing for a lot of people.”
What some critics are calling NewSong’s finest work ever, Rescue opens with Blessed Be Your Name, (Redman) a powerful song that cuts to the core of God’s grace in good times and bad. The infectious, electrified Psalm 40 and You Are Holy follow, led by O’Brien in an enthusiastic call and response from the audience. “Wonderful Maker” (Tomlin) makes a beautiful companion ballad to the ethereal, moving How Great Thou Art. Compelling new songs like Before the Day, which talks about our desperate need for time alone in worship, I’ll Rise, Every Day’s Another Day (Journey to Eternity), and the title track add a worshipful depth to this deftly balanced worship experience. My Glorious, an exceptional cover of the Delirious? favourite, is a surprising delight as only NewSong could deliver. But the closing anthem, Arise My Love, NewSong’s unforgettable classic, closes the evening and the album as it should be. “When you sing it,” Billy Goodwin says, “you’re pretty much done. It always leaves people on their faces before God in worship.”
Sharing his favourite memory from the CD and DVD recording, Carswell recalls the title track. “Michael had been talking about how desperate we feel at times and how desperately we need Jesus,” says Carswell. “We had just started singing Rescue with the intent of offering an altar call afterwards. But, as soon as we started singing the song, people started coming forward even before the invitation. It was an amazing God moment.”
“The whole experience was something fresh for us,” echoes Goodwin, “getting caught up in what God wanted to do in that evening, for us and for the people.” “We’re really trying to let go, to stop pushing things in the direction we feel it should go and instead let God lead and just try to follow. God has always used change as a good thing for NewSong. We’ve always embraced it. So when it all works out, like it did with this recording, all we can say really is that we minded God on this one, and He knew what he was doing.
“Our commitment for 25 years has been ‘God, we’ll do this as long as your hand is on it, and when you’re done with this, we’ll do something else.’ And He has shown no signs of letting up. With Rescue, I believe He’s doing another new thing in us and through us.”
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