This week’s premieres include two singer-songwriters.

Summer 2008, pre-screening audiences resoundingly chose the song “While I’m Waiting” from singer/songwriter John Waller as their favourite song from the hit movie Fireproof. As the promising sparks of a hit movie grew into a blaze of box-office and DVD sales success, John Waller likewise saw a significant bump of his own music sales due to his song’s movie placement.

“I’m sure most people can relate to this song,” says Waller, “but the important thing to remember while we’re waiting on God, is to not just wait, but to actively wait. Serve, worship and be faithful with what you have, where you are… even while you wait.” Indeed, this overflowing message of trust in the Lord is so important that it soon became the prevailing sentiment of Waller’s sophomore album, also titled While I’m Waiting.

With songs like “Faith Is Living”, “Cling To The Call” and “The Lord Reigns Here”, this writer of declaration-style anthems for the body of Christ is once again giving listeners biblical words to claim as their own during trying and uncertain times.

“My calling is to go deeper into God’s Word and to let that truth set me free,” John relates. “When people sing the truth of God’s Word it changes their lives. I don’t know anything more powerful!”

Young but uniquely experienced, Phillip LaRue has an admirable grip on how to live, and the proof is written all over his debut solo album, Let the Road Pave Itself. An organic set of songs for the digital age, it was tracked live in the studio to an old fashioned two-inch tape reel, warmly capturing the sound of Phillip and his friends playing real time rock that’s only ever concerned with life’s deepest matters of love and faith. An honest, freewheeling spirit that instantly sets it apart from the big machine. Let the Road Pave Itself is catchy without trying to sound commercial, Phillip writes stay-in-your-head songs from the heart; real life musical stories about open-book faith, his closest loved ones, and struggling friends who don’t always believe as he does.

Phillip’s path began in California. An athlete until sixteen, he picked up the guitar after getting sidelined by mononucleosis. Without premeditation, his new interest turned into a duo with his sister, Natalie, and they scored a record deal in Nashville where the family was about to relocate from Arizona. Three albums and four years of touring followed.

LaRue, as the group was known, charted several pop hits and called it a day after Natalie wed. Phillip moved to Florida and produced notable indie acts like Over The Rhine and Dave Barnes for a worship project based on the Psalms. Now back in Music City, he has recently written and produced rising band Tenth Avenue North and penned a hit for Brandon Heath while pondering his own return to upfront artistry.

Both titles will be available this Tuesday, April 7th at your local Canadian Christian retailer. Let the Road Pave Itself will be specially priced at $9.99. Keep track of all the new and upcoming releases via your own personal copy of the April New Music Tuesday poster. Head over to HearItFirst.ca to hear these new releases.

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