One of contemporary praise & worship’s most prolific songwriters, Paul Baloche, will release his new CD, A Greater Song, on April 4th on Integrity Music. The new CD features songwriting collaborations with Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Benton Brown and Sara Groves, resulting in a new collection of worship songs that are certain to find their way to churches all over the world.

As Baloche prepares to release his new CD, his now worship favourites Open the Eyes of My Heart and Above All (co-written with Lenny LeBlanc), are currently No. 2 and No. 22 on CCLI’s Top 25 Songs used in churches in the United States.

“Paul has an incomparable ability to take an intimate and personal expression of love for the Lord and create music that connects in a worship setting. I believe A Greater Song is his greatest collection of worship songs yet with several songs destined to become classics,” said Don Moen, president of Integrity Label Group.

A Greater Song was recorded live at Baloche’s home church, Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, where he has served as worship pastor for more than 15 years. Groves and Northern Ireland’s music treasure Kathryn Scott appear on A Greater Song, helping to express the theme of community and friendships that Baloche wanted to affirm with this record.

“The beginnings of the album were rooted in friendships with people that I’ve know over the years but never had the chance to work with,” said Baloche. “Then, when we finally recorded the album, I also invited worship leaders from all around my area to come and sing on the project to try and capture a sense of community.”

Nowhere is that friendship and community better expressed than with the songs themselves. Nine of the 10 new songs on A Greater Song are collaborations with some of today’s top modern and contemporary worship songwriters. Baloche also offers up a new version of Thank You Lord,” a song he and Don Moen wrote for Moen’s 2004 CD of the same title, and brings Scott’s ethereal vocals to a tender rendition of the classic hymn Just As I Am.

In addition to his new CD, Baloche has recently published God Songs: How to Write and Select Songs for Worship, a new book co-written by Baloche and Jimmy and Carol Owens. The book, which is distributed by Integrity, is a “How-To” book about turning prayers into songs. Also, Baloche released the latest volume of the DVD instructional series Music Theory Made Easy.

Baloche, together with Robin Mark, will be embarking on a tour of Ontario on May 5th culminating on May 12th at the Unite In Worship conference in Toronto. For more information visit the YMZ concert listings.