This week, HearItFirst.ca premieres albums by two very soulful singers who both just so happen to be sporting soul patches.

Throughout his two-year journey into the artist’s life brought on by his debut album Grace Like Rain, Todd Agnew has taken ample opportunity to analyze the reasons and the motivations behind the things he sees, says and does, and has channeled them into the dozen songs chronicling the Christian existence for his Ardent Records sophomore release.

Everything you’ll hear is a Reflection of Something.

“I’m ready to get this out there, to get it to the people who care about it and experience it, so they can tell me what it is,” Agnew says of the new project.

“The identity of this record is that it’s music that I care about and topics that are where I’ve been, but as far as what it will really mean to other people, it’s still kind of up in the air. That’s why I’m looking forward to hearing from other people and figuring out what it is.”

When success in the music business brings an artist the freedom to make his dream project, all too many have used their long leash as a license for self-indulgence, recording albums so personal or experimental, few wanted to hear them. For Bart Millard, the voice of MercyMe, that freedom afforded him opportunity to create a personal project to be sure, but one that will undoubtedly touch the hearts of thousands.

As Bart tells it, “When my son Sam was born three years ago, my wife Shannon and I were talking about memories of our grandmothers singing these old hymns to us that we pretty much didn’t understand when we were kids, but are now a huge part of who we are. And we were wondering if our son will have those songs in the future, because they’re just not sung much in churches today. It’s rare to even see a hymnal in a lot of the churches we play now. The praise and worship movement has been incredible, but so many of the songs are really incredibly similar, and the lyrics to many of them really just pale in comparison to the hymns.”

The fruits of Millard’s labors may be a collection of traditional hymns, but the results are anything but old-fashioned. Hymned is a heartwarming love letter to the foundations of the artist’s own life, wrapped in a rich variety of musical styles which are contemporary and fresh, yet anchored in America’s musical history.

Head over to HearItFirst.ca to listen to samples from these projects. “Hymned” will available on August 9th and “Reflection Of Something” will be available on August 16th at Canadian Christian retailers nationwide. To locate the store nearest you, visit CMCStoreFinder.com.

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