After three decades together, iconic alternative rock band The Choir releases their 14th studio album, “The Loudest Sound Ever Heard,” today! As one of the few bands left standing from the 1980’s SoCal music movement wave that swept nationwide more than 30 years ago, The Choir continues to make their renowned atmospheric music married to lyrics stirred by life’s inspirational lessons in the context of real relationships – love, despair, light, dark, hope, and recovery.

The project’s title of The Loudest Sound Ever Heard is taken from the infamous volcanic explosion on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in the late 19th century. “A quick Wikipedia search revealed that to this day the event is considered to be “the loudest sound ever heard,” Drummer/lyricist Hindalong explains. “I referred to that tragic occurrence in the first verse of the song ‘I’m Learning to Fly,’ which is thematically central to the album. It’s about living each day like it truly matters. ‘Living to love in a dying world.’ Such catastrophic events remind us of our vulnerability, and how we ought to celebrate every breath.”

The final song on the album, ‘After All,’ features a stunning duet with Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer. “We’ve known Leigh since way back,” says Daugherty, “She’s a friend and one of my favorite singers ever. We’re thrilled that she was able to sing on this project. Matt Slocum [Sixpence guitarist] also played cello on a couple of songs. Those guys are great.”

To celebrate the release their new CD, the band is giving away a free download of our last album, “Burning Like The Midnight Sun,” on Noisetrade.com for 1 week only!  The download also includes one of their new songs, “Cross That River.”  Visit www.noisetrade.com/thechoir to get it now!

“I’m so glad we get to keep doing records like this. Here we are standing together 30 years down the line and we still love and respect each other. It’s amazing, really.” –Dan Michaels

“We are fortunate to have such devoted listeners after all these years. That’s what keeps us motivated to continue making music. In that way we are lucky and blessed, and I’m thankful.” –Derri Daugherty

“We don’t pretend to have the answers. We are still struggling, still wandering and seeking; but if our music inspires listeners to consider important things with open hearts, well, that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the spirit of love will stir within and the truth will resonate.” -Steve Hindalong

Click here to go get the brand new album, “Loudest Sound Ever Heard” now!

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Singer/songwriter and popular touring artist Mark Wagner releases his fourth national studio album,” NeedLove,” next week, and we’re excited to bring you a great free download from him called “Hideaway” along with some behind the scenes video footage from him.

In true Wagner fashion, “NeedLove,” showcases his aptitude for accessible lyrics intended, on this record, to remind listeners of their need for God’s love. Songs like “All I Need” and “Carry Your Love” speak to the redemptive quality of His love, while “Made For Love” emphasizes our reason for being–to be loved by Him.

Check out the making of the album + his latest music video for “Gonna Be With You” below!

“Our deepest longing is to be known and to be loved. For most of us, we spend years chasing after all the wrong kinds of love before we find the right kind, the kind we really need. I created this album as a reminder that God created us in order to know us and love us.” –Mark Wagner

In addition to enlisting Ben Shive (Matt Wertz, Andrew Peterson, Sara Groves) as a co-producer and session player on NeedLove, Wagner tapped songwriters Andrew Osenga of Caedmon’s Call and Mark Trussell, recently a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” among others. NeedLove also includes a cover of the popular Rich Mullins tune, “Creed.”

Mark is also impacting lives with his music by making it exclusively available through non-profit, Mocha Club, an organization formed in 2005 to strategically fund relief and development projects in Africa. They work in five main project areas: Clean Water, Education, Child Mothers + Women At Risk, Orphan Care + Vulnerable Children, and HIV/AIDS + Healthcare, providing a way for people to make a real difference with just $7 (the cost of two mochas).

“We’re thankful for our continuing partnership with Mark Wagner and are excited that he’d want to release his new album exclusively with us,” says Jeff Jackson, artist relations director for Mocha Club. “His efforts will make a significant and lasting impact on Mocha Club’s outreach in Ethiopia with our Women at Risk ministry.”

For more information on how to get your copy of NeedLove, visit: www.themochaclub.org/artists/wagner. To find out more about Mark Wagner, go to www.markwagnermusic.com or follow him on Facebook and Twitter

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We’re excited to introduce a new artist to you this week – Lara Landon, who has a brand new album out today! The record, “Overcome,” is her sophomore project and really speaks of our authority as God’s beloved to triumph over life’s most difficult circumstances. Lara has taken that message on tour and abroad, serving the least of these with New Reality International, the non-profit she and her sister co-founded in 2006.

“Being on the road, sharing my songs with people in different settings, has allowed me to see the real needs they have,” she shares. “ I was able to see how they were hurting, how they needed encouragement, and how God was moving in similar ways all across the world.”

Meeting needs firsthand—whether it be in Haiti on a mission trip or in church singing—is a significant part of the Riverside, California-native’s ministry and has undoubtedly had a profound effect on her. But Lara affirms the depth of her songwriting was most influenced by the three years she spent singing at Nashville’s House of Prayer. “I loved the world that opened up to me at The House of Prayer,” she says. “I never thought I could sing and pray for hours on end. I learned how to make up Scripture songs on the spot, and I began to feel the depth that could come from using God’s Word to pray and intercede.” The songs on her new record reflect Lara’s time spent in the Word and a sensitivity to the needs and diversity of her fans.

The first single “I See God In You,” is a song inspired by her mission trips to Haiti as well as a month spent on a service-based tour that ministered at homeless shelters, bars, women’s rehabilitation centers and churches. Lara comments, “God is everywhere…we see Him in the faith of a child, the strength of a mother that’s battling cancer, the love that was shown by a group of volunteers on a mission trip. We can serve Him by simply opening our eyes to the people He’s placed all around us.”

See Lara tell the full story behind her song “I See God In You” here, and watch the music video! Lara wants to hear your story too about how you see God in others! See how you can send them to her by clicking HERE.

This week Lara is giving away her track “The River” for FREE, so you can get a taste of her unique sound, and what you can expect on the rest of the album. Scroll down to get your free download, and check out the links below to learn more about Lara.

“Overcome” – In Stores Everywhere Today!

Click Here To Preview The Album & Get Your Copy Now - Only $6.99 on iTunes!

“I wanted this album to truly reflect my heart and, most of all, I wanted to offer it up at every stage to God for His approval. I promised myself, for this project, I would try my best to quiet the voice inside my head that was concerned with what people would think and focus on what I thought God was directing me to do. My desire was that this record, as a whole, would tell a story. I wanted to take people from a place of confronting their humanity and weakness on songs like ‘Better For The Breaking,’ ‘Defenseless’ and ‘Falling’ to being encouraged by tracks like ‘I See God In You.’ Toward the end it’s all about victory and empowerment—I want listeners to literally be declaring ‘we will overcome’ and ‘the spirit of the Lord is upon me’ as they sing along in their car.” - Lara Landon

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We’re excited to bring you a free song here from the talented 33Miles from their latest studio release “Today!” The track is called “Calling My Name” and is one of our favorites off the record. See what Jason had to say about the story behind it:

Calling my name is a song that took us about three days to write. It was not the easiest song in the world but we felt like the song was just ‘calling our name,’ so we had to write it. I think it’s special to me because it’s one of perseverance through the songwriting process, also, just the message of the song that Christ has been calling us, that He has always been calling us and always been pursuing us. I didn’t really go looking for Him, He really came looking for me and He does that same for everybody. Once He does call your name, He doesn’t stop. He’s going to continue to pursue a relationship that’s even deeper than the day before and that’s what makes the song so great. –Jason Barton

The band also has a new single hitting radio airwaves now called “What Grace Looks Like” plus they just released a special acoustic EP on their website that you can check out HERE. Scroll down to get your free download of “Calling My Name,” hear Chris tell the story behind their single, and check out the rest of the album!

“What Grace Looks Like” – Story Behind The Song

From The Album “Today”

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Sara Groves has lots of good news this week with the release of her new music video “Scientists In Japan” plus a free acoustic sampler she’s giving away on NoiseTrade. This new music video is different than any others we’ve seen from her, so we’re interested to hear your thoughts on it. Take a look below and let us know what you think!

Free Acoustic EP!

Do you remember these great live performances we got to watch from Sara and her friend Steve Mason (Jars Of Clay) a while back? Now you can go download all 4 live songs for free over at NoiseTrade.com/SaraGroves. If you don’t have her album, “Invisible Empires” yet then this will give you a good taste of what you’re missing

Click here to go download the free EP now!

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the world thy hand hath made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed;

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

What a powerful hymn this is, and so timely with the theme of this Easter weekend.  I grew up singing this hymn in church all the time, but I think it’s so easy to overlook the incredible history behind it and so many others that have stood the test of time in our church hymnals. The life of this song actually spans over 100 years, and has a really cool story behind it. Apparently the original version, written in 1885, came to life after a massive storm in Kronobäck, Sweden. Its writer, Carl Boberg, was said to have been walking home from a church service when a sudden awe-inspiring storm gripped his attention, and then subsided to a peaceful calm which stirred up the lyrics to his song. I actually found a quote from the writer himself about the inspiration behind it:

Carl Boberg on the inspiration behind his song “How Great Thou Art”:

“It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest coloring; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared.

“When I came home I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of ‘When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest.’ That evening, I wrote the song.

Chris Rice did a beautiful version of this song, and it seemed like the perfect free download for this weekend with our celebration of all that Christ did for us on the cross. Scroll down to get the song for free, and have a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating our savior!

From the album “Peace Like A River” by Chris Rice

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This week we’ve got a free download from a great up and coming band called Fuzed Worship. FreeCCM’s Chandler Roberts had the chance to chat with front man, Nate Edmonds, so be sure to go check out her interview from earlier today HERE if you missed it. Fuzed Worship is all about creating music to unite and inspire a generation to serve Christ and demonstrate His love. It’s about creating music that upholds truth and surpasses trends and momentary movements – centered on justice and focused on worship.

From The Band’ Heart…
Our life should be about worship – about upholding justice, living out compassion and inspiring a true passion to serve God. This is the core belief of Fuzed Worship. It’s more than just theory, more than good ideas, it’s taking the music and allowing it to breathe and encounter people on a daily level – to create, stand back and watch God do what He wants. If the focus becomes more about building our momentary kingdom than uplifting the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father, we’ve completely missed the mark and settled for less than He intends.

It is this resolve that inspired Fuzed Worship’s co-creators Daniel Meyer and Nate Edmonds to start writing songs together. Daniel, CEO of Joyce Meyer Ministries, and Nate, a longtime employee and musician with the ministry, had no idea that what they were writing would be the birth of Fuzed Worship. They just wanted to write songs to honor God. But God had plans for their efforts and 30 songs later, they were recording the first Fuzed Worship music project and releasing it through Joyce Meyer Ministries.

The band is giving away their song “All I Want” below, so scroll down to get your FREE track now and check out their live performance video here for a preview

Visit the band’s website HERE to learn more about them, and check out the rest of their music!

From the album “My Heart’s Cry”

Click here to preview the record & get your copy now!

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Phillips, Craig & Dean’s much anticipated album “Breathe In” has finally hit stores today, and we’re celebrating by giving away a free song! It’s packed with awesome worship anthems that you don’t want to miss, and our free track is no exception. Scroll down to watch our interview with the guys about their song “Great, Great God” and then download it for free below. Also be sure to check out our “Behind The Album” video where the guys share their hearts behind the new record.

Oh yea… and go get the album today!!

Click here to preview the record and get your copy now

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Derek Webb’s new instrumental worship album, “Feedback,” is available everywhere this week, and he sat down to give us some insight about the first track. As you may have heard, the album is based around “The Lord’s Prayer” and features a track for each line. Scroll down to see what he had to say about line 1, “Our Father In Heaven,” and download the song for free. You can also go here to learn more about the concept behind the album, and how it came about.

Get your copy now on iTunes or DerekWebb.com for extras.

“OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN”
by Derek Webb

The Lord’s Prayer is misunderstood. It’s mystical. But – it’s also foundational and informative. Ultimately – it’s our “feedback” to God. If you include “Amen”, there are nine lines of The Lord’s Prayer. The first line – “Our Father In Heaven” – starts the prayer out with a real bang. You imagine people in the first century hearing this instruction to approach God as “Father.” None of the prophets EVER had talked about addressing God as “Father.” Remember, this is the God who – if you gave the wrong offering or sacrifice – could strike you dead. To address God as “Father” was a revolution in and of itself.

OUR.

Every word in this first line of the prayer is important. First, we now see God as OUR Father. It’s not personal – meaning, it’s not just me in my closet by myself where it’s private and just a thing between God and me. It’s OUR Father – actually, it’s ALWAYS our Father – so, it’s something that we all do TOGETHER.

FATHER.

Again, for the first century Jews, to address God as “Father” – to address Him so personally – was a mind-blowing concept. The fact that He’s our Father implies an intimate relationship.

IN HEAVEN.

Yet, our Father is in Heaven – which is this other world that we don’t know much about – we don’t even know where this world is. So, this line is the imminent and transcendent. It’s corporate, personal, and it’s other worldly – ALL in this paradoxical opening line. This line serves to immediately orient us in terms of to whom we are Speaking – our Father.

Well, ladies and gentleman. I’m excited to announce that our countdown to some super-amazingly awesome new music is nearing an end. The Afters’ album “Light Up The Sky” is only 7 days away from being available to the world, BUT the band is giving us a special treat this week- a Free Track From The Record!! As I’ve mentioned before, I love this album and don’t want you to miss out, so go get your free song now

The song is called “Life Is Sweeter” and Josh told us a little bit about the meaning behind it below-

“Life is Sweeter” was the first song that Matt and I wrote with our new bandmates, Dan and Jordan. We lost some people really close to us last year. Our manager and friend David Lipscomb passed away after a 2 year battle with pancreatic cancer and our drummer Jordan’s lifelong best friend Ron McClelland passed away unexpectedly of unknown reasons. Losing the people that we love is one of the harder things in life. Writing this song and looking at the other side of life and death was a sort of closure for us. It’s comforting to know that death is not the end, but rather the beginning. -josh

Also, in case you missed it- here’s a little glimpse behind the scenes with The Afters

Next week we’ll be celebrating the release of “Light Up The Sky” with a full album stream, so be sure to check back on Tuesday to hear the rest of the record!

Laura

P.S. We sent out some copies of “Light Up The Sky” to our lucky “Win It Before You Can Buy It” contest winners last week, but we’re also drawing a couple more today so be sure to check your email to see if it’s you!