Why am I surprised that a single woman could bring me to a point in my worship of God that I have not been often enough in all the years of my Christian walk? Christian music is supposed to transcend the boundaries we’ve created in our minds about God’s character and bring us to a place where we are better able to lift praises to Him. And yet, oftentimes, Christian artists miss the mark with their music. Mack is one of the few on the edge. In her debut album, Take Me with You, she has effectively combined thought-provoking lyrics with poignant melodies that accent the words she has so creatively crafted.

In his book The Intimate Mystery, Dan B. Allender writes, “…a conversation doesn’t have to be about God to be about God.” In other words, when God is at the center of our intentions, He infiltrates various aspects of our lives, including our words. If Kelly Mack was to take the specific God-centered language out of her songs, I believe that the heart and message of her music would remain because it is so ingrained in what she is trying to accomplish. Mack’s conversation with her listeners is about God’s greatness, His glory, but is also about the intimate relationship we have with Him as Christians, and that comes across from the very first note.

Mack’s music is simple and serves as a fitting backdrop for her music. Her melodies invite reflection and outpouring. Her lyrics borrow from the Scriptures, but fashion a new and unique perspective. She is guilty of a few clichéd images and phrases along the way (“Nothing Can Compare” and “Call My Name”) but overall, she has written brilliant songs that bring to light Biblical messages. Her song “One Last Time” is probably the first song written from Jesus’ mother Mary’s perspective that I have truly enjoyed and has prompted a heart-tugging reaction in me.

The best example of Mack’s talent is the track “Complete.” A simple acoustic guitar arrangement accompanies Mack’s pleasant voice as her lyrics reflect on God’s goodness. Her lyrics borrow from Scripture, but express the message behind the words in a new way: “…And you give good things to me / You’re faithful / And you make my life complete / I’m complete / You give me hope / And I can start a new day / Its your hope that brings me the sun / And takes all the clouds away / You give me faith / That you’ll answer when I pray / There is no doubt in my mind / That you’ll do all the things that you say….”

Mack’s voice has been likened to Dido, Sia, Enya, and Allison Kraus. Her voice does definitely hold that same clear, pure sound yet with a softness at the edges. Her voice sits well on the ear. Her music is technically pop, but has more of a bluegrass, coffeehouse sound to it—much like a slow melodic version of the band Nickel Creek without the violins.

I would have enjoyed it if her album balanced the upbeat-versus-introspective-tempo aspects of her songs better; the introspective outweighed the upbeat. It was with the upbeat melodies that Mack’s lyrics began to become slightly clichéd, but with time and experience, I believe that she will overcome that. With the release of her first album days away, I’m sure Mack isn’t focusing her attention on her sophomore album quite yet. When she does, I hope she’ll take a few risks and not always rely on God-specific language. I would love to see what she can do if she took down that restriction; my gut instinct is that if anyone could creatively and uniquely convey the message of God’s love without using the conventional standards, it would be Kelly Mack.

The celebrity motorcycle ride and concert was held this past Sunday, October 5th. The participants biked from scenic Williamson County through downtown Nashville, ending at Riverfront Park with jam session, which featured event founder Dierks Bentley in addition to Camp, Tim McGraw and other country artists. In the two previous years, “Miles & Music for Kids” raised more than $250,000 for Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

With less than two months until the release of Speaking Louder Than Before, Jeremy Camp’s new single “There Will Be A Day” is shooting up the radio charts on all formats.

“Turning The Tables” also featured Michael W. Smith; American Idol finalist Melinda Doolittle; and Tennessee Titans players Erron Kinney, Daniel Loper and Benji Olson, among others. Save The Franklin Theatre is an effort on behalf of the Heritage Foundation to reclaim, restore and renovate the 71-year old venue on Franklin, Tennessee’s Main Street.

pureNRG’s video “What If” and the group’s new album Here We Go Again will be featured on MilkRocks.com for 4-6 weeks in conjunction with a back to school giveaway contest featuring a pureNRG prize pack, back to school gear and a Nintendo Wii.

The Milk Rocks! program has three major distribution channels including in-school promotions via milk cartons, posters, book covers and more. MilkRocks.com makes up the online distribution channel and contains content for students through music, videos, games, comics and more. Lastly, Milk Rocks! live concert tours visit schools throughout the country, featuring both new and established artists including Rascal Flatts.

Wittig first informed fans of his departure from Pillar late last month on Facebook and MySpace. In a statement he said, “It’s been an amazing 10 years of my life that I will never forget …There are many reasons why, but it is just the right time …I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of something that has changed so many lives.”

Head on over and download it today!

One of the Square Peg Alliance members, Jill continues to fly under-the-radar, faithfully serving those fortunate enough to have found her. But now it’s been a few years since we’ve heard from her - at least with a original effort. Her most recent album featured favorite hymns and her third child and, well, life intervened to keep her from delivering a new LP until now. The Good Things is her upcoming work and Soul-Audio found out the full details.

SA: So what exactly is happening with you musically at this point?

Jill Phillips: The main thing is that I’ve been working on the new CD and we just finished that up. In fact, we just mastered on Friday, so that was very exciting and rewarding. That’s always so fun because mastering is when they add those last things to make it sound really bright and pop out. It’s always fun to sit there in the room with the great speakers and know that it’s done. So that takes up most of my energy and what I’ve been focusing on. I haven’t been traveling that much but I assume that will really pick up after the record comes out and after the Christmas tour [with Andrew Peterson]. We’re going to try to put together a little tour after the new year and maybe do some house concerts.

SA: What are the details of the album release and title?

Jill: Well, we haven’t decided for sure, but I think it’ll be around December 1 or 2 - the very beginning of December. We’ll set up for pre-orders before then. The title is going to be The Good Things.

SA: Is this an all new studio effort?

Jill: Yeah, it’s all new material.

SA: Because it’s been a while since a project like this from you.

Jill: It has! I think it’s been maybe 3 years. Much longer than what I wanted to be. I had my youngest child in there so that set it back a year. Having a third kid zapped the life out of me for a while. [Laughs] So I wasn’t doing a lot of writing so I really, really was excited to get back into the studio and have new material and work with great players again. It was a lot of fun.

SA: So who are those players?

Jill: I always felt like with this record, since it had been a while, I think it was good to have that time and be able to think about what I wanted to do and have a fresh approach. I’ve changed a lot in the last three years very significantly and I thought that we should start from scratch. I wanted to work with all new people and record in different places that we ever had before. It just felt like I’d become a little stagnant and I felt the songs were a bit different on this record, so we needed that new approach.

We worked with Cason Cooley who is a good friend. He’s produced Derek’s [Webb] records and worked with Sandra [McCracken] some. He’s on the Christmas tour and we’ve gotten to be good friends. A friend of mine in L.A. asked why I didn’t work with Cason and I thought, ‘Of course! I’d never thought of that before.’ [Laughs] I felt like having not worked with him before, he could come to the songs in a fresh way. Andy [Gullahorn, husband] produced it with him and that’s someone I will never cut out of the equation. [Laughs] But he added a ton to the record.

We recorded at Paul Moak’s studio and he played a lot of electric guitar. I’d never worked with him before, but I was really, really impressed. Then we did some overdubs with Andy Osenga and Steve Mason (Jars of Clay) and I’d worked with those two before. Then Will Sayles played drums on most songs and I’d never worked with him before and same with Matt Pierce on bass. Cason and Ben Shive played the keys and I had never worked with him on a record. So that was just a really exciting experience for me - very creatively satisfying.

SA: You’ve said you’ve really changed in the last three years and the music is different as well. Can you give us a snapshot of the changes in both areas?

Jill: I don’t know. I just felt that with this record… I don’t want to put out records if I don’t have anything new to say. I felt that I was supposed to be a bit more vulnerable and personal than in the past. People have often said that I write personal songs, but there were certain things I had shied away from writing about. I’m a private person by nature and I don’t like writing about my family. I just never have. I’ve never liked to write marriage songs or songs for my kids - not because I don’t love them and think that’s really important. In fact, it’s my life.

But it just seems too personal and I wondered how to express my feelings in my songs about my kids without being emotionally manipulative. I didn’t want to be that girl who writes a bunch of songs about her kids and gets all cheesy or something. [Laughs] I think I just went away from those subjects in the past. But then I felt like I was supposed to do that. I was supposed to talk about my kids and my marriage. There’s only one song or maybe two so it’s not the whole thing. But I was open to talk about all areas of my life - friendships, love, relationships gone wrong, friendships in crisis. So not every song is happy, but it’s about the good things within my life.

SA: That does seem a weird tension, because you don’t want to write an album with several “Butterfly Kisses”…

Jill: Definitely not that! [Laughs] I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I made an album full of “Butterfly Kisses.” It’s very much stylistically my stuff. I wanted the record to sound like stuff that I listen to - like David Mead and Aimee Mann and Neil Finn. These are artists I really love and I wanted to use them as a template for what I wanted it to sound like. I feel very proud of the way it sounds. I just think that in the past I thought that I wouldn’t able to write those types of songs in a way that would honor my family, my music and the listener.

But it was just about pushing myself and having others around me push me to be fearless in what I am writing about, to go to that next level. And those who listen won’t think it sounds fearless or anything like that, but for me, it goes to places I’d never gone to. They were obstacles for me to write a song about this or that.

SA: Longtime Jill Phillips fans - will they surprised by what they hear?

Jill: I don’t think so. It still sounds like me. My musician friend and those who know me who have heard the record, they feel like it sounds different. But it’s not different in a drastic way - as in ‘oh my word, what is she doing with horns and a mariachi band.’ It’s not like that. [Laughs] I just hope the people who like my music will like this better. I feel like I’ve grown. It’s a little more… I’m horrible at describing my own records. I have no idea. [Laughs] Ask some of the others. But the production took a different turn and it’s a little less polished and it’s more organic. Ben Shive arranged some amazing string parts. I’m really, really pleased with the way it turned out.

SA: What draws you to the particular music that you mentioned earlier - to those particular artists?

Jill: You can tell that those records are done in such a way that not only is the music and the production beautiful, but the songs are important. They want you to really hear the songs. It’s not about wanting the audience to hear this cool record, but it’s done intentionally that it sounds great, but the voice and lyrics are front and center. The production is really great on those discs. And I think Cason brought that same perspective. He comes from a different place than Andy and I are at and he brought these great ideas than what we would normally come up with. I could do acoustic records all day with Andy [Laughs] but we wanted to take things to a new place.

SA: Switching gears, how is Noisetrade working out for you?

Jill: It’s still so very new and we’re still figuring it all out. But it’s such a great idea and I think it’s just going to grow by leaps and bounds. We will find out if it translates to more sales and new listeners, but I think it will. I hope that it will. I hope people hear it through Noisetrade that could never hear it otherwise. My whole goal wasn’t to make money or to do anything like that. It was just about putting it out there to people who would never hear my music otherwise or would never come to my website. I think it’s a great idea.

SA: What about the Christmas tour? How long have you been doing that now?

Jill: Wow, I think this is year five. It’s crazy! We just got back yesterday from a full band show with some of the guys from the tour in Georgia. We were getting excited again and anticipating the tour. It’s just a great time with great friends and one of the best times in the world. You basically get a chance to do something you love, sing about something bigger than you are, and it’s this great community of artists and musicians for three weeks. Leaving my kids is always a major downer, but everything else is fantastic.

SA: Is it still as exciting after five years?

Jill: Yeah! I kind of think it is! The songs aren’t as new, so we’re more comfortable. It feels much easier to not have to rehearse and rehearse. We’re all really comfortable with the material now, but I think it’s exciting in a different way. We’re getting to be more adventurous or able to go off stage and be that much more comfortable or be much more into what we’re delivering. I still enjoy the Christmas tour every year. Every year! It’s the highlight of my touring year and I think we all feel that way. I think we all love and it’s just so great.

In many ways Leigh Nash’s voice is the perfect vehicle for Christmas songs. Possessing a pure and almost child-like quality, Nash also manages to phrase the lyrics with the accuracy of a singer who knows her way around the studio. Many of the tracks here (particularly songs like “Some Children See Him”) start out with just voice and acoustic guitar accompaniment, adding elements bit by bit, until you slowly notice that you’re hearing an artfully, but sparingly, produced Christmas classic evolve before your ears.

Familiar Christmas standards like “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Silent Night” are transformed into Sixpence songs while retaining a healthy respect for the original melodies. Some heavy bass here, some tasty snare drum there, interesting back-up vocals, and subtle synth work add texture and color the tunes delicately enough to keep Leigh’s voice as the center of attention, featuring the time-tested words and melodies where they belong.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” rings out as true as any version I’ve ever heard, even with the distinctly unique timing and innovative chords under the melody. “Riu, Riu, Riu,” a less-familiar song (although Bruce Cockburn did a haunting version of it several years ago), is an interesting, somewhat exotic, diversion from the usual menu of holiday fare. Avoiding clichés, “Carol of the Bells” offers the familiar melody set against a great bass line, engaging percussion and busy, but appropriate, strings.

Although I often question the inclusion of this song on various Christmas projects, Sixpence None the Richer offers a fine rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “River,” a song which, apart from the line, “It’s comin’ on Christmas,” and the inclusion of a few notes of ‘Jingle Bells’ (for ironic effect), has no real relationship to the holiday: still, this is a very pure and atmospheric version of the song, and Nash, thankfully, creates her own phrasing instead of slavishly re-creating Mitchell’s. Strictly for fun, there’s “Christmas Island,” which has been covered by everyone from Bing Crosby to Jimmy Buffett – an easy going song that has that retro-holiday mood all over it.

The two original songs are warm Christmas ‘love’ songs: the first, “The Last Christmas,” being a tender song sung from an expectant mother to the baby-soon-to-come (“I feel your heart beating inside my own skin / And I think of Mary in Bethlehem”), the implication of the title being, the last Christmas ‘without you.’ The cuddle-up-in-front-of-the-fire track would be “Christmas For two,” a song tailor-made for being near the one you love, late on Christmas Eve – aside from the whistling (!), it’s pure Sixpence….

Look – you know you need to eventually build up your own cache of Christmas music, right? Somebody’s got to move those Hollywood String Christmas CDs out of the way. The Dawn of Grace is a good start!