I can’t imagine when a music artist cuts a CD that he or she ever imagines the far-reaching impact it could have or the distance it might travel.

If you would have told worship leader Matt Maher that his CD Empty & Beautiful (Essential Records/Provident-Integrity Distribution) would be played during a NASA mission in space one day—not only once, but twice—he probably wouldn’t have believed you.

Some of gospel music's biggest stars are participating in A Gospel Tribute to President Barack Obama ($12.99, ATF Records/Central South Distribution), releasing June 9. The disc will include selections from Donnie McClurkin (“King Inside of Me”), Israel Houghton (“Send Me to the Nations”,” Jerard Woods (“I'm Gonna Make It”) and William Murphy (“Changes”).

While digital music-only releases have mostly been the products of experiments by independent artists, Amy Grant's recent iTunes exclusive release EP, She Colors My Day, is a sign of a new strategy from the Christian music pioneer, said her manager Jennifer Cooke.

Christian band Rush of Fools stopped by the Christian Retailing office in Lake Mary, Fla., for a visit yesterday. I got to meet the Midas Records artists, pictured to the right, with myself and co-worker Felicia Mann, who is the Christian Retailing Web editor.

Rush of Fools is most well-known for their Christian radio hit "Undo," from their 2007 album Rush of Fools (EMI CMG Distribution). Their most recent album is Wonder of the World, which was released this past September.

For more information on Rush of Fools, visit their Web site.

Dubbed as “Gospel music's biggest night,” the Dove Awards are the time when the industry gets all dressed up to celebrate the year's achievements – group of the year, artist of the year, etc.. I've spent many years killing time backstage, waiting on winners to grace the press conference stage so we can ask them questions that range from the production of the album to what they think of Y2K.

Coming in at No. 18 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, the album sold close to 30,000 units just in its first week. And also topped the Christian SoundScan chart at No. 1.

Currently the band is headlining The Rock & Worship Roadshow tour, which includes Christian music artists Jeremy Camp, Hawk Nelson, Tenth Avenue North and Addison Road. The MercyMe shows from the tour are available for viewing on the band’s Web site, MercyMeTV.

The tour dates wrap up April 19. For more information, visit the tour Web site.

The Gospel Music Association (GMA) announced the final nominations for the 2009 Dove Awards in the Songwriter of the Year category. Nods went to Steven Curtis Chapman, Natalie Grant, Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram and Tony Wood.

The winner in this category will be named during the 40^th annual Dove Awards on April 23 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The awards will be broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel at 8 p.m. EST.

To find out the nominees in other award categories or to see how you can purchase tickets for the Dove Awards, visit the official Dove Awards Web site.

Have you ever attended the Dove Awards? If so, what was your favorite Dove Awards show moment?

Following the lead of Keith Green, Carman and church potlucks everywhere, new artist and former American Idol contestant Chris Sligh's upcoming tour concerts will allow listeners a chance to pay what they can for a night of Christian music.

“The Stimulus Package” tour, kicking off in the fall with Aaron Shust, will open doors to listeners for a suggested donation of $10 but encourage them to give what they can. The artists won't have a guarantee but will take the financial risks themselves. Is it a sign of the times that tours like Slighs and NewSong's WinterJam tours  (which also do a $10 at the door) offer flexible and/or optional pricing?

As a retailer, insider or Christian music listener, what do you think? Will most attendees give the suggested $10 or less or more?  Is it a return to the roots of Christian music or a clever marketing strategy?

After almost 17 years of touring the world and selling over 1 million albums in the U.S., Delirious says farewell at the end of 2009. But before that we can look forward to concerts in the U.K., U.S., Europe and Asia from the band, as well as their first-ever live CD/DVD releasing this week, My Soul Sings: Live From Bogotá Colombia (Sparrow Records/EMI CMG).

To see the band’s remaining 2009 tour schedule or to find out more information about their live CD/DVD, check out their Web site.

You're probably no stranger to Israel Houghton. He's not only a renowned worship leader and multiple GRAMMY, Stellar and Dove Award winner, but he has also performed on mainstream awards shows such as The GRAMMYs and the MTV Music Awards. And now he is making news again, this time for being one of the first-ever Christian artists to have their own artist iPhone applications and one of only a handful of artists in the mainstream such as Akon, Fall Out Boy, David Cook and Pink to have iPhone applications.

And this new application comes just in time. Houghton's next CD, The Power of One (Integrity Music/Columbia Records/Provident-Integrity Distribution), is set to release March 24. By downloading this artist's iPhone application users will be able to have direct access to iTunes store links to buy Israel’s The Power of One, as well as purchase Israel’s entire discography.

iPhone users will also be able to listen to 30-second previews of every song spanning Israel’s catalog of six acclaimed albums, read real time updates on Israel’s touring and other news from his Web site, see and share video streams from YouTube, such as song stories, live performances, etc., and flip through pictures of Israel.

Additionally, users will have access to Israel’s blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, and the application further allows users to access Israel’s new social justice site, where people are encouraged to be “the power of one” and share their videos about what they have done to create positive change in their communities.

Integrity Music is the first Christian music label to have an artist application for the iPhone and will be following suite with Australian praise and worship band Hillsong United in the near future.

To download the iPhone application, users can visit the iPhone App Store.

Being a college student during the time of the birthing of the whole Passion worship conference movement in the late 90s when Christy and Nathan Nockels got their start, I listened to them before they were famous I guess you could say, just as two singers amid many others on the Passion live worship CDs. Christy's serene voice and Nathan's acoustic guitar worship songs were always so distinct though, and WaterMark's songs were those that you could truly get quiet and enter into the presence of God.

So, when I heard that Christy was coming back as a solo artist, I was thrilled, and am eagerly awaiting her Life Light Up (Sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG) CD that releases June 2. Making a comeback on Passion conferences founder Louie Giglio's label, Sixstepsrecords, Christy is currently touring with labelmate Chris Tomlin on his Hello Love tour, debuting her new single “Life Light Up.”

To hold you over, if you're counting down the days till Life Light Up's release like myself, visit her Web site, where you can download her “Life Light Up” single for free and find out more information on Christy's select tour dates with Chris Tomlin.

In the last several months I received several press releases about CompassionArt: Creating Freedom From Poverty (Sparrow Records/EMI CMG Distribution), a multi-artist, CD effort where proceeds and royalties from the CD go to those in need globally, but it's just in the last few days that I actually got to sit down and listen to a review copy of the CD.

For more information on the above products and how you can get involved with the vision and mission of CompassionArt, check out their Web site.

Having gone to Ireland on a missions trip several years back, I fell in love with this beautiful green grass-carpeted country and its people. That's why when I heard about BlueTree, a worship band hailing from Belfast, Ireland, I was excited to hear their upcoming CD, God of This City (Lucid Artist/Lucid Artist) scheduled to release March 3. So, I visited their MySpace page and started sampling their upcoming CD.

I was surprised that I already knew one of their songs, “God of This City.” We sing it at the church I attend. But, I wasn't surprised by the fact the anthemic song debuted already on Chris Tomlin's Hello Love (sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG Distribution) CD this past fall. In fact, BlueTree's sound is very much in the vein of Chris Tomlin and other Passion worship movement artists such as Charlie Hall and Matt Redman, except it has a wee bit more of a rock-tech edge.

Apparently after Tomlin heard the song “God of This City” while he was visiting Ireland, a partnership was eventually forged and the song became a vital part of the Passion worship conferences world tour and of course part of Tomlin's most recent CD.

For more information on this up-and-coming group or to sample songs from their new CD, visit their Web site.

 

Disney World has announced its lineup for its annual Christian music concert series Night of Joy, which will be held Sept. 11-12 at Disney's Hollywood Studios.