Even better is when Brandon Heath ends up touring with one of my favorite groups, Jars of Clay. Hopefully they’re going to be coming to a city near you!

10/08  Lancaster Bible College – Lancaster, PA
10/09  Great Lakes Christian College – Lansing, MI
10/10  Honeywell Center – Wabash, IN
10/12  Bethel College – Mishawaka, IN
10/14  Akron Baptist Temple – Akron, OH
10/15  The Underground – Cincinnati, OH
10/16  Westbrook Church – Hartland, WI
10/17  Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church – Elmhurst, IL
10/21  First Baptist Church Ocala – Ocala, FL
10/22  Victory Church – Lakeland, FL
10/23  Countryside Christian Center – Clearwater, FL
10/24  South Florida Community College Auditorium – Avon Park, FL
10/28  Stonegate Fellowship – Midland, TX
10/29  The Church at Quail Creek – Amarillo, TX
10/30  Emmanuel Baptist Church – Enid, OK
11/05  Grace Covenant Church – Austin, TX
11/06  Tulsa First Baptist Church – Tulsa, OK
11/11  Alma Performing Arts Center – Alma, AR
11/12  First Baptist Church Lafayette – Lafayette, LA
11/13  The Orchard Church – Tupelo, MS
11/14  Central Baptist Church -  Jonesboro, AR

The benefit of all this social media stuff in the music industry (and just about any other industry) is that you can really feel like you get to know the artists. You can follow people on twitter, see behind the scene videos that are taken off-the-cuff and shared instantly and read about what they’re doing from their own mouth in their blog.

Matthew Mayfield is launching a new website and he says he’s most excited about the new blog section.

I’m also launching the new website. I’m really excited because with the new blog section, I’ll be able to upload early morning demos and ideas and get some feedback from you guys.

So, get to know Matthew a little more and visit the new site, read the blog, follow him on twitter and let him hear from you.

Guests on the show range from Steve Green, Sara Groves and Andrew Peterson to quite a few other biblical scholars.

I’ve been listening off and on for about two years myself and have really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow night you’ll have the ability to watch Michael W. Smith’s performance of "A New Hallelujah" streaming live from the HearItFirst website.

It is by Fernando Ortega called “This Time Next Year” on his album “Storm”  Check out the lyrics below and feel free to listen to a sample of the song/album on itunes with the links afterward.

Turn up the light so we can see
The redhead grandson on your knee
You’d better hold him while you can
He’ll be walking soon
This time next year
You’ll want to take him
Down the old road
Behind your house

To show him the sun
On the autumn fields,
Smell the wind-blown alfalfa,
To look out where the geese
Are rising for their southern flight
Circling arrows in the sky
Above the ditches
And the cottonwoods

This time next year
There’ll be stories to tell
And he will listen to you
Quiet in your arms
And there’ll be songs to sing him
While he goes to sleep
When we gather in your home
This time next year

The boy is laughing on your knee
Hold him up so we can see
Hold him high because
We’re lifted in his laughter
And in the gladness
He has brought you
As you walk these heavy miles

Buy on  Song “This Time Next Year” by Fernando Ortega
Buy on  Album “Storm” by Fernando Ortega

(note: for full disclosure, these are affiliate links but it’s a great way to share great music too)

I grew up on Christian Music. I am not that old. I’m not yet thirty (so the picture is my dad with Michael Card, not me) but I remember twenty-five years of Christian music. I was at the first Cornerstone Music Festival in 1984 albeit I was three years old. A few months later, my dad and I moved to Jesus People USA in Chicago and lived there for about eight months. At bedtime growing up, my dad would play different songs on his guitar for me in place of the traditional storytime. My mom on the other hand was a Choir director at the church we went to for several years. Christian music isn’t just something I listen to, it’s something I’ve lived with most of my life.

While there are certainly groups and artists that I love more just because of the style of music, it’s the lyrics that have changed my heart time and again and I have found that It’s the ones that moved my heart more than my feet that I keep coming back to. At a concert I recently had the chance to meet one of my all-time greatest influences in Christian Music. Michael Card. I had seen him in concert before but I never got to meet him before. Andrew Peterson calls him the Gandalf of Christian Music and I agree.

Now some people don’t know who Michael Card is by name, you have to name a song he has written.  He wrote “El Shaddai” which was made Popular by Amy Grant.  In the video below, Michael tells a personal story from his life, a song he says he was “dared” to write.

If you like Michael Card you may like the following Artists as well:

• Sara Groves
• Phil Keaggy
• Andrew Peterson
• Bebo Norman
• Fernando Ortega
• Don Francisco
• John Michael-Talbot
• Sherri Youngward
• Chris Rice
• Rich Mullins

I’ve always loved Derek’s music and his ability to use his lyrics as a sword that pierces the heart of your beliefs and pre-conceived ideas about the world around us. This album looks like it will be more of the same.

The "words" are fitting to the message he’s trying to convey. Nothing gratuitous in my opinion. Interested in hearing what you think.

Hat tip to Matthew Paul Turner over at Jesus Needs New PR for sharing the video on his blog.

Oz is in the news recently because he married Annie Lobért in Vegas last week. Annie Lobért is known for her ministry, Hooker’s for Jesus.

Source: Hookers For Jesus Annie Lobért marries Stryper’s Oz Fox in Vegas

Image: Stryper.net