"Christ has died / Christ is risen / Christ will come again!" Released 8 years ago this past week, this is Andrew Peterson's tenth studio album. Released nearly 10 years after the Resurrection Letters Vol. II album that was released without a first volume, this album is a fitting first volume even though it was unwritten for years. Like the Prologue EP released shortly before this, it tells the story of Jesus and his followers as they go through these turbulent times; this time it's jubilant celebration and realization that God had foretold these fantastic happenings. Many Christians may have heard the song "Is He Worthy?" from this album, but there's so much more in these 9 tracks that is worth listening to. "His Heart Beats" and "Risen Indeed" speak to the surprise and delight of Jesus's resurrection, and "Maybe Next Year" connects the Jewish longing to meet in the holy city of Jerusalem with the idea of being with Jesus in the New Jerusalem someday. "All Things Together" triumphantly closes out this album with a celebration of God's awesome power making our world meaningful. It's an excellent album of songs celebrating the Easter miracle.

Release Year: 2018
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Released 50 years ago sometime early in the year, this is the third album from the early Christian rocker, Randy Stonehill. In the March 2001 issue of CCM Magazine, they listed this at number 13 in their top 100 CCM albums. Side A is titled "Paradise Lost" and tells the story of a man who loves gambling, smoking and has no need for God, but maybe does not have the best life still. This side has the most rock 'n' roll songs and they're a lot of fun. In "Paradise Regained" on Side B, this man finds paradise in the good news of Jesus Christ and relationship with Jesus. There's a love song that points to God, plus a song that celebrates Jesus's birth at the same time as the salvation he brought. But even if you're not into the gospel message, this is a rock album through-and-through. Produced by fellow Christian rocker Larry Norman, it's a lot of classic guitar, bass and drums. Even though the message is the main point and is not at all subtle, the songwriting is great plus the passion and musicianship shines through and makes it worth checking out. The album seems to not be currently on streaming, but it can be purchased and sampled on Bandcamp with some bonus tracks.

Release Year: 1976
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Released 5 years ago earlier this month, this is the second album by Rachel Wilhelm, a singer-songwriter and worship leader whose works, like this album, often focus on the Biblical idea of lament, the expression of grief on tough events in life. In this release, she draws upon long-held prayers and traditions of churches for hundreds of years in presenting this contemporary version of a Requiem mass, the prayers for the souls of those who have passed away. It's musically pretty slow and somber with mostly acoustic guitars and strings, and lyrically based in scripture and tradition. In this week before the celebration of Easter, it's a good opportunity to reflect on God's love and faithfulness throughout the dark times in our life. I was happy to help crowd-fund the release of this album.

Release Year: 2021
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Released 25 years ago this month on a major Christian music label after an independent release the year before, this is the first major album from worship leader and now Christian pop/country artist Chris Tomlin. Surprising to me, I thought I knew this album, but I only bought it on CD a few years ago and have really only given it a listen once or twice before today, though I somehow had copies of songs like "The Wonderful Cross" and "This Is Our God" on my computer from somewhere and must be more familiar with the Michael W. Smith performance of "Forever". I do love the 7-minute rock/worship version of the hymn-plus-a-new-chorus of "The Wonderful Cross" featuring Matt Redman. And I'm familiar with live versions of many of the other songs from Passion live albums from the previous years. I was surprised to find in this most recent listen a song with country twang, "Captured", and a cover of the delirious? classic "The Happy Song" among the songs I've only recently heard. It's pretty country like the original though with some great rock drums, and fits well on this Texan worship leader's album. In this era, Tomlin was definitely a new artist trying to write new songs for churches to use for praise and worship, and I like his early work like this debut much more than his more recent work.

Release Year: 2000/2001
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