Record Label Needs Aspiring Worshipers
By Jeremy Reynalds (04/29/05)
Devotion Music needs your help to "Worship Hymn."
A team of music industry professionals led by songwriter/producer Billy Smiley is searching for new versions of old hymns to be recorded for an upcoming album "Worship Hymn - Around the World."
Smiley is a former member of the contemporary Christian music band "Whiteheart." (www.whiteheart.com).
In a message on Devotion Music's web site (www.devotionmusic.com/news.php), Smiley said, "We all know worship has exploded like never before ... But there is a huge concern that I became aware of: we were losing the hymns ... Becoming a worship leader and talking with many, many other worship leaders w found one thing; our people loved the new songs, but they didn't want to lose the old ones."
Smiley added, "(However), many had not sung them since they were little because worship bands couldn't play (them) ... There were no audio templates like the worship songs have out with groups playing a version to copy from ... That is why we are creating this project."
In addition to the CD release, a news release from Nashville Publicity Group (www.nashvillepublicity.com) stated that the songs selected for the recording will be published by Mission Group Music, and four charts will be created for the song, as well as mp3 tracks.
The top song of the twelve final entries will be put on a Song DISCovery CD, in partnership with Worship Leader Magazine (www.worshipleader.com).
There are two categories of competition: Rewritten hymns and rearranged hymns. The hymn text or melody must be in a current hymnal, and all entries must be in the public domain.
Entries will be evaluated by a panel of industry professionals including record producers, worship leaders and professional musicians, and judged on the basis of overall quality. From this evaluation, the top twelve songs (six rewritten hymns and six rearranged hymns) will be chosen for the "Worship Hymn - Around the World" CD.
For the past three years, according to the news release from Nashville Publicity, Smiley has been developing, rewriting, and rearranging hymns in a worshipful new setting for a new generation, with a group of "hymnboys" comprising of 15 worship leaders and songwriters from around the country. The result is 150 new versions of the hymns being made available for the church over the next 12-18 months.
For additional information on the Worship Hymn Song Search, visit www.worshiphymns.com.
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