NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Rebecca Jean Smallbown, better known as by her stage name Rebecca St. James , was born in Australia but moved to Nashville, Tennessee, as a teenager in the early '90s. A year before her family relocated, St. James began her singing career at the age of twelve, opening for Carman on his Australian tour. In America, Smallbone signed a record deal with ForeFront in 1994 taking the name St. James at the label’s request.  I KNOW YOU MAY MAKE MISTAKES. Rebecca St. James became one of the biggest CCM singers. Her early records were forged in rock rather than adult contemporary, in a similar vein of the female rockers of the late '90s like Alanis Morissette and Natalie Imbruglia . But with the turn of the millennium, the popularity of female rock stars declined and electro-pop acts like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera also changed the CCM musical landscape. In 2000, St. James released her fourth record Transform , an album that utilized the synth sounds found in the bubbl...

If you're driving through Columbus, Ohio you can tune your radio to 88.7 and find out where music is going. First hitting the airwaves in 1996, the radio station went worldwide via SkyAngel satellite network.  RadioU  plays Christian Rock and has been home to artists who would otherwise never hit the radio waves. However, bands often disappear from the playlist over time. This can because the band changed their sound or their message. Artists like the  Newsboys ,  Audio Adrenaline ,  dc talk , Jars of Clay , and Jennifer Knapp were played in the '90s and first few years of the '00s, but the listeners didn't like the direction that those artists took in their later careers. Other groups like Copeland , Mae, and  MuteMath  started out with RadioU and "got too big," or at least that was the story. Sometimes they will pick up groups like Thrice, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Paper Route, in the middle of a successful career.  TAKE IT SLOW . Partly beca...

Fleetwood Mac might be the most turbulent rock band in terms of member changes, feuds, and internal relationships going awry because of infidelity. The conflict, lawyers, and affidavits surrounding Paramore , though, feels akin to the ‘70s rock band. In his series Deep Discog Dives , YouTuber Nick Canovas summarized the controversies surrounding Paramore . Perhaps the biggest rift in the band is between former lead guitarist Josh Farro and lead singer Haley Williams . After the band’s third record, Brand New Eyes , Farro publicly expressed his opposition to the lyrical direction Williams was taking the band. I DON’T EVEN KNOW MYSELF AT ALL. Like many bands in the pop-punk scene in the ‘00s, Paramore began their career with ties to the Christian Rock scene. Most of the bandmates grew up Christian, and it seemed natural to integrate their beliefs into the band’s lyrics. But by the band’s breakthrough record, their sophomore Riot! , the lyrics shifted away from Christian themes. The...

Sent By Ravens released two LPs on Tooth & Nail Records before going on an indefinite hiatus ten years ago. When fewer and fewer of their label mates claimed to be a Christian Rock band, Sent By Ravens fully embraced the genre. The band’s name comes from 1 Kings 17:6 when the prophet Elijah fled to the wilderness under threat of death from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. According to the story, Elijah was fed by ravens carrying bread to him.  YOUR WORDS WON’T ALWAYS BE GRACEFUL.  Sent By Raven’s second record  Mean What You Say   is a response to hate hidden behind the mask of Christian rhetoric, specifically Westboro Baptist Church, the hate group that protests funerals in order to gain attention and condemn others they see who are not living to the standards of God as dictated through their narrow reading of the scriptures.    As so many Christian Rock bands broke up or changed their worldview, Mean What You Say examines the state of Christianity in e...

" Free Fallin' " is certainly bigger than any artist who has sung the three-chorded song. Today, we'll look at a few versions of the song, but due to the Christian Rock theme of the last few days, ultimately I chose The Almost 's version to be the official version for my blog. As pointed out in an excellent video by 12Tone (see below), there is a lot of meaning packed in the musical theory of the song, ultimately illustrating that there are pros and cons to being free.  ALL THE VAMPIRES  WALKIN' DOWN THE VALLEY MOVE WEST DOWN VENTURA BOULEVARD.  Tom Petty released his first solo record Full Moon Fever in 1989. The first song recorded for the record and first track on the record is "Free Fallin'." The song is one of Petty's biggest and most recognizable tracks. It was also his last top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 . The simple ballad is partly a breakup song and partly a love song for his then home of Los Angelos. The Gainesville, Flori...

In Christian Rock in the ‘90s and ‘00s, nothing spelled success as a conversion testimony. Founding Day of Fire , Josh Brown brought with him the testimony of a near drug overdose before turning to Christianity. Starting his music career as the lead singer of the Nü Metal band Full Devil Jacket , Brown toured with Nickelback , Creed , and others and even played at the infamous Woodstock '99. EVERY MORNING THERE'S A BROKENNESS YOU SWALLOW. After a fairly successful debut album released in 2000 that spawned two radio singles, Full Devil Jacket was about to record their follow-up. While on tour with Creed, Brown overdosed on heroin but survived. After his near-death experience, Brown quit music, becoming a Christian and rebuilding his life. In 2004, Brown's new band Day of Fire signed to Essential Records, Sony Music's Christian imprint, and released their self-titled album. Much of the album contrasts the darkness of Brown's past with the hope he found in Christianit...

Sticking with the theme of often forgotten RadioU minor hits, Furthermore was another group that only released two records, 1999's Fluorescent Jellyfish and 2003's She and I .  Furthermore was a trio consisting of vocalists Daniel Fisher and Lee Jester and DJ Jason Jester . The group arrived on  the  precipice of Tooth & Nail Records '  golden age and left the roster shortly after releasing She and I. Fisher went on to play in several bands, and apparently released several other projects under Furthermore after the group's Tooth & Nail run, including a single in 2020 and several singles earlier this year. BEFORE YOU SAY GOODBYE.  Furthermore is a vestige of when Tooth & Nail signed artists without thinking about the financial consequences. Christian Rap was a burgeoning market for Christian audiences, but rock, punk, and hard music eventually became much of the label's focus. Christian Rap tended to be more evangelistic, whereas many of the rock ...