A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. The awards have been held in Nashville, Tennessee every year except 2011 and 2012 when they were held in Atlanta, Georgia. The ceremonies feature live musical performances and are broadcast on TBN.
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes. Including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century.
Steven Curtis Chapman is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, author, and social activist.
John Elefante is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. From 1981-1984, he was lead vocalist of the rock group Kansas and is currently touring with several groups that have featured members from classic rock bands. His credits include writing and singing lead vocals on three multi-platinum albums. He produced albums that have earned numerous GMA Dove Awards, four Grammy Awards, and ten Grammy nominations. He has maintained a close working relationship with his brother, Dino, co-writer of several Kansas songs.
Point of Grace is an all-female contemporary Christian music vocal group. The current trio consists of Shelley Breen, Denise Jones, and Leigh Cappillino. The group started out as a quartet in 1991, with original members Breen and Jones, as well as Terry Jones and Heather Payne. Terry Jones left in November 2003 to spend more time with her family after the birth of her third child, with Cappillino joining in March 2004 for their 2004 release I Choose You. In June 2008, Payne announced her retirement from the group to spend more time with her family.
James Merrill Brickman is an American pop songwriter, pianist and radio host. Brickman has earned two Grammy nominations for his albums Peace (2003) for Best Instrumental, and Faith (2009) for Best New Age Album. He won a Canadian Country Music Award, a Dove Award presented by the Gospel Music Association, and was twice named Songwriter of the Year by SESAC. Billboard lists 22 of his albums reaching No. 1 on the New Age chart, and 16 of his songs reaching Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Four of his albums were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Joshua Otis Turner is an American country and gospel singer and songwriter. In 2003, he signed to MCA Nashville Records. That same year, his debut album's title track, "Long Black Train", was his breakthrough single release. His second album, Your Man (2006) accounted for his first two No. 1 hits, "Your Man" and "Would You Go with Me", while 2007's Everything Is Fine included a No. 2 hit, "Firecracker". Haywire, released in 2010, produced his biggest hit, the four-week No. 1 hit "Why Don't We Just Dance" and another No. 1 song, "All Over Me". It was followed by Punching Bag (2012), whose lead-off single, "Time Is Love", was the biggest country hit of 2012 according to Billboard Year-End.
Donald James Moen is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter, specializing in Christian worship music.
Homer Alvan Rodeheaver was an American evangelist, music director, music publisher, composer of gospel songs, and pioneer in the recording of sacred music.
Albertina Walker was an American gospel singer, songwriter, actress, and humanitarian.
Mervyn Edwin Warren is an American film composer, record producer, conductor, arranger, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist. Warren is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a 10-time Grammy Award nominee. Warren has written the underscore and songs for many feature and television films. He has also written arrangements in a variety of musical styles for producers Quincy Jones, David Foster, Arif Mardin, and dozens of popular recording artists, including extensive work on Jones' Back on the Block,Q's Jook Joint, and Q: Soul Bossa Nostra.
Elliott Brown Bannister III is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) producer and songwriter.
Don Cusic is an American author, songwriter and record producer who is best known as a historian of U.S. popular music. He is the author of 28 books, most of them related to country music; they include biographies of performers like Eddy Arnold, Roger Miller, Merle Haggard and Gene Autry. He is a special correspondent for Billboard magazine, a book reviewer for MusicRow magazine, and editor for trade magazines Record World and Cashbox . Cusic was a consultant for Ken Burns' documentary miniseries Country Music. He is a Curb Professor of Music Industry History at Belmont University in Nashville, where his former students include Brad Paisley and Chris Young. He is a frequent contributor of liner notes for prominent recording artists and has contributed various encyclopedia entries, magazine articles, and book chapters.
Christopher Edmund Stevens is an American record producer, mix-engineer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Babbie Yvett Robie Wade Mason is an American gospel singer, songwriter, writer, and adjunct professor of songwriting at Point University and Lee University, and also a television talk-show host. Born to Georgie and George W. Wade. Mason's father was a Baptist pastor and she hails from at least five generations of ministers. Mason started playing as church pianist in 1964 and was the choir director for the church her father pastored.
Andrew Brooks Greer is a touring independent singer-songwriter and writer living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jim Ed Norman is an American musician, multi-platinum record producer, arranger and label-head. As an arranger and producer, he was one of the principal architects of the distinctive sound of West Coast 1970s pop and country rock. He was President of Warner Bros Records Nashville from 1984 to 2004.
Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal relationship with God and experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Pentecostalism was established in Kerala, India at the start of the 20th century.
Jerry Crutchfield was an American country and pop record producer, songwriter, and musician. He was a publishing and record label executive. He recorded for RCA Victor Records with vocal group The Country Gentlemen, later known as The Escorts. He received multiple Country Music Association's (CMA) "Song of the Year" award nominations for his work as producer, winning the award twice as well as having been a co-producer of a CMA Album of the Year. He was also nominated for the Dove Award for three Gospel/Christian albums, having won the award for Traditional Gospel Record of the Year by The Hemphills. Crutchfield has served as a member of the national board of trustees for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), along with the board of directors of the Nashville chapter of NARAS, the Country Music Association, and the Gospel Music Association.
By the Grace of God: The Gospel Album is a studio album by American country singer–songwriter Hank Locklin. It was released on September 26, 2006, via Yell Records and contained 22 tracks. It was the twenty ninth studio project of Locklin's career and his final album release before his death in 2009. By the Grace of God was a collection of gospel recordings containing a variety of solo and duet tracks with various artists. The album received positive reviews from critics following its release.
