As a musical collective, Sojourn Music consists of a group of musicians with backgrounds in jazz, country, and pop who came together with musicians from indie and punk rock backgrounds. Sojourn creates new songs for modern missionary worship, rich in Christian teaching and contextualized in modern culture. Contemporary hymns, psalms, and songs of lament and praise are written by members of the Louisville-based Sojourn Collective.
Sojourn Collective is a family of local churches in Louisville, Kentucky, and southern Indiana. Over the years, Sojourn Music has recorded multiple records of original music, and has led worship at national conferences for Advance The Church, The Resurgence, Acts 29, The Gospel Coalition, and Campus Crusade for Christ.[1]
History
Sojourn Music is part of the worship arts ministry of Sojourn Collective, along with Sojourn Visual Arts. Sojourn Church launched in 2000 with under 100 people, most of whom were in their early 20s, and many of whom were participants or patrons of Louisville's independent arts scene. This included founding member Mike Cosper, a multi-instrumentalist who became Sojourn's Pastor of Worship & Arts.[2]
Cosper and many of his volunteer worship leaders and musicians played in music venues around Louisville as members of various local bands, then came together on Sundays to lead worship at Sojourn Church services. They recorded their first album in 2001: a live album featuring covers of modern worship songs titled The Reverence And The Noise.
Local worshipers bought all of the limited number of physical copies created. Due to copyright issues, Sojourn Music didn't produce additional copies or make the album available through digital distribution.
A year later they recorded their first album of original music, With The Angels. This ten-song album featured the vocals of Sojourn worship leader Jeremy Quillo, who wrote all songs except for "Come Thou Fount". Band member Eddy Morris and Cosper engineered and produced With The Angels at Morris's Ear Candy Studio – a pattern repeated for the next three Sojourn studio recordings.
Following a Christmas season record in 2003, Songs For The Advent,[3] Cosper, Quillo, Morris and Sojourn musicians began recording a Psalm-based record which delved into several folk musical styles both American and international. While Quillo still sang and wrote songs for the album, entitled These Things I Remember, fellow worship leader Rebecca Dennison led half the songs and contributed music she wrote both independently and with Cosper. Sojourn released These Things I Remember in early 2005, dedicating it to Sojourn member Aaron Marrs, a graphic artist and film-maker whose ship was lost at sea that year.[4] Marrs had designed the artwork for many Gotee Records albums.
By 2006, Sojourn songwriters were formally meeting together, collaborating and critiquing each other's worship songs.
Near the end of the year Cosper met with Sojourn Visual Arts Director, Michael Winters, songwriter Bobby Gilles (who led the monthly songwriting workshops) and worship leader Lorie Spann to brainstorm ideas for harnessing the creative efforts of Sojourn visual artists and songwriters for a Calvin Institute of Worship grant project called "Vertical Habits". The Institute's goal was to encourage grant recipients to come up with creative ways to teach worship liturgy and theology as a conversation with God.
Sojourn's resulting project was a ten-song album, ten-piece art project, and corresponding devotional, all entitled Before The Throne. The songs and art pieces follow the linear movement of a Christian worship service liturgy, from the Call To Worship to the Benediction. The album featured over 20 participants, the largest-ever cast of Sojourn Music songwriters, musicians and singers.
Just prior to Before The Throne’s release in August 2007, Cosper and Gilles created sojournmusic.com as a way to sell CDs online. Gilles operated as content manager, blogging about worship leading, liturgy, songwriting and Sojourn-related news, including content from Cosper’s sermons, writings and conference lectures on faith & art.
In October 2007, Christianity Today Online published a 5-star review of Before The Throne, which was followed by similarly positive reviews in several major Christian websites and blogs, driving sales of Before The Throne as well as traffic to sojournmusic.com. "In The Shadow Of The Glorious Cross" became Sojourn's most-covered song by church worship teams across the country. Other songs from Before The Throne to be often covered include "My Maker And My King", "All I Have Is Yours", "We Are Listening", "There Is A Peace", and "Lead Us Back".[5]
Sojourn responded to the newfound demand for their worship songs by re-recording Songs For The Advent, including new material and the musical contributions of newer members. They called the reformulated album Advent Songs, and it garnered positive mentions in the Christian blogging community as well as Louisville's major newspaper, the Courier Journal, and airplay on Louisville radio station WFPK for songs "Glory Be" and covers of Christmas standards "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Joy To The World".
In 2008, Cosper began conversations with record producer/independent musician Neil Degraide on a new project. Cosper wanted to "rewrite the hymnal" of Isaac Watts, an 18th-century pastor and poet often described as the "Father Of English Hymnody".
They decided to record two full albums of songs adapted from or inspired by the hymns of Watts. Degraide would produce one album, and Cosper would helm the second one, an Americana record.
Sojourn released the rock album, Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume 1, in 2009. Continuing the trend of using an ever-wider community of artists, Over The Grave featured the lead vocals of six members, and many musicians, as well as eleven songwriters and nine different songwriting collaborations.
This album marked the first time a Sojourn single appeared on a Worship Leader SongSelect compilation CD ("Refuge") or received significant internet radio airplay ("Warrior"). It also marked the first time a Sojourn record appeared on iTunes’ Top Twenty downloads list of Christian albums.
In 2010, Cosper decided to record the second Watts volume at White Arc Studios with producer Paul Mahern, whose production/engineering credits include music by John Mellencamp, Over The Rhine, and many other artists. He scheduled studio time for early 2011.
Cosper decided to record two EPs and package them together. These EPs featured the vocals and songwriting of two Louisville artists who had joined Cosper's salaried staff as Worship Directors of Sojourn Church campuses: Jamie Barnes, who entitled his EP The Mercy Seat, and Brooks Ritter, who called his The War. Sojourn released these EPs in February 2011. Each immediately climbed into the iTunes Top Ten Christian downloads, and the song "Absent From Flesh" quickly became one of Sojourn's top-selling singles. [citation needed]
Sojourn recorded The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two over the span of one weekend at Mahern's studio. They played live and recorded to analog tape. When Sojourn released it on Good Friday, 2011, it became their longest-running Top Ten Christian album download. It was also the first Sojourn product to be released on vinyl, in a two-LP collectors edition. Like Over The Grave, this closing volume of the Isaac Watts project featured a large cast of musicians and many songwriting collaborations, including members who had been involved since The Reverence And The Noise days as well as some who had joined the community after the release of Over The Grave. The Water And The Blood became the most widely reviewed Sojourn record to date, gaining positive reviews in CCM Magazine, Christianity Today, leading Christian blogs as well as Americana and folk music websites.
During the 2011 season of Advent and Christmas, Sojourn released A Child is Born, featuring recordings of classic hymns, Sojourn originals, and covers of songs written by other artists. On Good Friday, 2012, Sojourn recorded a live album at Louisville's Memorial Auditorium. The album was released as Come Ye Sinners on November 20, 2012, and again featured a mixture of Sojourn originals (some appearing for the first time) and covers.
From the beginning, Sojourn has believed songs for worship should run the gamut of human emotion, including expressions of grief—much like the psalms of the Bible—and all of God's attributes, including wrath. They have resisted drawing lines between "Christian" and "secular" music, and have been influenced by everything from the psalms of David to the great hymns of the Reformation, and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries like Thelonious Monk, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Elbow, Over The Rhine, Wilco and U2. [citation needed]
Accolades
The song, "New Again", was placed at No. 19 on the Worship Leader Top 20 Songs of 2015 list.[6]
Discography
With The Angels (2002)
Songs for the Advent (2002)
These Things I Remember (2005)
Before The Throne (2007)
Advent Songs (Christmas Album) (2007)
Over The Grave (2009)
Split EP: The Mercy Seat & The War (2011)
The Water And The Blood (2011)
A Child Is Born (Christmas Album) (2011)
Come Ye Sinners (Live Album) (2012)
New Again (2015)
PROOF Pirates (Children's Album) (2015)
Related Research Articles
Michael Whitaker Smith is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the course of his career, he has sold more than 18 million albums.
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.
Christopher Dwayne Tomlin is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, and worship leader from Grand Saline, Texas, who has sold over 7 million records. He is a member of Passion Conferences and is signed to EMI's sixstepsrecords. Some of his most well-known songs are "How Great Is Our God", "Our God", "Whom Shall I Fear " and "Holy Forever".
Chris Rice is an American singer and songwriter who works in the contemporary Christian music, contemporary folk, adult contemporary and adult album alternative genres. He became a recording artist in 1996 after signing a contract with Rocketown Records and releasing his debut album, Deep Enough to Dream. He released six albums between 1996 and 2007, before entering a 12-year hiatus. In 2019, he ended his hiatus and released a joint album with gospel artist Andrew Ripp. In 2020, Rice was accused of sexual assaulting a minor between 1995 and 2003, while Rice led worship at retreats for a church. An independent report found the allegations to be credible.
Lanny Wolfe is an American Christian music songwriter, musician, music publisher, and music educator. He has written over seven hundred songs and fourteen musicals, and has recorded over seventy projects. He won two GMA Dove Awards in 1984, for Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year, for his song, "More Than Wonderful," a song whose recording by Sandi Patti and Larnelle Harris earned them a Grammy Award. Wolfe has written over sixty Christmas songs included in eight Christmas musicals, including "Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy," "No Room," "Cherish That Name," "Wise Men Still Seek Him," "For God So Loved the World," and "Seeking for Me." "Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy" is used yearly in the candle lighting ceremony at Epcot in Orlando, Florida. Wolfe's song, "Greater Is He" was used as the official closing song of the Oral Roberts Telecast which aired on 120 stations weekly for six years. His song "For God So Loved the World" was selected to be recorded by the James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop of America in Houston, TX in 1982, where Wolfe directed the 1500-voice gospel choir. It was also included in the Gospel Music Workshop of America's 25th Anniversary CD project; and, for the 30th anniversary of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, was chosen as one of the top five songs that had been recorded out of 450 songs from the workshop's thirty-year run. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of the Gospel Music Association.
4Him was an American contemporary Christian group founded in 1990 in Mobile, Alabama. The group has ten Dove awards, a Grammy nomination and three certified gold albums to their credit. The group was inducted into Alabama's Music Hall of Fame, following the awarding of The Governor's Achievement Award. The group has also been featured performers for popular Christian Evangelist crusaders, Billy Graham and Luis Palau.
Phatfish were a Christian rock, CCM and worship band from Brighton, England, active from 1994 to 2014. During that time they released nine studio albums and several live releases, as well as a compilation, 15: The Anniversary Collection, in 2008. The principal members of the band were Lou Fellingham, Nathan Fellingham (drums), Michael Sandeman (keyboards), and Luke Fellingham (bass).
Juan Fernando Ortega is a singer-songwriter in contemporary Christian music. He is noted both for his interpretations of many traditional hymns and songs, such as "Give Me Jesus", "Be Thou My Vision" and "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty", and for writing clear and easily understood songs such as "This Good Day".
Paul Joseph Baloche is an American Christian music artist, worship leader, and singer-songwriter. A native of Maple Shade Township, New Jersey, Baloche was the worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, for 26 years. He and his wife, Rita left Texas in January 2015, moving to New York City to be nearer to family. Baloche composes on piano and acoustic guitar, favoring guitar when leading worship. His wife, Rita Baloche, is also a Christian songwriter. Baloche is one of the writers for Compassionart, a charity founded by Martin Smith from Delirious?.
Philip David Wickham is an American contemporary Christian singer, musician and songwriter from San Diego, California. He has released ten worship albums: Give You My World in 2003, a self-titled album in 2006, Cannons in 2007, Singalong in 2008, Heaven & Earth in 2009, Response in 2011, Singalong 2 in 2012, The Ascension in 2013, Singalong 3 in 2015, Children of God in 2016, Living Hope in 2018, Hymn of Heaven in 2021, and I Believe in 2023. He has also led worship at Soul Survivor. His single "This is Amazing Grace" has been certified Platinum by the RIAA and it topped the 2014 year-end Christian Airplay chart.
Matthew Guion Maher is a Canadian Roman Catholic, contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, songwriter, and worship leader from Newfoundland, Canada, who lives in the United States. Three of his nine albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart. His notable writing credits include "Your Grace Is Enough", "I Will Rise", "Because He Lives (Amen)", "Christ Is Risen", and "Lord I Need You". Maher has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards in his career and was awarded the Songwriter of the Year at the 2015 GMA Dove Awards.
The 37th Annual GMA Dove Awards, also called the 37th Annual GMA Music Awards, were held on April 5, 2006 recognizing accomplishments of Christian musicians for the year 2005. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Rebecca St. James and Kirk Franklin. This was the last year in which the awards were called the "GMA Music Awards", since they will change their names to "GMA Dove Awards".
First Call is an American contemporary Christian music (CCM) group, consisting of Mel Tunney, Marty McCall, and Bonnie Keen. During their career spanning more than 30 years, the group worked with many noted producers and arrangers including David Maddux, Steven Tayler, Dan Keen, Greg Nelson, Keith Thomas, Neal Joseph, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Phil Naish and Darrell Brown.
Louise "Lou" Fellingham is an English Christian worship leader, singer and songwriter from Brighton in East Sussex, England. She is a founding member of the British band Phatfish and has also pursued a solo career. In 2008, she won a Christian Broadcasting Council (CBC) Award for her album Promised Land, in the category of Best Worship. She has worked alongside other Christian artists such as Matt Redman, Graham Kendrick, Tim Hughes and Stuart Townend. She regularly leads worship and performs at different venues around the world. A rendition of Fellingham leading the hymn "In Christ Alone" has had more than six million views on YouTube.
Graham Kendrick is a British Christian singer, songwriter and worship leader.
Travis Cottrell is an American contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, songwriter, author, and worship leader.
Keith & Kristyn Getty are a musical duo from Northern Ireland, focusing on hymns and other Christian music. They are best known for the 2001 hymn “In Christ Alone”, co-written with Stuart Townend.
Michael Brandon Lake is an American Christian worship singer, songwriter, guitarist, and worship pastor. Lake is a former member of Maverick City Music and serves as a worship pastor at Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Lake began his recording career with a successful crowdfunding campaign to produce an album in 2015, which resulted in the independent release of his debut studio album, Closer, in 2016.
"Christ Be Magnified" is a song by American Christian musician Cody Carnes. The song was released on January 1, 2020, as the lead single from his second studio album, Run to the Father (2020). Carnes co-wrote the song with Cory Asbury and Ethan Hulse. Jeremy Edwardson produced the single.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
