New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Rick Hoganson Media) One of today's most influential worship leaders, songwriters and artists, Paul Baloche presents his first Christmas project, appropriately titled Christmas Worship, today (Oct. 29) from Integrity Music. Featuring new songs of celebration along with unique arrangements of much-loved traditional Christmas carols seamlessly blended with modern worship choruses, the album is packed with accessible Christmas songs that help create a worship environment familiar to congregants and first time visitors alike.
Drawing from his own personal experience as a local pastor working to help his congregation worship during what may be the busiest time of the year, the goal of this three-time Dove Award-winning artist and local worship pastor was to create a Christmas album that would minister to and resource the church.
"Paul Baloche's new Christmas Worship album is the perfect Christmas compilation for the church," confirms
Aaron Shust, who is a featured vocalist on the album, along with All Sons & Daughters, Kathryn Scott, Onaje Jefferson, Jennifer Holm and Rita Baloche. "The combination of traditional carols with some of my favorite Baloche worship choruses have created a new standard of what will be sung at my church every year during the month of December. This album not only provides an accessible, congregational selection of songs to be incorporated by worship leaders everywhere, but it boasts a high quality, top notch sonic experience that is expertly produced. Christmas Worship captures not only the reverence and awe of this holy season, but also its joy, excitement and celebratory spirit."
In conjunction with the release of Christmas Worship, the microsite www.balochechristmasworship.com launches and is geared to resource the church. The site features a full album preview, interactive lyric videos, chord charts, video tutorials and more resources as worship leaders plan services leading up to and through Christmas.
The site also includes a link to a "Hark The Herald Angels Sing/King of Heaven" remix competition at MultiTracks.com. Baloche and Integrity
Music partner with MultiTracks.com to offer a free download of the familiar worship song written by Charles
Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn, "Hark The Herald Angels Sing," and "King of Heaven," written by Baloche and Jason Ingram. The two songs combined are the lead track on Christmas Worship. From now until Nov. 10, anyone can download the tracks and use them to build and submit their own remix to be entered into a Best Christmas Remix contest. Winners will be chosen by Baloche, and the top entries will be added onto a
Deluxe Single release from Baloche later this year. There will also be $2,500 worth of prizes awarded from Ableton, Disaster Area Designs, Roland, Shure, Westone and Sweetwater for the best remixes. See MultiTracks.com for all the details.
ChurchLeaders.com, a site dedicated to resourcing, informing and connecting a community of church leaders for greater Kingdom impact worldwide, is further offering a free download of the chord chart and song "Your Name" from Christmas Worship. One of Baloche's most sung worship anthems, "Your Name," has been re-crafted, replacing the original lyric with Christmas content, allowing congregants to confidently sing out a chorus that they recognize during the Christmas season.
Although Christmas Worship is Baloche's first Christmas album, in 2006 Baloche released "O Come Emmanuel," a song that is still amidst the top most played Christmas songs at Christian radio year after year. A new recording of this song is featured on Christmas Worship.
Taking this new music and his best-loved songs on the road, Baloche's touring/workshop/teaching schedule takes him around the world. In the coming months, he will hold Nights of Worship in St. Louis, MO (11/1-2) and Jacksonville, FL (12/14-15).
Best known for such modern classics as "Open the Eyes of My Heart," "Above All," "Hosanna," and "Your Name," Baloche's songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including Michael W. Smith, Casting Crowns,
Matt Redman and Philips,
Craig & Dean. His songs are also sung by millions of worshippers around the world, with 21 of them included in the CCLI Top 500 list, indicating the songs most often used in North American churches.
In addition to writing, recording, touring and his role as worship pastor at Community Fellowship in Lindale, TX, Baloche has created a variety of teaching DVDs, along with many free resources designed specifically for worship leaders and musicians. He has also written the books, The Same Love: A Devotion (David C Cook) and God Songs -How to Write and Select Songs for Worship. He is a further a contributing writer for both Worship Leader and Worship Musician magazines and is a featured blogger on ChurchLeaders.com.
For more information on Paul Baloche and his schedule, go to www.leadworship.com and www.integritymusic.com.
