I´ve been a fan of Christian rock/pop for more than 2 decades ever since I heard Petra´s "Beat the system" in the early 80´s. It was always a thrill to visit the Christian music store Libris in Orebro to see if there was a new album with Sweet Comfort Band, Rick Cua, White Heart, Russ Taff etc on the news stand. I discovered very early that most of these artists were extremely good vocalists and musicians, so the chance of getting a well produced album was just as big as for a Chinese to get rice for dinner.
I also learned that Christians supported their own on shows, with record sales and musicians helping out on each others albums - Christian artists don´t need a hit for people to come to a show, they will go anyway. Today, the borders between the Christian music scene and the rest of the world have been erased so you will find Christian artists in other record stores too. I guess Phil Wickham from San Diego grew up listening to some of the artists I mentioned, he is also inspired by the modern singer/songwriter style where John Mayer comes in mind. His independent debut "Give you my world" was released in 2003 and then Phil signed with INO and released this self titled album last year, Phil has a real nice voice with a natural vibrato and there´s a warm spiritual feeling in the sound of this album.
It´s a laid back album but it never gets boring to listen to. For fans of Aaron Spiro, Matt Nathanson, Michael Tolcher Highlights: "Grace", "Crumble to pieces", "Fall into you"
The leadvocalist from Virgin Woll, Jordan Pouzzner begin recording a solo album, tentatively titled Happy Bleeding, before his passing in a car accident in 2005.
