Casting Crowns started out like so many other Christian bands, leading worship at their home church, and then rocketed “accidentally” to chartbusting status. While similar Atlanta bands were branching out, lead man Mark Hall opted to keep their indie recordings local and continue his 12-year run as youth pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church. But their CD ended up in the hands of Sawyer Brown frontman Mark Miller, who picked the group up for his Beach Street Records, a fledgling label launched by Miller and CCM juggernaut, Steven Curtis Chapman. From there, it only took six months for Casting Crowns to turn every head, hitting big with the pull-no-punches single “If We Are The Body,” which was apparently just the kind of challenging lyrics listeners and the church in general wanted to hear. Favor continued to smile on them with “What If His People Prayed,” and the penetrating, melodic ballad “Who Am I.” So great was their success with this debut recording that they jumped straight to the live album phase of their career, releasing an EP of the same set with a previously unreleased cover of “Beautiful Savoir.” The plan worked, as Casting Crowns, Live From Atlanta showed their truest musicality, recording from the place they began????live and in-the-moment worship with the people, the music and the praise.
- Amy Bartlett

Formerly in seminal Contemporary Gospel group Commissioned, Fred Hammond now writes, arranges and produces his own solo material; add singer to the list of credits and you have an extremely versatile artist. As with Commissioned, you can expect state of the art Contemporary Gospel, with smooth arrangements, Hammond’s thrilling vocals, and the occasional nod to hip-hop.
- Mike McGuirk

Tomlin’s one of those guys whose music you know, but whose name you might not. He’s part of the magic behind the Passion Worship Band and the live Passion tours that steered contemporary worship music in a whole new regenerated direction. As a worship leader, he’s penned standards like “We Fall Down,” “Forever” and “The Wonderful Cross.” His music is incisive and influential, comparable to Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, Bebo Norman, or Matt Redman. As he branches out further into solo territory, he unleashes glowing new embers of rock, leaning more toward the David Crowder end of the original Passion sound with each new release.
- Amy Bartlett

Travis burst onto the country scene in the mid-1980s around the same time as a few other seemingly like-minded new traditionalists, and it seemed that country music might get good again — for about a second. He combines a smoothly expressive baritone with self-penned, excellently chosen material that features lyrical depth as well as great Honky Tonk-style instrumental work. Starting in 1985 with “On The Other Hand,” Travis has gone into the charts and sold a huge number of records. He virtually kicked open the door for the “country hunk” phenomenon of the ’90s.
- Eric Shea