Jesusfreakhideout.com Music News, April 2009: TENTH AVENUE NORTH NAMED ‘NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR’ BY INDUSTRY AND FANS AT 40th ANNUAL GMA DOVE AWARDS

TENTH AVENUE NORTH NAMED ‘NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR’ BY INDUSTRY AND FANS AT 40th ANNUAL GMA DOVE AWARDS

“To say this band is going to be the ‘next big thing’ feels like an understatement.” -Billboard Magazine

Photo Caption: Last year’s New Artist of the Year winner Brandon Heath passes the torch to labelmates Tenth Avenue North, who were honored last night with the 2009 Gospel Music Association Dove Award for New Artist of the Year. Brandon received 3 Dove Awards including Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. Pictured L-R: Mike Donehey, Scott Sanders, Jason Jamison, Jeff Owen and Brandon Heath.

NEWS SOURCE: Provident Label Group
April 24, 2009

(Nashville, Tenn.) April 24, 2009 – Tenth Avenue North, the Best Selling and Most Played New Artist of 2008 (according to Nielsen SoundScan and R&R’s Year End Chart) was named New Artist of the Year by industry and fans last night at the 40^th Annual GMA Dove Awards. The show was broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House. This is the first year that fans were invited to vote in the New Artist of the Year and the Artist of the Year categories.

Early in the telecast, the band performed its chart-topping hit, “By Your Side,” as fan-votes poured in via text and through GMC’s website. Later in the show, when Tenth Avenue North was announced the winner, the audience responded with a standing ovation.

Following the announcement, the band was escorted to the press room where Mike Donehey, lead singer, shared, “We felt so honored just to be nominated among the other new artists, and to be quite honest, we really couldn’t believe that we won. We are so thankful and so incredibly humbled to be recognized this way. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Tenth Avenue North, made up of members Mike Donehey (lead vocalist/acoustic guitar), Jason Jamison (drummer), Jeff Owen (electric guitar/background vocals) and Scott Sanders (bass guitar), became the best selling new Christian artist of 2008, recently crossing the 100,000 sales mark, with its May 20, 2008 Reunion Records debut, Over and Underneath.

In addition, the band is the only new artist to have claimed No. 1 radio singles on multiple charts with, “Love is Here” and “By Your Side” both topping charts in 2008. The band kicked off 2009 with another No.1 as “By Your Side” claimed the top spot on the R&R CHR chart (1/29/09). This marked the band’s third No. 1 and made them the only new artist in the last year to have a multi-format No.1.

Tenth Avenue North has toured extensively over the last year in support of its debut album, recently wrapping an impressive run of shows with MercyMe on the “Rock & Worship Road Show.”

About Tenth Avenue North:
With one listen to Tenth Avenue North’s unique brand of intellectual, melodic pop-rock, it becomes obvious that songwriter Mike Donehey and his band mates have a gift for expressing truth in a way that simultaneously educates, enlightens and entertains. “Simply, our mission as a band is to know Christ and to make him known,” says Donehey. Band members are as much teachers, as artists, demonstrating this through their intellectual, yet vulnerably accessible songs that echo the heart of the human condition and the hope of the risen Savior.

For up-to-date information on Tenth Avenue North please visit:
www.tenthavenuenorth.com, www.myspace.com/tenthavenuenorth or www.reunionrecords.com