Jesusfreakhideout.com Music News, August 2011: CASTING CROWNS RELEASES FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM, COME TO THE WELL, OCT. 18

CASTING CROWNS RELEASES FIFTH
STUDIO ALBUM, COME TO THE WELL, OCT. 18

Project Supported by a 40-City Fall Concert Tour
Lead Single “Courageous” Featured in Highly Anticipated Film Courageous, Sept. 30
Hit Song “Who Am I” Certified Gold by RIAA

NEWS SOURCE: Provident Music Group
August 8, 2011

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) Aug. 8, 2011--Christian music’s top-selling act, GRAMMY®, AMA and GMA Dove Award-winning artist Casting Crowns offers its fifth studio project, Come To The Well, on Oct. 18. The release will be preceded to retail by radio single “Courageous,” also featured in the upcoming film, Courageous, and promoted via a 40-city “Come To The Well” tour this fall.

Produced by Mark Miller, Come To The Well is Casting Crowns’ first new studio album in two years. As with previous records, this one draws inspiration from the band’s ministry efforts at its home church, Eagles Landing Baptist Church outside of Atlanta, where frontman Mark Hall serves as youth pastor.

“Teaching through the story of the woman at the well with my teenagers and my families is where it all came from,” says Hall. “Your friends aren’t the well. They aren’t always going to do the right thing or be there for you. Your athletic scholarship can’t be the well. If your knee goes out, your well is dry. You need to draw from Jesus, pour into that. That is where it started... with the idea of Jesus being the well versus other things.”

Come To The Well is filled with songs that both challenge and encourage believers in their walk. Kick-off single “Courageous” contains a powerful lyric that exhorts men to lead bold, uncompromising lives for the Lord, while “Jesus, Friend of Sinners” admonishes the church to show compassion. “Already There” is a potent treatise on God’s faithfulness and “My Own Worst Enemy” cautions Christians about falling back into past behavior. Hall collaborated on several of the tracks with top songwriters including Steven Curtis Chapman, Matthew West and award-winning country songwriter Tom Douglas.

While the record will be introduced to fans through the radio single, “Courageous,” -- vying for adds at Christian AC and CHR beginning Aug. 12 -- “Courageous” will also be showcased in the upcoming Sherwood Pictures film Courageous (in theaters Sept. 30). The “Courageous" music video recently premiered on GodTube and received more than 100,000 views within the first 24 hours of its premiere. “Courageous” continues to air on national video outlets including Gospel Music Channel.

In addition to supporting “Courageous” with a 40-station radio promotional tour, Casting Crowns will debut the song live on the road this fall. The 40-city “Come To The Well” tour launches Sept. 22 in El Paso, Texas and will feature premier modern rock bands Sanctus Real and The Afters as well as Christian music newcomer Lindsay McCaul. For a complete list of tour dates, visit: www.castingcrowns.com/tour.

Casting Crowns heads into this latest season backed by the momentum of its first RIAA certified Gold single, “Who Am I,” from the group’s 2003 self-titled debut. The song, selling more than 500,000 copies, is one of only 12 Christian tracks ever to secure Gold status. The title is included among those by fellow Provident Label Group artists Brandon Heath and Bob Carlisle, as well as other top performers MercyMe, Skillet, Relient K, Switchfoot and Chris Tomlin.

All of Atlanta-based Casting Crowns’ projects are RIAA certified, with a tally of three RIAA Platinum Albums, two RIAA Platinum DVDs, two RIAA Gold Albums and a Gold DVD, holding position as Billboard’s top-selling act in Christian music since 2007. Despite an unprecedented six-year career with Casting Crowns, the seven band members remain active in student ministry in the Atlanta area and tour part-time around their local church duties. Serving his 18th year in youth ministry, lead singer/songwriter Mark Hall is the student pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. As a testament to the band’s impact, Casting Crowns performed for a second time in North Korea in April 2009, in partnership with Global Resource Services, as the band continues to forge invaluable relationships with the people in the D.P.R.K.

For more information on Casting Crowns and Come To The Well, visit: www.castingcrowns.com or follow Mark Hall’s Twitter at twitter.com/markhallCC.

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For more info on Casting Crowns, visit the JFH Artists Database.