Album Notes

For booking, product information, pictures, or to send us hate mail, visit:
www.charis-music.com or www.facebook.com/charismusic

Charis is: Ann Lee, Jason Lee, Tracy Strickland
Produced, engineered and mixed by Jason Lee
Mastered by Neal Shannon Cruey
Art layout & design by Tracy Strickland

Recorded at: Arbor Studios, Box 198 Productions,
Sugar Hill Studios, TPMWH & Valleywood Studios

Special thanks to Frankie Aster, Neal Shannon Cruey, Michael Jones,
& Rhonda Mason – for sharing your gifts and talents on this project.

We originally planned to record a few hymns as a Christmas present for our parents. That gift turned into this recording. These hymns have shaped who we are in our faith and our heritage as Christ followers. We believe churches should incorporate all musical styles in order to appeal to a world that has no interest in Jesus. The problem is we, as the church, tend to think “our style” is better than another. When hymns were first introduced, they were extremely controversial and not welcomed. There are many stories of hymns that started out as secular bar tunes which later were put to Christian lyrics. As time evolved, what was once controversial became the “safe” sound of the church. We actually think the authors of those hymns were much more daring than we are today. They were willing to be ridiculed in order to write music that appealed to people who never set foot in church. Today, in an effort to protect its members, the church has grown so safe that many of its songs are irrelevant to society, something the songwriters of these hymns never intended. The music used in our worship services must be relevant, whether it be classic hymns set to today’s musical styles or using songs we hear on secular radio. In essence, that’s what some of these hymns were originally. Although, we realize this recording is indeed safe and most likely will not appeal to the un-churched, stylistically we tried to include something for everyone. Whatever your particular preference or musical style may be, we hope you’ll always focus on the lyrics and be able to worship freely. These songs have stood the test of time, not because of the style of music, but because of the lyrics. It’s our prayer that you’ll realize the love Jesus has for you and allow Him to love you and consume your life. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” – Charis