WOW Hits

Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a fantabulous giveaway of Christian music. Have you heard of WOW Hits? They issue a 2-CD set every year featuring the year's the top Christian artists and their hit songs. After years of borrowing previous years' CDs from friends I got the 2005 set. It's a great mix!

Turns out they're issuing a new CD called WOW Hits 1 and promoting it by allowing Shannon to give away 20 sets of 20 CDs over on her blog. Interestingly, the giveaway is not the new WOW Hits 1 CD - it's a set of 20 CDs, one by each of the artists featured on the CD. Here's the list:

1. Barlow Girl - How Can We Be Silent
2. Aaron Shust - Whispered and Shouted
3. Cadia - Cadia
4. Point of Grace - How You Live
5. Skillet - Comatose
6. Brandon Heath - Don’t Get Comfortable
7. Michael W. Smith - Stand
8. Third Day - Wherever You Are
9. Relient K - Five Score and Seven Years Ago
10. Casting Crowns - The Altar and the Door
11. Steven Curtis Chapman - This Moment
12. Chris Tomlin - See the Morning
13. Matthew West - Something To Say
14. David Crowder Band - Remedy
15. Jeremy Camp - Beyond Measure
16. Newsboys - Go
17. Toby Mac - Portable Sounds

I share this with you for three reasons, mainly. 1) I want to have a chance at winning the CDs. 2) I want you to have a chance at winning the CDs (if you're a blogger...details are in Shannon's giveaway post). 3) I want to recommend several of the artists featured.

Newsboys were my first exposure to contemporary Christian music (the radio kind) - they gave a concert in my high school auditorium back in the late 90's and my mom got tickets. I've since grown away from their sound, but their old songs have a special place in my heart (especially "Shine" and "Let It Rain" from their self-titled album). David, on the other hand, loves their new stuff. He has their Adoration album. We agreed to play one of their recent hits at our wedding reception: "Something Beautiful."

I also own a Michael W. Smith CD - he's way old school and I usually can't stand his nasally voice, but I like the lyrics of "Never Been Unloved." Check these out:

I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful

I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I have been undesirable

Chorus:

Sometimes, I have been unwise
Ive been undone by what Im unsure of
But because of you, and all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved

(The rest is here)

Third Day has a wonderful earthy sound. I have their self-titled CD and learned to play "Love Song" and "Take My Life" on the guitar so we could sing them during Praise & Worship at our nondenominational campus ministry.

David can't seem to get enough of Toby Mac when he's studying for nursing school. The psuedo-rapper is quite the wordsmith AND some of his songs are downright inspiring (David and I rocked out to "Made to Love" at our wedding reception).

We also own CDs by Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Chris Tomlin, but I better stop now or this will be a very long post. I'd love to hear about your experience with any of the artists on the list - do you have a favorite album/song by any of them?