Albums: Illuminate, Illuminate, A Collision Or (3 + 4 = 7)

In their days at Baylor University, David Crowder, Jack Parker, Jeremy Bush, Mike Dodson and Mike Hogan recognized the disconnect between the church and the disenchanted, twenty-something generation, and sought to bridge the gap. So they helped found University Baptist Church in 1996, a community that thrives and grows today. It was as worship leader of this church that David Crowder began to write the bulk of the band's songs; songs which celebrate the goodness and nearness of God, as well as ask the corporate and intimate questions of his community.

"This is where our songs get legs under them," Crowder says. The music of the David Crowder Band brought to light the needs of a "whole new group" of worshipers, a group vastly bigger than the UBC community. Their first, independent recording, All I Can Say struck a chord with a fast-spreading base of "fringe folk": a group that Crowder describes as being "a little on the outside; they have trouble connecting with what's going on with the Christian culture or climate." The band's raw lyrical honesty and innovative, yet catchy alt-pop sound created fans out of the churched and unchurched alike.

And it was this original, yet accessible appeal that opened the doors into the world of the modern worship movement. As a revolution of worship music spread throughout the world one CD at a time, the David Crowder Band found themselves moving from the fringe into the heart of the Church via their involvement with the Passion projects and gatherings. Songs such as "You Alone," "O Praise Him (All This For A King), "Our Love is Loud" and more have become anthems for countless churches, college-aged people and youth groups.

With all the traveling and exposure to various worship environments, the band was developing its voice; a voice marked by an uncanny ability to absorb the needs and joys of the people, and letting the reflections be heard through song. It was with this voice that 2002's Can You Hear Us?(sixsteps/Sparrow Records) was born.

The project was a cry of just how much rescue we all constantly need and have. It was about asking tough spiritual questions without inhibition. The project was immediately embraced by the masses: over 6200 copies of Can You Hear Us?were sold in its first week at retail, making the David Crowder Band Sparrow Records' biggest selling debut artist ever.

At the 2003 Dove Awards, the song "Our Love is Loud" was nominated for Best Modern Rock/Alternative Song of the Year, and "Passion: Our Love is Loud" was nominated for Special Event Album of the Year. Following the success of its debut, the band's 2003 sophomore release, Illuminate, launched to unprecedented critical acclaim and grabbed the No. 1 position on the SoundScan retail sales charts, selling more than 200,000 units to date.

"It's a recording about light," David Crowder proclaimed. Taking the empirical facts about light and translating them into revelation about the nature of God and creation, Crowder realized that he was on to something, and light began to appear in everything he wrote. Illuminate is a journey on a darkened path.

It acknowledges the darkness in which we live and celebrates the reality of Light coming toward us in the form of Christ. The song, "O Praise Him (All This for a King)," featured on the album and the band's first Top 10 radio hit, is a response to redemption: the wonder of a Redeemer who is Himself the Light by which we see. This is a recording that is corporate and intimate, with lyrical light both blazing and subtle.

As Illuminate resonated across the nation and beyond, David Crowder Band racked up seven more GMA Music (Dove) Award nominations, was featured on CNN and in the New York Times, and joined Michael W. Smith and Mercy Me for a major market national tour followed by its own and first-ever headline tour. One of the most sought after artists on college campuses and beyond, the band's Illuminate further received Worship Leader Magazine Praise Awards for "Best Worship Project" and "Best New Song" for "O Praise Him (All This For A King)." David Crowder, the namesake behind premiere guitar maker Tom Anderson Guitarworks's Crowdster Acoustic, was also the first Christian artist to foster a partnership with M-Audio/Propellerhead's Reason software.

Despite the success, David Crowder Band makes it a point to get back to University Baptist Church on most Sundays.

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