To God Be the Glory
Trevor Morgan tunes up during the Glory Revealed retreat.
By Deborah Evans Price, senior music editor, GospelMusicChannel.com
Mac Powell is well-known as a man blessed with creative vision. As frontman for Third Day, he’s delivered some of Christian music’s most compelling anthems and as a producer/mentor, he’s introduced great new acts like Revive. So when Mac called some of his favorite musicians and songwriters to join him for a retreat in a secluded Georgia cabin, everyone was anxious to see what would come of the adventure.
The result is Glory Revealed II: The Word of God in Worship, a follow-up to 2007’s Glory Revealed, which netted Dove Awards for Special Event Album of the Year in 2008 and Inspirational Recorded Song for the hit single “By His Wounds.” Like the first project, Glory Revealed II is a multi-artist collection featuring many of the top names in music, among them Amy Grant, Casting Crown’s Mark Hall, Natalie Grant, Ed Cash, Sara Evans, Brian Littrell, Matt Maher, Kari Jobe and others. And like the first Glory Revealed, Powell and his cohorts will be taking the music on the road with a tour that kicks off August 19 in Hendersonville, Tenn.
In recording the new record, Powell took a refreshingly organic approach, bringing writers together and watching the creative sparks fly. The setting was a close friend’s cabin and collaborators gathered in a corner, outside at the picnic table, or on the porch to write songs, all inspired by scripture. The recording equipment was set up in the living room and everyone would gather in a circle throwing out ideas, picking different parts and bringing the songs to life.
“It went beyond my expectations and that’s saying a lot,” Powell says of the process that birthed the record. “I had very high expectations for it from the beginning. The fellowship that we have on the road, this camaraderie, I really felt it would happen in this one week, and it went way beyond that. We wrote a lot more songs than I thought we would. My idea is that we would make it an artist retreat and have not only great songs and great performances come from that, but for all of us to grow our friendships as well. All of that happened...and then some.”
Powell got the idea to record the unique project during the first Glory Revealed tour as he watched friendship and fellowship blossom on the road as the artists poured themselves into the music. “It’s combining things that we love – music and our faith in the Word,” he says. “It’s really a great gift and an honor.”
The brainchild of Powell’s friend, author/evangelist David Nasser, Glory Revealed grew out of a desire to help people become more familiar with scripture by incorporating it into songs.
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If I could spend a week in a remote cabin (in the mountains) it would be with all 7 of my children and their spouses and my husband.
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