All righty. Here are the “Jesus Saves LIVE” CD winners. And let me tell you: you winner people are in for SUCH A TREAT, MY WORD.

198 – Amy at 6:04 pm
22 – Keri at 1:44 pm
75 – Kristin at 2:33 pm
314 – Teresa at 8:44 am
2 – Shelley at 1:12 pm
330 – Lisa D. at 10:55 am
256 – Krista at 9:44 pm
174 – Lisa @ The Preacher’s Wife at 4:40 pm
306 – rrmama at 8:06 am
3 – Kimberly at 1:13 pm
120 – Erin at 3:16 pm
319 – Teri from Indiana at 9:17 am
179 – Kristen at 4:49 pm
1 – Fran at 1:05 pm
54 – Dee at 2:06 pm
285 – Kim at 6:40 am
200 – Alisha at 6:09 pm
394 – Amy M in NC at 2:23 pm
328 – Rachel at 10:49 am
268 – Sharon at 11:17 pm

(Here’s the original giveaway post if you want to check the time next to your comment.)

Winners, if you’ll claim your prize by sending your full name and mailing address to boomama205ATgmailDOTcom, I’d be oh-so-grateful. Just put “Travis Cottrell CD Winner” in the subject line.

And if you didn’t win, you can try again over at Big Mama’s.

Have a great day, everybody!

Y’all know that I’m a huge fan of praise and worship music.

And Travis Cottrell’s latest worship CD? IT IS SO GREAT, MY WORD. I mean, I don’t want to exaggerate or anything, but I’m pretty sure that your life will not be complete without it. So I’m giving away 20 copies over on my giveaways page.

You don’t want to miss it!

The names of the ten winners of Amy Grant’s “She Colors My Day” EP – along with the name of a very lucky grand prize winner – are posted over here!

About three or four months ago I heard a song by a guy named Daniel Renstrom. Daniel had a free song download on Brody Harper‘s blog, and since Brody and I have worked on several blog-related things together this past year, I’d made a point to check out Daniel’s song. I trust Brody’s musical judgment, you see.

Still with me? Good.

So I listened to Daniel’s song. Loved it. Emailed Brody and told him I loved it. Brody relayed the message to Daniel. Daniel sent me a free copy of his CD via iTunes because he’s nice like that. I listened to the whole thing (it’s an EP with six songs, so it’s easy to listen to the whole thing in one sitting). LOVED IT. Because in addition to the fact that Daniel has a phenomenal voice, his lyrics are tremendous. Deep. Thought-provoking. Saturated with Truth. Grounded in the Gospel.

And three months later, I still can’t quit listening.

So needless to say, I’m TICKLED to be able to share Daniel’s CD Adore and Tremble with y’all today. Daniel’s an independent artist, so this giveaway is coming straight out of his pocket. And I’m hoping more than anything that this giveaway will expose his music to people who haven’t heard of him before. Plus, you know, if you wanted to buy a CD or nine, that would be great, too. It would be an EXCELLENT stocking stuffer or a great way to treat yourself because, well, YOU ROCK.

Here’s what you do to enter the giveaway:

1) Click here or here to check out samples from Adore And Tremble.
2) Listen to the samples.
3) Come back here and tell me which song is your favorite. If you run into unexpected technical difficulties and can’t get the songs to play for some reason (or if you’re at work and feel that playing music on the job isn’t your strongest option), just tell me the name of your favorite singer / songwriter.
4) Then maybe go back here or here and marvel that you could own such quality music for such a low, low price (can you tell I have a soft spot for talented independent singer / songwriters? THEY NEED OUR SUPPORT, PEOPLE).
5) That’s all.

This giveaway will be open until Friday, November 21st, at which point I’ll draw for ten lucky winners!

Thanks for playing, interpeeps. And enjoy, y’all.

While I recognize that the title of this post might lead you to believe that the choir pulled some sort of practical joke at church yesterday morning, that is not the case at all, my friends.

Please do allow me to explain, oh thank you.

About three years ago I gave the husband a CD called “Hymned” by Bart Millard, the lead singer of Mercy Me. And we were crazy about the CD the very first time we listened to it. I loved being able to play Bart’s CD-o-hymns in the car with my little fella – who, if memory serves, was around two years old at the time. And even though the words to “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior” were a little complex for his two year-old vocabulary, Alex did some mean bouncing in his car seat every time he’d hear that melody.

Anyhoo.

When I found out a few months ago that there was going to be a follow-up CD called “Hymned Again,” I was tickled to death. If you’ve read here for any length of time you know that THE MUSIC, I ADORE IT, and the old hymns are especially dear to my heart. Maybe it’s because I learned them when I was a child and the lyrics just get richer with time, or maybe it’s because I love singing the words that believers have been singing for generations, or maybe it’s because there’s so much rock-solid doctrine contained within four verses and a chorus. Regardless, I firmly believe that the old hymns are a treasure we need to intentionally share with our families.

So. If you’d like to win one of ten autographed (FANCY!) copies of “Hymned Again,” leave me a comment and tell me your favorite hymn. If you’re not so familiar with hymns, then just tell me your favorite song (in other words: no church-y background required to win).

And if you’d like a little hint of the musical goodness on this CD, you can watch the clip below.

This giveaway will be open until tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 central time, at which point I’ll close the comments and Mr. Random Integer Generator will select our ten winners.

Have fun, y’all!

This giveaway is now closed.

Now I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but I do not have very balanced approach to listening to music.

Because typically my approach is to find a song that I love and then listen to it OVER AND OVER AND OVER until I have told everyone I know that they too must love this song and by the way, if they wouldn’t mind, it would be great if we could sit down and just quickly review the lyrics because, really – TRUST ME – doing that would make the song so much more meaningful for all of us, I PROMISE.

Oh, you can take the girl out of the English department, but you will never, ever take the English department out of the girl.

I don’t care how old and tired the girl is.

Even if she’s on the back side of 30 and exhausted.

So lately I’ve been trying to listen to some new stuff and – THIS IS KEY – not limiting myself to a one-song (or even a one-CD) obsession. Because as much as my whole family enjoyed the last Monk & Neagle CD, I’m a little concerned that one day when Alex is about 35 with a family of his own, he’s going to hear the opening notes of “Beautiful You” and immediately grab a fruit punch Capri Sun, hop in a booster seat, and beg someone to drive him to Walmart(s) because remember? back in 2007? when Mama played that song EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GOT IN THE CAR TO RUN ERRANDS? and then sang it AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS?

Good times. Precious memories.

Anyway, here are a few new songs that have made their way to the top of my playlist – and all of these songs come from REALLY excellent CD’s. I just thought it might be fun to focus on individual songs for a change.

Because I’m all kicky and wacky like that.

“Glorious One” – Fee – I love this song so much that I tend to SPEAK VERY LOUDLY WHEN I TALK ABOUT IT, but that’s actually sort of appropriate because I also play this song very loudly when I listen to it.

And you know what else? I don’t think it’s possible to listen to this song without lifting your hands just a teensy little bit. Consider yourself warned, Episcopalians.

OH, I AM A KIDDER.

And seriously, this is the perfect song to get you going during your morning or afternoon drive time. Just please don’t do any hand-lifting while driving unless you have some sort of auto-pilot feature in your vehicle. Because I would hate for you to be so busy getting your praise on that, you know, you forget to hold on to the steering wheel.

Safety first, internets.

“New Day” – Robbie Seay Band – I am not by nature a terribly romantic girl, but this song makes me all swoony and dreamy and I start to feel like I should wear more dresses since my husband likes it when I wear dresses. THE POWER OF MUSIC, MY FRIENDS.

And it just so happens that today Kat has a great interview with Robbie that you can read right here.

As an added bonus (BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!), you can download this song for free right here.

I’m not even kidding. FREE!

Now that is a bargain.

“Alright” – MercyMe – This is one of those songs that you’ll hear one time and then sing the rest of the day because it has, like, THE CATCHIEST REFRAIN EVER, not to mention that it’s totally going to make you want to dance.

It will also make you want to clap, but not just a regular kind of clapping – you will want to do the single clap / double clap combo, and what could be more funky fun that that?

Why, I can’t think of anything.

“How Sweet The Name” – Delirious? – The first time I heard the Delirious? “Kingdom of Comfort” CD, I thought it was cool but very different than the music I normally listen to. As it turns out, different is good. Because the more I listen to their music, the more I love it. The whole CD is really strong, and “How Sweet The Name” – which is all about the profound gift of salvation – is hauntingly beautiful.

However, I have to confess that I do not understand why the band’s name is Delirious? – like they’re not quite sure if they’re really Delirious – because based on their music, it seems like maybe their name should be Delirious! or even Delirious!!!

Perhaps I should consult the Google for an answer.

“God of this City” – Chris Tomlin – This song really encourages me to stop being so stinkin’ short-sighted and selfish.

The end.

“Washed By The Water” – needtobreathe – I love me a little Southern-fried flava (yes. I just used the word “flava.” I totally did.) in my music, and this song has such a strong undercurrent of blues and gospel that I found it utterly captivating the first time I heard it.

I think you will, too.

Okay. I believe that’s all for now. But if you have any music suggestions for the internets, feel free to list them in the comments.

And, in conclusion: rock on, interpeoples.

Oh please do rock on.