c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) The group MercyMe has an especially busy Christmas season planned.
The band has a new album, “The Christmas Sessions,” and will appear on ABC’s Disney Christmas special on Dec. 25. The show was taped last month.
A Christmas tour is taking the band to 21 cities _ including Washington; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Denver; Portland, Ore.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Atlanta _ before wrapping up with a Dec. 20 show in Indianapolis.
MercyMe broke through the barriers of musical genres with its song “I Can Only Imagine,” which hit the contemporary Christian, adult contemporary and country music charts. It also received significant airplay on pop and rock stations.
“The first time we heard it on mainstream radio, it was played between songs by Jennifer Lopez and Eminem,” said keyboardist Jim Bryson while on a recent visit to mother-in-law Diann Cruickshanks’ home in Sand Rock, Ala.
But his wife, Misti, notes that MercyMe does not water down its message in an effort to have hit songs in non-Christian radio formats.
“So many artists try to change their lyrics and their style to cross over,” she said. “They’ve never changed. Their message has been a message of hope.”
The song “I Can Only Imagine” is about heaven. “It’s a non-threatening song, asking the question: `What will happen when I die?”’ Bryson said.
In 1999, when MercyMe was still releasing its music independently, a Christian radio station in Birmingham, Ala., played “I Can Only Imagine.” It became the station’s most popular song that year. The same thing happened in Spokane, Wash. “Right there we knew we had something special,” Bryson said.
The band signed a record deal in 2000 and released the million-selling recording “Almost There” in 2001, followed by “Spoken For” in 2002 and “Undone” in 2004.
Bryson and the other MercyMe band members (lead singer-songwriter Bart Millard, guitarist Mike Scheuzer, drummer Robby Shaffer, bassist Nathan Cochran and guitarist Barry Graul) live in the Dallas area.
Although MercyMe’s breakthrough songs have been ballads, including “Here With Me,” Bryson said he views the group as more of a rock band like Switchfoot.
“We rock heavier in our live shows,” he said. That will be more evident on the band’s planned spring recording.
“It will be a little more rocking,” Bryson said. “We were a little more rocking before.”
Still, the lyrics won’t shy away from Christian faith, he said.
“It’s about proclaiming the gospel,” Bryson said.
(Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.)
KRE/PH END GARRISON
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