Essential Records artist Caedmon’s Call will release In the Company of Angels: A Call to Worship September 25. The highly anticipated recording is the band’s first full-length recording since last year’s best-selling Long Line of Leavers. Based on the group’s unique experience at “Logos” worship services, the project contains original songs, traditional hymns, two live recordings, as well as a rare, previously unreleased chorus written by the late Rich Mullins.
Birthed out of its Logos experience, In the Company of Angels is based on that community of worship that Caedmon’s Call was intimately involved in developing five years ago. Logos is held at the band’s home church, Second Baptist Church of Houston, the nation’s second largest Baptist church. The entire recording reflects the band’s continuing involvement with Logos and is an extension of that community of faith and shared worship. Caedmon’s Call member Cliff Young’s brother, Ben Young, is currently the pastor of Logos, and his father, Ed Young, is pastor of Second Baptist. Although primarily a studio recording, the project will be much like the actual live Logos experience, with an invocation, a call to worship, and various other parts of the service captured on disc.
Caedmon’s Call members still lead Logos every week the band is in town, and they try to route their tours so that they can be in Houston on Sundays. Group members thus view In the Company of Angels as a natural extension of their roots and their entire career together, which has long been devoted to the church. As Cliff Young states, “We believe it is essential to remain active and involved in a local body. We are called to worship with our lives as well as in a corporate worship setting.”
Accordingly, all of the members of Caedmon’s Call joined together to help with the songwriting process for the project, including newest member Josh Moore, who contributed two original songs. The new Rich Mullins tune, “Oh Lord Your Love,” is part of a recently discovered catalog of unreleased Mullins material offered by his family to a select group of artists. The No. 1 radio single and Dove Award-winning “God of Wonders,” from the multi-artist City On A Hill worship recording, will further be featured on In the Company of Angels. The band began performing the song at Logos long before it was ever recorded for City On A Hill at the urging of album producer Steve Hindalong who wanted to see how the song would translate in a live worship setting. The Caedmon’s Call version of the tune has become a staple of the Logos services, and is one of In the Company of Angels’ two live recordings.
Additionally, for the first time since its “indie” days, the band decided to self-produce the project. The title of In the Company of Angels came from a discussion Cliff had with close friend Kemper Crabb, who also shares writing credits on the project, and refers to a verse in Hebrews that says the angels worship alongside other people.
In support of the project, Essential Records is planning an extensive marketing campaign that will include live touring elements, a heavy presence in the media, multi-format radio exposure, and a nationwide retail promotion. To introduce fans to In the Company of Angels, Caedmon’s Call will embark on a 2-week album release tour in September that will be designed as a worship event. The band will perform material off of the new project, and a mentor of the band will be traveling with them to speak about biblical worship. There are also plans to develop a series of Caedmon’s Call worship conferences in key markets during the fall.
Essential is further planning extensive advertising in top consumer publications, major retail catalogs, and a heavy publicity emphasis in consumer publications. The label will also be utilizing Provident Music Distribution’s presence in top retail stores nationwide to help promote the project and to inform fans about the roots and purpose behind the making of the record. Accordingly, In the Company of Angels will be a main focus on Provident Viewscan and In Store Play Loops beginning in August.
One of the first bands to aggressively utilize the Internet, Caedmon’s Call will send information regarding the project to its extensive e-mail database. The project will also be heavily promoted on the Internet through the Essential Records and Caedmon’s Call websites (www.essentialrecords.com and www.caedmonscall.com), as well as in all of Essential’s Internet partners.
Caedmon’s Call made its national debut in 1997 and has since amassed a stream of accolades, including an “Album of the Year” Dove Award, a Billboard Music Video Award-nominated video, and six No. 1 radio singles. The band’s self-titled first national release set a record for the most units sold the first week out by a debut contemporary Christian artist and was ranked No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album Chart. With more than 750,000 albums sold, all three Caedmon’s Call national releases have been bestsellers.
The band’s current project, Long Line of Leavers, captured the No. 1 position on multiple SoundScan retail sales charts immediately following its Oct. 10 debut. In addition, the project outsold such mainstream heavyweights as the Wallflowers, Radiohead, Madonna, Barenaked Ladies, Collective Soul, and Green Day to achieve the No. 1 ranking on the Top Internet Album Sales chart. The recording also features the hit singles, “The Only One,” and “Prove Me Wrong.”
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