Selah chronicles hope amidst sorrow

|PIC1|You Deliver Me, the long-awaited seventh recording from Gold-selling Dove Award-winning Curb artist Selah, is slated to bow August 25.

The group’s most personal recording to date, You Deliver Me was produced by Dove Award winners Bernie Herms, Jason Kyle, Todd Smith and Allan Hall. The album’s 15 cuts feature beloved hymns, favourite worship songs and newly-penned selections, all arranged and presented in the group’s signature style.

Selah’s first recording in more than three years, You Deliver Me follows a life-changing season for the group. Last year, founding member Todd Smith and his wife Angie learned that their unborn child would be unable to survive outside of the womb.

Their fourth daughter, Audrey Caroline Smith, was born April 7, 2008, and lived for just over two hours. Though Selah’s music has long brought hope and comfort to many, it has now taken on a profound new personal meaning for the group. They are committed to further sharing God’s faithfulness and ultimate healing, as represented through the legacy of Audrey’s life.

“The album was almost finished when we found out about Audrey,” Todd Smith shares. “Angie really wanted to have a song we could play at Audrey’s memorial, a song that expresses the things we would have wanted to show or tell her. She and I sat down with Christa Wells and we wrote ‘I Will Carry You (Audrey’s Song).’

"Even though there are so many things we are never going to experience with Audrey, God is making those things much more beautiful and greater in His care. Anytime we can tell Audrey’s story it gives her life weight and purpose, and to hope and believe that so many people will be ministered to through this song is really meaningful.”

Additional highlights of You Deliver Me include the title-cut; the stirring new ballad “Unredeemed”; “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us”, “The Lord’s Prayer (Deliver Us)”, “I Surrender All", the African-influenced “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus”, and the Brooke Fraser-penned debut single, “Hosanna”.

“This is the most personal album we’ve ever made,” Smith continues. “Hope, comfort and encouragement have always been themes of our music. We don’t try to dwell on the pain, but we don’t ignore it either, so much of this new album is about things that are unredeemed in this life.

"For us it was losing Audrey, but everyone experiences things that just don’t make sense. I hope this music helps convey that God mends the broken. He is going to make things right and carry us through.”

Heralded for their trademark arrangements of hymns and classic songs of faith, Selah’s recordings have sold a combined total of more than 2.4 million units to date. Now comprised of Allan Hall, Amy Perry and Todd Smith, the group’s 12-year career has yielded an RIAA Gold-certified recording, six GMA Dove Awards, and a string of Christian radio hits.