We're back in the office today from GMA Week 2008. And while I'm absolutely exhausted, I don't want to miss the opportunity to share this year's GMA experience as well as some interesting things we learned about some of your favorite artists. Some artist friends of ours including David Crowder, Esterlyn, Vicky Beeching and The Rubyz were on-hand to blog for us each day. If you missed their blogs, check them out here:
http://blog.cmcentral.com/.
We were backstage at this year's Dove Awards, and we had such a great time! Winners in some of the major categories included the following:
Artist of the Year: tobyMac
Female Vocalist of the Year: Natalie Grant
Male Vocalist of the Year: Chris Tomlin
Group of the Year: Casting Crowns
New Artist of the Year: Brandon Heath
Songwriter of the Year: Cindy Morgan
Song of the Year: "East to West," written by Mark Hall (Casting Crowns) and Bernie Herms
Producer of the Year: Ian Eskelin
For exclusive backstage videos, check out our new
YouTube channel. For pics from the week and the Dove Awards, check out our
photobucket. For a complete list of winners, visit
doveawards.com.Next week, I'll be recapping our week in more detail, but for now, here are some interesting things we learned about a variety of popular artists:
Casting Crowns will be hitting the road this holiday season in support of a brand-new Christmas record releasing October 7. The award-winning band's Christmas tour is slated to include
Natalie Grant,
Denver & The Mile High Orchestra,
Avalon,
pureNRG and
Michael English, along with a 20-piece orchestra. The tour begins November 28 in Houston, Texas.
Krystal Meyers is slated to release her third album September 16, titled
Make Some Noise (Essential). From the buzz surrounding this record, it sounds like this is a more grown-up pop record for Krystal.
Brandon Heath will be releasing his sophomore effort August 19. The album is titled
What If We (Reunion), and the first radio single will be called "Give Me Your Eyes."