Sandra McCracken Unveils New Jazz-Infused Album 'Light In the Canyon'
Sandra McCracken introduces her 17th and new album 'Light In The Canyon' recorded live at Laity Lodge in the hill country of Texas.
This album gathered stellar musicians from LA, Nashville, and New York to reimagine some of McCracken's most influential church and worship songs as well as to write new ones, putting a jazz twist on each of them. 'Light In The Canyon' has a sonic essence of spontaneity and an old-meets-new timelessness as Sandra McCracken retells songs that span two decades of songwriting with more joy and complexity. "These songs are meant to be light and joy for the church, affirmations of the truth that does not change, and spirituals that call us to steady faith," the artist comments. 'Light In The Canyon' is the musical expression going alongside Sandra McCracken's recent book 'Send out your light: The illuminating power of scripture and song,' celebrating the stories of God’s steady presence and call over the years.
'Light In The Canyon' marks another landmark in the Southern singer-songwriter's prolific career. Sandra McCracken hopes these songs will endure for generations to see more of who God is and how his light illuminates our hearts and circumstances - calling praise ever back to him.
Born and raised in the Midwest, Sandra McCracken has since firmly planted her musical roots as a singer-songwriter and producer in the Southern soil of Nashville, Tennessee. Through and through, she is a musician by craft, trade, and gifting, but ultimately, she is a storyteller at heart. Keenly attuned to the thin line between the temporal and eternal, her storytelling has always invited audiences - whether found in clubs or coffee shops, churches, or the Mother Church of Nashville’s own Ryman Auditorium - to consider their own humanity in relation to both creation and its Creator.
Over the course of her fifteen critically acclaimed studio albums, Sandra has developed a body of work that encompasses hook-driven melodic pop, No Depression-style Americana, contemporary recastings of classic hymns, and even children’s music as part of the Nashville alt-folk group, Rain for Roots, which crafts Scripture songs for children alongside collaborators the likes of Ellie Holcomb and Sally Lloyd Jones. Both she and her music have long held a remarkable appeal to a wide variety of audiences, whether as a vehicle for congregations across the globe to worship God in their church communities, or in placements for film and network television shows like Grey’s Anatomy. She has also become an advocate for the fight against human trafficking through International Justice Mission (IJM). It is in this work that she has witnessed a new kind of beauty within the Body of Christ, as it works together to bring lasting legal and systemic change for some of the world’s most vulnerable.With new music releasing, Sandra’s deepest desire remains clear: to faithfully steward the passions, giftings, and callings God has placed on her life, whether through song, word, and story, or conservation and social justice work.
