Louder Than The Music

The lead singer of Sanctus Real, Matt Hammitt, releases a special solo album titled 'Every Falling Tear' today, 13th September 2011. Released to coincide with the first anniversary of Matt's son Bowen's first open heart surgery, the album features songs he wrote as Bowen, which means small victorious one, went through a season of surgeries for a rare heart condition.

Bowen was born with a severe congenital heart defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, and has now gone through two heart surgeries, an infection and other complications since being born. After his first surgery, five-day-old Bowen Hammitt's heart stopped beating. Bowen's body seemed to resist the open-heart surgery that he endured the previous day. Forty minutes after a nurse started performing resuscitation on Bowen's exposed heart, a faint pulse and improved vital signs restored hope for Matt and his wife, Sarah.

The couple first learned of Bowen's condition less than one month after Matt's band, Sanctus Real, released their album, 'Pieces of A Real Heart', which features songs like 'Dear Heart', 'Keep My Heart Alive', and 'The Redeemer' with the chorus lyric, "cause you can make a weak heart stay alive forever." All these songs were written before they knew of Bowen's condition.

Organically sparked by the rich joy and pain of life over the last year that strengthened Matt Hammitt's faith and solidified his resolve to lead his family well, these new songs are his most deeply personal to date. Born out of the heart of a father, Hammitt's main impetus for writing the songs on 'Every Falling Tear' was to play them at Bowen's bedside in the hospital, with the hope that they would be a source of comfort for his family, as well as a reminder of God's faithfulness in the midst of their uncertainty.

Encouraged by his Sanctus Real band mates to release these songs, Hammitt enlisted Jason Ingram to produce, as well as to co-write six of the songs on 'Every Falling Tear'. Hammitt also co-wrote 'Let Go' with Joy Williams (The Civil Wars), 'This Is Grace' with Leeland Mooring and Ingram, and 'All of Me' with Bernie Herms. Sanctus Real band mate Pete Prevost co-wrote 'Holding You' with Hammitt and Ingram. The song 'Without You' was co-written with Audrey Assad, who also wrote and sings 'Little Light' on the album.

'Every Falling Tear' Track Listing:
01. All Of Me
02. Holding You
03. Let Go
04. Trust
05. You Are My Treasure
06. Without You
07. Let It Bring You Praise
08. Little Light
09. I Couldn't Love You More
10. This Is Grace