Louder Than The Music

Dove Award-winning singer/songwriter Cheri Keaggy has been hard at work in the studio producing and recording her ninth album, 'No Longer My Own'. The project will be released on Friday, August 7, 2015 from Psalm 91 Records and Elevate Entertainment.

"I gave a copy of No Longer My Own to my Dad," muses Keaggy. "After he had a chance to give it a good listen, he called me. Through broken-up tears, he said, 'You wouldn't have been able to write these songs if you hadn't gone through the things you've been through.' He went on to say, 'This is your best one yet.' It touched me that it moved him so deeply."

Keaggy believes this project might be her most bold recording to date. "I have often referred to my last album, So I Can Tell, as my beauty-from-ashes project or my bleeding heart album," she confesses. "But, the Lord heals. And this album feels a little more broad. Brokenness humbles you and makes you more sensitive to the world around you and, perhaps, even more in tune with the Father's heart. It was a stretch, both spiritually and emotionally, and I stretched myself vocally too, going for notes I might have been too timid to reach before."

Donning the producer's hat, Keaggy employed the talents of some of Nashville's top musicians, skillfully steering the project's instrumentation and her own trademark velvety vocals toward the pop and gospel genres. The result is a cohesive collection of Christ-focused songs that exude a sense of deep felt conviction and, ultimately, surrender.
No Longer My Own seeks to embolden fellow sojourners of the faith to live more fearlessly for Christ. Perhaps that sentiment is best expressed in the album's title cut, a song inspired by the "Covenant Prayer" popularized by John Wesley.

Listeners can look forward to such vertically oriented songs of celebration as "Lucky To Be Breathing Your Air," prayerful petitions like "Jesus, One and Only," poignant ballads like "You Go Before," and the powerful anthem, "Overcome," a response to recent news reports of believers facing persecution, even unto death, and the increase of moral decay in our nation. She also enlists her uncle, Grammy nominee and Dove Award winner Phil Keaggy, who contributes a jubilant ukulele track in the lighthearted Scripture song, "Whatever is True (Phil. 4:8)."

Composing new music and melody to the hymn "He Giveth More Grace" in her newly named "The Giving Song," she includes a hint of the church classic, "I Surrender All." Keaggy offers an invitation to abide in "I Love Your Company," a sentiment that echoes every parent's wish to see their child content and at rest in blessed communion.

"My prayer is that all-too-busy believers will rediscover the simple joy of being with Jesus, sitting with Him, delighting in Him. After an incredible season of pouring out, I knew I had to guard that, to remember my First Love. And it has humbled me, in a good way."

Keaggy employed the innovative Kickstarter crowd-source business model to fund the project, joining such high profile Christian recording artists as Carman, Shaun Groves, John Schlitt, Five Iron Frenzy and Thousand Foot Krutch, who also used the outside-the-box service to fund recent projects. Keaggy is no stranger to the business model, having successfully employed Kickstarter to raise nearly $25,000 to fund her 2012 release, So I Can Tell.