The Grammy Award winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir has entered into a distribution agreement with New Day Christian Distributors, a Nashville, TN-based firm that distributes recorded music, songbooks and religious products to over 3,000 retailers nationwide. The company will release the physical edition of the legendary choir’s 27th album, “Love Lead the Way,” to retail stores on July 9, 2013. The digital version of the project was released to iTunes, Amazon mp3 and other online stores in April of this year.
“New Day Christian is very excited about our new relationship with The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. It is an honor to be working with such a legendary choir and to have a part in getting this great new CD into the hands of consumers,” says New Day executive Michael Turner. “It’s a perfect marriage,” says the choir’s marketing director Jeremy Castro. “New Day’s deep roots in the Christian marketplace and their mainstream connections will serve the choir’s needs well because the choir has strong appeal both inside and outside of the church market.”
The fifteen song set was produced by choir founder Carol Cymbala and music director Jason Michael Webb. The album boasts the majestic orchestrations that have become the choir’s trademark. Their in-house team of writers composed most of the songs. There are soul-stirring ballads such as “Faithful to the End” and “Breathe,” as well as, up-tempo tracks like the title song and the rock-edged “Let Your Kingdom Come.” They also feature full-throttle hand-clappers such as “The Man” and “Working It Out.” The set is rounded out with new renditions of William McDowell’s #1 hit “I Won’t Go Back” and Preashea Hilliard’s “Oh, How We Love You.”
The album also features the brilliant rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that the choir performed at this year’s presidential inauguration swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The performance was viewed by over a billion people via television and earned the choir high praise. The New York Times called it a “stirring moment” and NBC News anchor Brian Williams remarked on-air, “Probably not the most artful phrase, but the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir just killed it.” Even in the home of the iconic Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Salt Lake Tribune newspaper columnist Peg McEntee wrote, “That choir, not ours, then set off into the most beautiful rendition of `The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ I’ve ever heard.”
The 300-voice choir is a blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds, with members ranging from lawyers and doctors to former drug addicts. Over the years, the choir has performed at major venues such as Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden. They’ve appeared on “Good Morning America” and other national television programs. Their amazing legacy includes six Grammy Awards, seven Dove Awards, two #1 Billboard charting CDs and over four million albums sold. Visit http://www.brooklyntabernacle.org for more news on the choir.
