Have You Heard
Popular singer/songwriter and worship leader Jason Bare recently released a new Christmas EP, Have You Heard, featuring the No. 1 radio single “For The First Time.”
“I wrote my first Christmas song almost 20 years ago,” Bare says, “and since that time it has been a vision of mine to release a Christmas project. The birth of Christ is, to me, the most beautiful story ever told and I want the music in this project to convey that. We have spent hours upon hours of time writing and creating a record that will bring the mystery and the beauty of Christmas to life to everyone that hears it.”
Bare called on top Nashville talent to produce the EP, including Nathan Walters and Gabe Combs of Multitone Musik (Rachel Lampa, Secrets in Stereo, Hawk Nelson), Geron Davis (Vicki Yohe, Ivan Parker) and Loren Barton (Coko, American Idol’s Felicia Barton).
Bare, who released his debut CD, Beautiful Design, earlier this year, has been in the studio for several months working on the new Christmas record of original holiday music. The project features “For The First Time,” which has already become a Christmas favorite, claiming the No. 1 spot on the Christian Music Weekly Worship chart and making it into the Top 30 of Billboard‘s Soft AC/Inspirational chart during December 2010.
Bare’s evocative, emotion-laden vocals imbue each song on the project with a unique sense of familiarity, like meeting old friends in unexpected places. He employs a haunting minor key piano line to ask the age-old question, “What Child Is This,” before segueing into joyful orchestration to underscore the answer — “This is the child of hope and wonder, the Savior of the world!”
Few things are as beautiful as Christmas through the eyes of a child, and Bare tells the story with childlike wonder in “Have You Heard” as he is accompanied by a lilting children’s choir. Tinkling acoustic piano and chiming bells stir anticipation of joy in “The Night When Hope Was Born.” Jenn Helvering (Sandi Patty’s daughter) lends her vocal prowess to Bare’s potent delivery on “A Way in a Manger” as this contemporary hymn of adoration provides a clever twist on the old familiar carol. The soaring praise aria, “For The First Time,” throbs with incredulous wonder of that first Christmas morning as seen through the eyes of creation looking down on a young mother and father holding their firstborn son.
Have You Heard is available at jasonbare.com and iTunes.
About Jason Bare:: After spending a lifetime growing up in church as a preacher’s kid, attending Lee University and traveling as part of the Lee Singers, Bare has spent the past 14 years leading congregations in praise and worship, most recently at Kingdom Life Ministries in Virginia, while also writing and singing his original music. In December 2010, he had a No. 1 single with the nationally released Christmas song “For The First Time” and released his debut CD, Beautiful Design, earlier this year. He has appeared on TBN, JCTV and CTN, premiered his first music video for “You Found Me” and toured throughout the United States and South Africa.
