1000+ songs, Dunamis, Stephanie Jackson, Monte Horton & Dustin Neeley

Well happy New Year to you all.  I hope you all have had some relaxing quality time with your loved ones celebrating the birth of Jesus.   We didn’t have much of a white Christmas in Australia, rather debilitating heat accompanied by bush fires that are still burning around Sydney.

The exciting news for this month with ShareSong.org & FreePraiseandWorship.org is that we met our goal of having 1000 songs in the database by the end of 2001!  Big thanks to the more than 200 songwriters who have contributed 1023 songs to what is now, to the best of our knowledge, the biggest database of free praise and worship music on the Internet!

You can check out this month’s featured songs at http://www.sharesong.org/worship_music.htm.  Now for a quick run down of the featured artists for the month of January.  

Dunamis (Greek word for “dynamic power”) stole the show at the ShareSong.org Live Recording Day (http://www.sharesong.org/recordingday.htm) with their powerful contemporary worship songs performed by an awesome bunch of musicians!  Their “Deeper” album (with amazing production, featuring a plethora of great artists including the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra) picked up “best gospel album” and “best song” for “We’re Gonna Praise Him” at the 2001 Sunnie Awards (Queensland, Australia, Music Industry Awards).  They have also just released an 8 track CD “I Believe” to document some of their newest songs in preparation for their Rubicon Conference in March.  You can check out all 22 that they have made available at http://www.sharesong.org/dunamis.htm.

Dunstin Neeley, itinerate worship leader and speaker from Tennessee, has submitted eight songs off his “To Know You Well” album.   “Dustin has the unique ability to make bold proclamations in a gentle way through song - something I rarely see in songwriters. His music eloquently exposes areas of the heart that we are often afraid to look at with honesty." Justin Rosolino, singer/songwriter from Atlanta.

Stephanie Jackson has made available 11 songs off her “Where You Are” release.  These songs have been well road tested at her youth group before being recorded superbly.  If you’re after some well-crafted youth orientated fresh praise and worship music you really should check out these songs.

Monte Horton, of Declare His Praise Ministries, writes gloriously intimate praise and worship songs and travels extensively leading worship and helping churches to develop their worship ministry.  

Monte’s new release, House of Praise, was recorded in New York City with several noted world class Pop, R&B and Gospel musicians and members of the Music Ministry of Times Square Church including members of the Times Square Church Choir and the Children’s Choir.   

Monte started traveling fulltime this past July leading worship, performing at concerts and consulting with pastors and worship teams about worship ministry.  His ability to weave together traditional and contemporary worship forms allows him to work extensively with denominational churches in worship transition and with independent churches as well.  You can check out his material at http://sharesong.org/monte.htm.

We’re now getting about 3800 downloads per day.  This is up from 2000 just three months ago.  Between the two sites we’re getting about 3000 visitors per day.  The visitor stats for ShareSong.org are shown below.  The trend is still quite encouraging.  Praise God that the word is spreading about the praise and worship music being shared freely on ShareSong.org and FreePraiseandWorship.org.

The fourth quarter (October – December 01) song download statistics are now out.  You can now check out all contributors by popularity and all songs by popularity.  The top ten songs for this period were:

1.      I Want To Know You More – Dennis Burnett

2.      I Will Lift – W Duane Clark

3.      High And Lifted Up - Worship Is A Way Of Life

4.      You Alone - Carly Grant

5.      You Are God - Worship Is A Way Of Life

6.      Amazing Grace – John Newton (arranged by Russ Reese)

7.      Great and Awesome - Harry Gillmore

8.      To You Alone - Benjamin Thorn

9.      Jesus, Lover of my Soul - Rebecca Richardson

10.   Alleluia – Neil Bush

11.   Come To The Table - Steve Massey

We hope that the statistics function of the site helps to give users some idea of what other people have found useful, while still facilitating distribution for anyone who wants to get their music out there to be used for God’s glory.

We hope that in all this you find songs that will help you and your congregation draw into a more intimate relationship with our Saviour Jesus, because ultimately, that’s what it’s really about. 

Wishing you God’s guidance and blessing as you press into this New Year with Him. 

Marty Kendall

ShareSong.org Coordinator