Nichole Nordeman www.nicholenordeman.sparrowrecords.com
For Nichole Nordeman, after 10 years, 9 Dove Awards—including two for“Female Vocalist of the Year”—rifling through the collection of songs she’s written since even before her 1998 signing with Sparrow Records was akin to
rediscovering the pages of an old journal, many years removed from today. “Looking back,” Nichole says, “it seems there was this little window of time about ten years ago where suddenly the singer/songwriter just became incredibly accepted and welcomed with all of our struggles and questions. It was like a hand full of us—me, Chris Rice, Jennifer Knapp, Ginny Owens and several others—just showed up one day with music about our messy lives. And for whatever reason it seemed as though people were ready to embrace that kind of honesty. And so there was just a real opportunity, I think, to get to wrestle out loud with my salvation and with what God was teaching me in all of my questions and
the angst that came with that.”
Stories, questions, mysteries, doubts, weakness, courage, sorrows, revelation and truth—haunting melodies, gorgeous hooks and Nichole’s lilting voice—this is the substance, the introspection and intelligence more than a decade in the making. This is the Recollectionof a young woman working out her own salvation with fear and trembling. And somehow along the way, we’ve all become braver, stronger, and freer for having heard them.
The first singles, from 1998’s album Wide Eyed, ‘To Know You’ and ‘Who You Are’ broke new, honest ground in Christian radio, striking a vulnerable chord with listeners nationwide. Both songs were written while Nichole was working as a waitress in Los Angeles, long before a record deal was even a remote possibility in her mind.
rediscovering the pages of an old journal, many years removed from today. “Looking back,” Nichole says, “it seems there was this little window of time about ten years ago where suddenly the singer/songwriter just became incredibly accepted and welcomed with all of our struggles and questions. It was like a hand full of us—me, Chris Rice, Jennifer Knapp, Ginny Owens and several others—just showed up one day with music about our messy lives. And for whatever reason it seemed as though people were ready to embrace that kind of honesty. And so there was just a real opportunity, I think, to get to wrestle out loud with my salvation and with what God was teaching me in all of my questions and
the angst that came with that.”
Stories, questions, mysteries, doubts, weakness, courage, sorrows, revelation and truth—haunting melodies, gorgeous hooks and Nichole’s lilting voice—this is the substance, the introspection and intelligence more than a decade in the making. This is the Recollectionof a young woman working out her own salvation with fear and trembling. And somehow along the way, we’ve all become braver, stronger, and freer for having heard them.
The first singles, from 1998’s album Wide Eyed, ‘To Know You’ and ‘Who You Are’ broke new, honest ground in Christian radio, striking a vulnerable chord with listeners nationwide. Both songs were written while Nichole was working as a waitress in Los Angeles, long before a record deal was even a remote possibility in her mind.