Christian Review Magazine Issue 4 - April 2015 | Page 35

that, until the day that your grace
came and rescued me.
“When I sang that song in the
studio, I did three takes and I was
literally in tears,” August
remembers. “I couldn’t do another
take. I hope that song speaks to
people like it speaks to me.”

Check out our review
of Chris August’s
latest album

That type of raw emotion helped
craft another song he wrote
specifically about his
grandmother who passed away
last year, after which Chris wrote
one of his most personal lyrics
ever, which turned into the song,
“Paradise.”
“I was on tour when she passed,”
Chris remembers. “And I started
writing this song just saying this is
not goodbye. I’ll see you in
paradise.”
Not one to linger in a serious spot
for long, Chris quickly turns the
conversation to the title track and
first single, “The Maker,” for
which he shot a music video in the
rugged beauty of upstate
Washington, at which Chris jests,
“I’m really more of a Holiday Inn
Express person than a wilderness
guy.”
Regardless, the emotion Chris
releases throughout The Maker is
nothing if not real. There’s
nothing manufactured or forced.
Out of 90 songs, the songs chosen

are all charged with intention and
written out of a place of great pain
and greater redemption.
The moment God saved Chris’s
life and fully restored his health
following the accident was a
life-changing and life-defining
moment. But the days that have
followed; the heartache and
struggle and the difficult lonely
days of life on the other side of a
miracle have proven to be greater
still. It’s in those times that
humanity has proven to be
absolutely feeble without the
redemptive power and hope of
Christ. And in those moments,
when humility overtakes creativity
and the utmost need for God
inside the hearts and lives of man
trumps ambition and pride, that’s
when Chris knows and remembers
why he’s alive and singing today—
to share the love of a God who’s
bigger than our greatest hurts and
the author of the greatest hope.
“Without that, all I’m doing is
making music. It’s just songs and
melody and what’s the point?” he
concludes. “But when it’s
impacting someone and inspiring
them and encouraging them and
the Lord’s in it… at that point, it’s
much more than just music.”

***
Article photos by James Hodgin

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