creative excellence and Christ-centered living . For 10 years now , I ’ ve served for one week of the summer alongside other artists of various mediums , facilitating workshops for creative high school students . It ’ s just plain good .
For me , music was the first thing in life I just felt great doing . Later , when I discovered songwriting in high school , it was — admittedly--about self-expression . Cheap therapy . Now , it ' s many things . Fun . Expression … yes , there is me in there . But more to the point — I hope — my heart is in the attempt to articulate the elusive things of life . Common things . Extraordinary experiences . What we can touch and what we can only wonder about . Questions . I have so many questions . I have wondered at times what room there is for me in the village of musicians … surely , everything that needs to be said has already been written and sung . Surely , others with greater technical skills are out there doing it . But the past few years have taught me that all of that really doesn ’ t matter , because we all really need each other to continue telling the stories and speaking truth from our unique vantage points .
There is only one me . And only one you . And you and I need each other to write and sing and paint and speak and build .
Extended Bio ( for the super curious ):
Christa wrote her first full-length song at the age of 15 , but showed her interest in music when she was about one year old when she hummed the alphabet song in pretty good tune . Which pleased her mother very much . A few years ago she came across her very first recording : a cassette tape with her seven-year-old voice creating melody lines for nursery rhymes she ’ d found on the pages of a Mother Goose book . Like the GarageBand recordings she puts together today , they were simply produced but conveyed the essence of an artistic spirit , expressing life in lyrics and melody .
Few things are more satisfying to Christa than sifting words into phrases and pairing them with music so that ideas and emotions become common places among listeners . After years of playing piano and singing in church and school music programs , she finally attempted to write her own music and was thrilled to discover a creative outlet that was truly compelling for her . Her method was untrained and totally her own when she arrived at Anderson University , Indiana , in the fall of 1991 , where she took English literature and music classes , including Gloria Gaither ’ s songwriting course , which contributed to a more solid understanding of the writing process .
Throughout those years , Christa wrote her own music while singing back-up for others and performing other writers ’ music in a band called Same Rain , which she and some college friends had formed together . She then married fellow Anderson alum Toby Wells and moved to Nashville , Tennessee , eventually leaving Same Rain and heading east to Raleigh , North Carolina . But under the influence of gifted writers such as Natalie Merchant , Over the Rhine , Patty Griffin , and Sheryl Crow , she was unable to resist the pull of her grandmother ’ s old piano in the living room and continued to build her own catalog of original songs .
In the fall of 1999 , a conversation with a successful songwriter in Nashville led her to the decision to focus on songwriting rather than performance and make that her vocational aim . She began co-writing with her sister , Mandy Rogers , and with Tiffany Arbuckle Lee ( Plumb ), hoping to expand her skills and find a publisher who would see the potential in her songs and represent her in the industry . Providentially , in autumn 2001 , her friend Jeremy Lee of FlatRock Management , began to talk with her about his vision for some of her songs . Jeremy was ready to champion her songs within the Nashville music community , despite Christa ’ s geographical distance .
With Tiffany Arbuckle Lee ( Plumb ), Christa co-wrote two songs (" Real " and " Go ") for Plumb ’ s album , Beautiful Lumps of Coal , as well as “ Day by Day ” which was a number one single released by Point of Grace on their album “ 24 .” “ Real ” was the first single released from Plumb ’ s album . In 2006 , Christa was recognized for her song “ Held ,” released by Natalie Grant on her “ Awakening ” album , and named Songwriter of the Year by the Gospel Music Association .
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