Christian Music Makers
Mark Weber
Lulu Publishing


Mark Weber, a graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University, America's premier Christian graduate school, has a new book out called "Christian Music Makers." Since 1999, he has been writing about contemporary Christian and gospel music artists for several magazines and newspapers. Now he's brought together 70 of his favorite artists in "Christian Music Makers," which features CD reviews, interviews and personal "peace after pain" stories. 

"It's a lot of work to write, edit and design your own book," he says. "But the reward is that I've created something distinct and unique that will encourage and enlighten readers-Christian Music Makers. I picked the artists to write about, the fonts and colors to use, the title-pretty much everything."

Weber has been hard at work on Christian Music Makers for several years. "While I had heard about Christian music in the early 1990s from some friends at high school, I never expected to be writing a book about it a decade later," he says. "I loved top 40 pop music back then. It wasn't until college, when a friend put a bunch of Christian artists' CDs on a table and said, 'Take what you want,' that I got into the whole 'Christian music thing.'"

Contemporary Christian and gospel music has been growing in popularity with industry sales hovering around the $50 million mark annually. Out-selling classical and jazz, Christian music accounts for about 8% of sales in the billion-dollar music industry. Yet it doesn't receive much attention in book form.

"When I walk into Barnes & Noble, I notice there's one, maybe two books about Christian music," says Weber. "Since I've been a freelance writer covering Christian artists these past few years, I figured it was about time someone published a book about faith-filled artists who otherwise don't get much attention in the marketplace."

While the Christian music industry does boast several multi-million selling artists like Michael W. Smith and Kirk Franklin, both of whom Weber includes in Christian Music Makers, the industry generally has about 600 other artists with sales per album in the 1,000 to 500,000-unit range. 
"Obviously, I had to include some marquee names in my book to get people's attention," says Weber. "But there are plenty more important artists, with fascinating stories to tell, who make relevant music-and those are the artists I wanted to let readers know more about."

To that end, Weber includes mostly music reviews of artists' recent CDs to help music buyers get an idea about who and what they're buying when they go to a store and have to pick out, among thousands of choices, a CD or two. He also includes a few 'peace after pain' stories, where artists share personal stories of how God got them through tough times.

"In Christian Music Makers," says Weber, "Tammy Trent talks about visiting the grave of her deceased husband, Renée Bondi shares her struggle of being a quadriplegic, Justin Fox talks about his infant son's health complications and Londa Larmond recounts her sexual abuse story. Despite tragedies, these artists are able to testify that God brought them through painful times."

Weber sees his book as not only a great way for people to get to know more about artists they know little or nothing about, but also as a way for them to see why the artists do what they do.

"Christian Music Makers is a book that encourages the reader, offering them hope. Christian artists are very emotional, passionate people. They want you to 'feel them' and 'feel God' when you listen to their music," says Weber. "That's why I'm so drawn to Christian music. It does what pop music so often fails to do: edify, encourage and offer hope on a consistent basis that there is a God and He does love us and want to comfort us when we're feeling down."

Since Weber believes in the message Christian artists are singing about, he is anxious to get his book into the hands of a wide variety of people. 
"I want Christian Music Makers to have a positive impact on people," he says. "I want it to be something that unifies."
As a graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University Journalism school, where he earned his Master's degree, Weber had the opportunity to meet with the noted religious broadcaster.

"I asked Pat what he thought about Catholics and Protestants, and he said 'they should love one another'," says Weber. "Contemporary Christian and gospel music is very much a Protestant thing, yet I included some Catholics, like Tony Melendez and Aaron Neville, in Christian Music Makers. I also consciously included a good mix of artists-men, women, black, white, humbled, privileged, etc.-because I wanted Christian Music Makers to expose the reader to artists they might not have given a chance otherwise."

Weber sees his mission in life as helping bridge the gap between Catholics and Protestants, people of different ethnicities, as well as believers and non-believers.

"I wrote Christian Music Makers so that a non-Christian person who has never listened to Christian music can still relate to these artists' stories, their music and, ultimately, their lives," says Weber. "At the same time, I wrote it so that Christian music lovers would have a fun-to-read reference book, helping them discover stuff about artists they think they know, as well as artists they don't know, yet."

As he prepares a digital file for uploading to www.lulu.com/christianmusic, where his book can be purchased, Weber checks the back cover one final time to make sure everything looks right.

"After all the hours I've stared at the computer screen," Weber says with a sigh of relief, "Christian Music Makers is finally published. I hope it blesses a lot of people."

<<Christian Music Makers is available from Primo Publishing exclusively at www.lulu.com/christianmusic.>>


Reviewed by Mark Weber

Review © Copyright 2004 by 1340mag.com. All rights reserved.
Photos and cover art © Copyright by their respective artist or record label. Used by permission.
No part of this publication can be reproduced without the express written consent of the Editor.