Acoustic Worship Sessions, the highly anticipated new collection from singer/songwriter, worship leader, and American Idol alum Clark Beckham, arrives June 26 from NCS Records (NRT Music). Drawing heavily on the gospel, soul and R&B styles that have long influenced his artistry, Beckham’s first project in nearly six years delivers stirring new piano/vocal interpretations of six worship classics.
A genre-spanning vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and gifted arranger, Beckham’s uniquely nuanced renditions of familiar favorites frame Acoustic Worship Sessions as an intimate and deeply personal set. From restrained moments of reflection to powerful cries of praise, the album features such hits as “Goodness Of God,” and “Graves Into Gardens,” as well as the modern worship classics “Great Are You Lord,” “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever,” “Nobody Greater,” and “How Great Is Our God”–the latter of which is reprised as the project’s closer.
“I think the elements of this record have always been in me, I just didn’t know how to put it together,” Beckham shares. “Growing up, I listened to ’60s and ’70s music like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. I loved God and worshipped Him in church, but when my love for God and my love for soul and R&B met, this is what came out. Now it’s how I worship when it’s just me, Him, and the piano.”
“I want to introduce the glory of God that is expressed in major seven chords, in tri-tone substitutions, in modulations and falsetto notes,” Beckham explains. “He is the God of all harmony, melody, rhythm, and tones. My conviction is to use these arrangements as an authentic expression of my love for Him and to inspire others to do the same.”
