Casting Crowns focuses on musical comfort and healing

The popular Christian band Casting Crowns has taken a unique approach to releasing their latest collection of songs. January saw the release of the seven-song EP, “Healer.” Now those seven songs have been released on a deluxe version of “Healer,” which adds seven more songs to complete a 14-song full-length album.

Mark Hall, lead singer and main songwriter for the group, chose this approach because of the way many people consume music these days.

Credit: Courtesy of Casting Crowns

Credit: Courtesy of Casting Crowns

“The reason I did it this way, it was my idea, is that people will get your record. They listen to it for a week and they’re like ‘OK, when’s your new record coming out?’ Hall said in an early-September phone interview. “I just thought man, there are so many things we’re talking about, and so many themes that we’re hitting here (on “Healer”), I want to space this out. I want people to digest some of the songs, live with these songs, and then give them the other half.”

So now, as Casting Crowns follows up a spring tour with an extensive run of shows this fall, all 14 songs that were written for the project are together on the deluxe version of “Healer.” That’s enabling the band to tweak the set list for this second installment of the “Healer” tour. The tour brings the band to First Baptist Church Woodstock on Oct. 28.

“The first seven songs came out for that (spring) tour. But the second seven have come out now,” Hall said. “So we’re going through and looking at some of the (new) ones we want to play for everybody.”

Hall and his bandmates are being judicious in selecting which “Healer” songs to perform. Most of the set will be drawn from a catalog that includes more than 20 top 10 Christian music singles (including 11 chart toppers.

The consistent ability to write hit singles has made Casting Crowns one of Christian music’s most popular and long-running acts.

The band was formed by Hall in 1999, and the current lineup includes guitarists Juan DeVevo and Josh Mix, violinist Melodee DeVevo, bassist John Michael Hall (the frontman’s son), keyboardist/accordionist Megan Garrett and drummer Jack Williams.

After releasing two independent albums, Casting Crowns signed to Beach Street Records and in 2003 made a big breakthrough with their third album, a self-titled effort that became one of the fastest-selling national debuts in Christian music history. The band has remained at the forefront of Christian music ever since, with seven of the eight subsequent albums debuting atop the Christian albums chart. The one album that failed to reach that mark, “Only Jesus,” reached No. 2.

In all, the group has sold more than 12 million copies of its albums, while winning a Grammy award, four American Music Awards and 18 Dove awards (Christian Music’s highest honor).

Hall began writing the songs for “Healer” during the pandemic, an event that shut down his church and forced him to get creative and use tools like video conferencing to keep his youth group together and hold other activities. As with previous Casting Crowns albums, the new songs grew out of Hall’s activities as a pastor

“The very first devotion Bible study I shared on Zoom for my youth group, because they had shut the church down, was (about) the 23rd Psalm and the idea of the lord being our shepherd,” Hall said. “I remember telling them that night that this is going to be a tough season, and even if you don’t know it’s going to be tough yet, it’s going to get tough.

“And we talked about how we need a shepherd. We don’t need a letter from a shepherd or a Bible study by a shepherd, we need him,” he elaborated. “And we talked about staying connected with each other, but staying in the word (of God). That’s how the whole thing started.”

The 14 songs came to explore a variety of ways healing happens through God. The title track speaks to how people sometimes look for comfort and healing through social movements, political candidates or internet influencers instead of turning to the only true healer, Jesus. “Anything But Easy” is about bringing loved ones to Jesus, no matter what challenges must be overcome along the way. “Scars In Heaven” (a top 10 single from the first half of “Healer”) is about healing after the death of a friend, and how that process can come in unexpected ways.

Such messages are placed within songs that fit the Casting Crowns’ trademark brand of uplifting, anthemic pop ballads filled out with inviting melodies, burnished instrumental tones and layered choir-like harmony and backing vocals.

With the pandemic upending life everywhere, the topic of how and where to find healing was nothing if not timely.

“We’ve seen the world, especially our country, trying to come together behind things, like causes, candidates, hashtags and all of these kinds of things and it’s just Jesus is the one that heals us. He’s the one that heals relationships,” Hall said. “So we really want to talk about how he is the true healer.”