I know, I'm double posting - but I just discovered a ridiculously amazing band. And I've only listened to a few songs, but I love them so much already. Annalise Emerick. I'd never heard of them before, and then I accidentally started playing them on my sisters playlist, and I'm in love. The music is gorgeous and quiet, I like their voices - it's just so pretty.

On a side note: any reccomendations of music on NoiseTrade would be greatly appreciated. Specifically Country, Christian, or even Pop if you found some that was really good.

I don't know if you can find him on NoiseTrade (i'd never heard of that before), but a country artist I've always liked, is Billy Gilman.

stardf- It's kind of hard for me to know what to recommend.
1) I don't know what you already have (or what bands you know of already, etc)
2) I don't know what kind of style you like best.
3) A lot of the time, my knowledge of Christian groups (at least, current ones) comes from the radio. And half the time I'm lucky if I even know the song and artist's names... let alone what album!
4) Quite a few of the ones I'd tell you about are already mentioned.

I can say this, however:
I heartily second the recommendations for Casting Crowns and Brandon Heath! Another good one, that I don't think has been mentioned yet, is Jeremy Camp. Hmm... Natalie Grant has good songs too.

And I know that some here might consider this going "old school", but some awesome Christian artists I grew up listening to are:
Michael W. Smith
Steven Curtis Chapman
Carman
Ray Boltz
Keith Green
Rich Mullins
Amy Grant
Mark Lowry (yes, he's mainly a comedian. but he sings too...especially with the Gaither Vocal Band. And he wrote the words for "Mary, Did You Know" )

Can I think some more and get back to you?

Edited to add:

So, a few nights ago I was glancing through the last few pages of this thread. And all this talk of the new Switchfoot album got me curious. So, when I saw MissAravis post this...

Switchfoot's new record is streaming now: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thelife/ ... id=6944961 (all except for the last track, which isn't going to be unveiled early, for some reason)

I decided to see what all this hype was about. Thing was, the songs on that link didn't want to play for me. So, I picked a certain song, 'cause more than one of you mentioned it. Another, I found on youtube, under "suggestions" when watching the aforementioned one. Listening to them, an idea started forming, and so I looked up the lyrics.

What I'm getting at is this... sometime over the next few weeks (maybe; but DEFINITELY sometime in the future, though I can't say for sure when), you should be able to find two brand new Narnia wallies from me in FA. What songs sparked wallie ideas, you might ask? And who would they be of? Well, I'll tell ya:

The War Inside- Edmund
Come Home- Susan

^Yeah, sure! And don't worry about if I already have the group; if someone you recommend is someone I already have, chances are, I want more of them.

(Except maybe for Michael W. Smith. Great guy, but due to things tied to his coming to speak at my church some time ago, I now have no fewer than four of his albums, which is more than I have for pretty much any other artist in my collection. Ah well. Still love his music.)

Also don't worry about what "style" I like. I like pretty much all styles and like exposing myself to various, different styles of music.

Alright, stardf!
I'll see what I can do! And you have that many of Smitty's cd's?! Lucky!! I only have two!

Anyway, two more artists I thought of last night, between signing out and falling asleep: Matthew West and Chris Tomlin.

Like I said, in terms of individual songs... I know of a lot of great ones, by a lot of artists. But I mostly know of them from the radio, so I can't vouch for whole albums (though, I'm sure they're just as good). If you like, I can link you to some of them... just let me know, ok?

I went to Hawk Nelson's Music With A Mission Tour last night and it was awesome! the bands that played were Hawk Nelson, Fireflight, Superchick, Hylan, Kiros, Benja, and a few I'm forgetting there were a lot of bands I was front and center which was unexpected and awesome the whole concert was amazing - except when Fireflight sang "You Decide": they were totally off key it was unfortunate
but the whole show was amazing and I got to meet Hawk Nelson afterward it was awesome

here's one of the pictures I took of Hawk Nelson

Noisetrade Artists I have Enjoyed/Recommend

The Civil Wars - Joy Williams is part of them, in case you've heard of her, or in case you didn't know.

Ben Lueders - I own this CD hardcopy. =D

Christa Wells - Really liked some of hers.

Stella Stagecoach - *Highly* recommend. Very, very good.

The Civil Wars are so pretty.

The Christian artist I'll reccomend (though they do fall into the "Christian-but-not-overtly-so-in-their-lyrics, like say, Chris Tomlin is.) is RED, if you're into hard rock/bordering on metal. They have excellent lyrics for all their songs that touch very deep Christian themes. My favourite album of theirs is "Innocence and Instinct" and "Faceless" (their newest.) They have "End of Silence" but I'm not well-versed with that one.

And, to add to Sanctus Real, I really like their album We Need Each Other.

Ok, here's something for those of you looking for something different!

How many of you like A capella music? I'm guessing it's not the most popular genre/fandom. Maybe not even that well known. Would you believe me if I told you that it can be upbeat, uplifting and fun? I'm guessing that those of you that know A capella music don't always see it that way. Well, have I got a surprise for you!

Now, before I go any further, I should say... I could be a little bit biased in favor of this group, as I grew up with one of it's members. The group's tenor, David, has been a friend of mine since grade school. And we sang in numerous church and school choirs together. We always joked that boy would be famous... he was so talented. Well, guess what?! Now it's becoming a reality!

Meet Breath of Soul:
Four Christian guys, who love to sing together. Three of them have been singing together since college (back when their group was called 5one). Their repertoire includes a wide variety: christian music, original compositions, and original arrangements of popular songs on the radio! Because their list of styles and songs is so long, they can perform in any number of places: churches, schools, fundraisers, non-profit events and more!

Some songs they've done in the past:
How Great Thou Art
Doxology
Lord of the Dance
Freedom Song
House of the Rising Sun
It's Alright
Nora
On the Radio
Come Together

some of the songs sung when known as 5one:
Pretty Woman
Stand By Me
Trashin the Camp (yes, from Tarzan)
and... the theme song from the 80's cartoon: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

I repeat: there are no instruments used by these guys. Any sound you hear comes from their own voices. And no, I'm not kidding... all that sound really does come from just four guys! (Trust me, I've seen them live several times)

I know they won't be everyone's cup of tea... but they really have a unique sound. And although not all the songs they sing are by Christian artists, they give all the credit to God for blessing them with the gift of song. I hope you enjoy them, though I'll understand if you don't.

(Note to other mods: if this isn't ok, let me know and I'll delete it)

edit: I don't know if you guys could tell, but if you click on their group name, it leads to their website, where you can listen to their stuff. Sorry if that wasn't clear before!

edit2:
Here's their new promo video... and thanks to malkah for getting it to work, when I couldn't!!

My dear Princess, that band sounds fascinating! Isn't is awesome when people you know become famous? I would check them out but... I am very picky about music. And I don't like acapella stuff muchly. But I thought I would tell you that they sound interesting.

I have randomly become a fan of The Afters. Please recommend songs to me.

I enjoy A cappella a lot, so I'll check that out, PA!! Several other groups are The Maccabeats, Straight no Chaser, and . . . That's all I can remember.
Nionel - some of my favorite stuff is . . Myspace Girl, Lift me up, We Won't Give up, and of course, Light up the Sky.

My dear Princess, that band sounds fascinating! Isn't is awesome when people you know become famous?

Nio, you're back!!! (I've missed you!)
Yeah, it's really odd that it's finally happening. And I can tell people, "You know the tenor? I remember when he was around 9 or 10 years old! I saw his talent and career grow from the beginning!"

I understand, no worries! And thanks for telling me it's interesting!

I enjoy A cappella a lot, so I'll check that out, PA!!

I hope you enjoy them, though I'll understand if you don't!

Oh, and you like a capella music? This might be going a bit old school (i'm reaching into my childhood here), but here are some groups you might want to look into:
Rockapella- I haven't heard tons from this group, but they have been a big influence on David and some of our friends.
Acappella- a Christian group that I LOVE and, if I'm not mistaken, saw live a time or two as a little girl! My favourite album of theirs is "Rescue". I used to spend HOURS harmonizing to it!
Gaither Vocal Band- I know I sorta mentioned them when I mentioned Mark Lowry to stardf, but here's another (and more famous) Christian a capella group. My fave song I've heard them sing, is when on Mark's broadway cd, they sang "Bein' Happy". But I typically love all of their stuff. (david's family is near obsessed with them... watch them on tv, go see them live. I think this group is his dad's favourite ) To be honest, I like them the best when Bill is playing off Mark... their banter is HILARIOUS! (note: they do use instruments too. but they sing a lot without them)

.................
As long as I'm introducing y'all to up-and-coming artists that I grew up with...
meet a friend of mine and David's: Blake Breithaupt! I'm not quite sure how to describe his sound, other than to say "a bit pop-ish, and a bit country". He's just now working on his solo EP, so keep a look-out for him! My favourite song of his is "Welcome to Someday". (though I liked the old acoustic version better. he has since changed some of the lyrics)

Enjoy!

Edit:
I figured since I showed you the Breath of Soul video, I should be fair and give you a peek at Blake's music. So, here is the song I mentioned earlier...

Edit2:
I thought I'd let you all know, I'm putting brand new graphics of both Blake and BoS in non-narnian, if you're interested.

So I suppose I'm coming in kinda late for the Vice Versa's discussion, but my package came in the mail today (I know that it was streaming a while back, but I'm kinda weird and don't listen to an album I pre-order before I get the physical copy... unless it's on the radio or something). The first thing that stood out to me was that the album felt too short. I've only been able to listen to it once but it's a good album, I feel like I've been away from Switchfoot too long . My favorite tracks were "The Original" and "Rise Above It"

*highfives outlier* Yeah, I kinda wish Vice Verses had never ended.
And The Original and Rise Above It were some of my favorites too!

Along with Dark Horses, Where I Belong, and The War Inside. Wow, I feel guilty leaving any songs out of my "favorites". Cause honestly? I loved every single one.

Princess, I love A Capella music! In fact, my congregation sing a capella in worship. So I really love the sound of voices singing and nothing else... I'll check out that group, they sound like fun. It's amazing what you can do with just voices!

Well, right now, Rich Mullins and Sons of Korah are on my playlist, playing over and over again. I've lived Rich Mullins ever since I could remember anything. My dad grew up on him and his music is so timeless...

And then, I love the Psalms, and Sons of Korah does such a good job of interpreting the Psalms into music, all the emotion and depth and beauty...and yet it's very simple what they do. I love it! And that's about it from me.

My sister recently got Switchfoot's Vice Verses and keeps telling me how good it is, but I have yet to have the chance to listen to the album! All I've really heard is "Restless". And I was a bit skeptical when I heard that song, because as different as it is from Audrey Assad's song "Restless", it kept reminding me of it...but it's not really a rip off.

My Faves are: Owl City, Jars of Clay, TobyMac, Newsboys, and some of Coldplay