Christian Country There's A New Wave Of ...

Christian Country There’s a new wave of faith-based, Nashville sounds. Whether it’s Carrie Underwood’s prayerful Jesus, Take the Wheel or Brooks & Dunn’s nostalgic Believe, country charts are sounding like Sunday morning. The reason, says David Fillingim, Shorter College religion and philosophy professor, is pretty simple: That’s their audience. “Country music is not going to look anywhere else,” he says. It’s also the faith background of many of the artists, who tend to come from the Bible Belt. According to Country Weekly magazine, there have been a record-setting 11 religious-themed hits since ‘05. 3 of the 5 songs nominated for this year’s country music Song of the Year were among them; the winner was Believe. (Paramus Post 8/2/06)