Additional information
Personnel: Steven Curtis Chapman (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, piano, snare drum, percussion, programming, background vocals); Joe Causey (electric guitar, trumpet, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, percussion, programming); Ben Shive (dulcimer, celesta); David Davidson (violin, strings); John Catchings (cello, strings); Brent Milligan (cello, piano, keyboards, drums, cymbals, percussion); Monisa Angell, David Angell (strings); John Painter (horns); Ken Lewis (drums, bass drum, percussion); Richie Biggs (drums, cymbals); Will Franklin Chapman (drums); Scott Sheriff (background vocals). Audio Mixers: F. Reid Shippen; Russ "Russwell" Long; Richie Biggs. Recording information: Anderson's Pond, Kingston Springs, TN (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); Faith Assembly Church, Poughkeepsie, NY (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); Little Big Room (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); Locker Room Shower, UK Wildcat's Rupp Arena, Lexington, (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); Room 413, Doubletree Hotel, Holland, MI (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); The Anderson's Lake (04/22/2009/06/06/2009); The Laundry Room (04/22/2009/06/06/2009). Editor: Joe Causey. Beauty Will Rise is the kind of artistic statement Steven Curtis Chapman wished he had never made. Conceived in the wake of his daughter Maria's death, it finds the golden child of Christian music in the depth of the valley of the shadow, after more than 20 years of music and ministry spent on every imaginable mountaintop. Covered in sackcloth and ashes, Chapman makes no qualms that this is a collection of songs for, about, and inspired by Maria -- a gut-wrenching tribute to the "little girl with dark brown eyes that disappear when she smiles." That line, the very first of Beauty Will Rise, is but a foretaste of the bittersweet yearning Chapman has had to wrestle with since his daughter's passing -- the blessed hope that he'll see her again, the pain it'll be until kingdom come until they reunite. Humanly, Chapman is still mourning, even wailing and beating his chest at times, and those familiar with his tragedy -- which stirred a media maelstrom in 2008 -- can't help but weep with him who weeps. In "Heaven Is the Face," the album's opening track and somber first single, Chapman is so forthright about his grief and longing, you can almost hear him sigh as he sings, "Heaven is a sweet maple syrup kiss / And a thousand other little things I miss with her gone." It's a heartbreaking line, perhaps the most heartbreaking of Chapman's entire career, but it sets the tone for the rest of Beauty Will Rise, an anthology of psalms and laments in the spirit of King David -- praise intermingled with sorrow, resolve in the midst of doubt, hope in the face of uncertainty. For decades, Chapman always had all the answers, but here he lets down his guard and is even willing to dispute his own deep-set convictions, as when he bravely ponders in "Questions," "Who are you, God? / 'Cause you are turning out to be so muc
