I've been wanting to write about an amazing experience I recently had.

While I'm not Christian, I'm a huge fan of Christian artist Sarah Masen. Her cd's have probably spent more time on my players over the last 7 years or so then any other artist.

Recently, I read on her My Space site that she had released 3 limited edition ep's of new material. I don't do My Space, so I went to her website to see about purchase. Her website is now "under construction" (too bad as she used to post new music there).

Being the collector that I am, I hunted down her husband's blog & posted there asking if there was a way to purchase the ep's. He responded on the blog that they were out of print, but gave me Sarah's email address & suggested writing her.

She was unbelievably gracious, & mentioned that she was thrilled that I wanted them that badly. She burned me copies with custom cover artwork, autographed them & mailed them to me & refused to let me pay her!!

She even sent one of the ep's a second time when the cdr wouldn't play.

I don't have the words to express how touched I was by this. I have met many recording artists in my life, but have never had an experience like this one.

While currently without a label, there was a time that Sarah was a major star in the Christian music world. Her cd's are all out of print, but are frequently on ebay & or Amazon very inexpensively. Genre wise, she's moderately similar to the Lillith Fair crowd.

Thanks for sharing, Geff. I've never heard of her, but she certainly sounds like a class act.

I know her! I have several of her tracks on various compilation CDs. Good voice.

Thanks for the tip, Geff. I went and played about 25 of her sound clips on AMG and elsewhere, really good stuff. Great voice, intelligent lyrics, interesting music and chord changes. I'm going to have to get her CD's off Amazon marketplace. I've been playing in a contemporary praise band at church one or two Sundays a month for about 10 years, had never heard of her or her songs before. She's way better than the stuff being played on Christian radio these days, but then again I don't listen to much Christian radio as I find it kinda slick and boring...

That's great to hear, Geff. She sounds like a wonderful singer and person. I'll have to Youtube her...

Good eye deer, Francine. I couldn't find a lot of her on YouTube, but here's one from 1996:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecLNrFmCmc0

Great song, power poppy, entertaining video, plus she has a sense of humor!

I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure that vid is in the ecd section of the "Sarah Masen" cd. Great song! Though since I'm not very familiar with Christianity, I probably have no idea what she's singing about 1/2 the time!

The Sarah Masen cd was her major label debut. It was produced by Charlie Peacock, & in my opinion is one of the most brilliantly arranged/produced pop albums of all time. The 2 cd's that followed it were much more stripped down, though just as good in a different way. In interviews, Sarah stated that she wasn't real happy with the highly produced sound of this cd.

AGREED!

Of course, even when I was in college and heavily into Christian music, radio never played what I wanted. The stuff I liked never got airplay. (Of course, most Christian bands are all into doing "praise music" these days, which I find trite and unchallenging).

I must have kept the Christian music store just off campus in business long after their sale-by date!

If you want some more amazing examples from the mid to late 1990s, I got 'em.

Thanks, Robin! Wow! That is really good stuff. I like it. Very catchy and fun. Good lyrics. Great vid!