“Give Me Your Eyes” has recently taken on a whole new meaning for singer/songwriter Brandon Heath. The Platinum-certified hit is the biggest song of Brandon’s career to date. Originally written as a plea for God to give him eyes to see those around him, these days, he’s asking for eyes to see himself the way the Father sees him. His shift in perspective comes after a period of personal wrestling where he often asks the question: Am I enough?
 
“The ultimate question is ‘Who am I?’ because so much of my identity has been wrapped up in being an artist,” Brandon clarifies. “I remember singing the song one day and it just dawning on me, God, how do You see me? I know that You say I’m Your child, but surely there’s more that You see in me than just being a good songwriter.”
 
It’s a hard thing for someone like Brandon Heath to admit. After all, he’s spent the better part of the last 16 years writing songs professionally. The Nashville native released his major label debut in 2006, amassing fans with his introspective vulnerability ripped straight from real life. With six studio albums, a Christmas record, and five No. 1 singles to his credit, including the Platinum RIAA-certified “Give Me Your Eyes,” the singer has garnered five Grammy nominations, an American Music Award nod, and an Emmy Award. 
 
In addition, he’s earned eight Dove Awards, including two consecutive Male Vocalist honors and a win for Song of the Year. He’s also been recognized as a top lyricist in his field with numerous songwriting accolades, including being named BMI’s Songwriter of the Year.
 
Newly signed to both Centricity Music and Centricity Publishing, Brandon’s next artistic chapter opens with his seventh full-length collection, Enough Already, a nine-track project that provides the answers to his faith-shaping questions and finds him collaborating with an array of songwriters and producers, many of whom he hasn’t previously worked with. While almost everything in this season is intentionally different, one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s Brandon’s uncanny ability to get underneath your skin with a lyric.
 
“I want to make sure I write songs that are uniquely me—not just the ones that make you want to play it again, but songs that make you go, ‘Oh wow, he just sang my story,’” Brandon offers. “I think that is what makes people invest in an artist. It’s not just the songs they like on the radio. It’s cut three on the record that kind of makes you own that artist.”
 
New Album
 
A healthy mix of ready-made hits and deep cuts, Enough Already exposes the singer’s hidden insecurities, like his ever-present struggle with feeling like he never quite measures up. “It’s a real weakness for me, but I also realize there’s a lot of people out there who can relate to that. So, I decided to kind of allow it to have more space in my life and to let it affect my songwriting,” Brandon shares. “This has been a season of me rediscovering what I mean to God, and it has really just given me a lot of peace and a sense of belonging.”
 
This hard-won realization comes to light on the confident title cut that holds a lighthearted double meaning. “I don’t need anything or anyone else to tell me what I’m worth. God has already defined my worth. He already calls me "son." He already recognizes me as redeemed,” Brandon contends. “There’s really nothing in this world that could give me more meaning and purpose than what God already gives me.”
 
New Songs

His ongoing battle with self-worth also surfaces on the album’s lead track, “Human Nature.” From the first notes plucked out on piano to the faint chatter of kids in the background, the song sets the scene for a back-alley orphanage in Brooklyn—the perfect setting for Brandon’s opening line: We’re not God’s problem. We are God’s children.
 
Leaning further into the LP’s central theme, the award-winning artist breaks down the core elements of belief in “That’s Enough,” reminding listeners: "You are here/You are loved/God is good/And that’s enoug." “When it gets down to it, the Gospel’s really simple,” he offers. “So, when God asks us to have a childlike faith, I think He really means it.”
 
Elsewhere, the radio single “See Me Through It” serves up a tongue-in-cheek truth against a backdrop of playful piano and horns. “Where could we hide from Him? He sees us in the dark,” Brandon says of the song’s message. “He pursues us; He sees us, and He stays with us.”
 
New Autobiography
 
Meanwhile, the autobiographical “He Is Not Worried” relies on Heath’s signature storytelling. Depicting a full circle moment from his childhood all the way back to the present day raising two kids of his own, the selection explores the way a father sets the tone for his family. 
 
“I looked to my dad to see how he was responding to life and the world. If he was upset, it upset me; and if he wasn’t upset, I was OK. He was my North Star,” Brandon says of his father, who passed away shortly before his oldest daughter was born. “So now that I’ve become a dad, and I don’t have my dad, it’s really important that my North Star is the Lord.”
 
Addressing the relationship between our fear and God’s sovereignty, the Gospel-tinged track asks a pivotal question that has become a personal compass for Brandon: Is my Heavenly Father worried? The question is timely considering the fear that’s currently running rampant on a global scale.
 
“Things are crazy,” Brandon concedes, “But it’s not the time to lose our head and throw up our hands and dig ourselves into a hole. It’s time to love our neighbor. That’s what God has called us to do—to love and see our neighbors, because I know they’re scared like I am. So, I’m trying to be more in tune with the people around me and just find ways to say, ‘Hey, we’re loved. We’re not alone.’”
   
At Home
 
Ultimately, that’s the simple lesson of Enough Already, a record planted and cultivated in Brandon’s backyard in Nashville. It’s a place where he’s spent a good portion of time in recent years thinking, praying, and mowing his steep plot of land that includes a small creek, a play set for his young daughters, and a fire pit for the men’s group that meets at his house. Essentially, it’s where his new music has grown.
 
Ironically, when COVID-19 shut down touring, Brandon spent an unexpected amount of time in other people’s backyards as he played small, safe outdoor shows by invitation-only in select backyards across the country. These “Brandon in the Backyard” dates were so enjoyable he decided to make it an annual tradition. “It’s my favorite way to play shows now. It feels more intimate, more like a gathering than a concert,” Brandon says of the stripped-down performances. “It’s just become this fun, unique thing I can offer to my fans and that they can offer to me. We are really there for each other.”
 
Being in the backyards of—mostly—strangers have enabled Brandon to interact with fans in a way he never has before. Around the warmth of an open fire or beneath an open sky full of stars, he’s found a front-row seat to people’s pain, their grief, and their joy. And it’s allowed him to witness the healing power of music up close. 
 
Music Is Medicine
 
“I’ve heard it said before that music is medicine, but I don’t see myself as a pharmacist,” Brandon says. “I can’t sit down and write a prescription for anybody, but I can share some of my own pain and my own perspective, and that connection, I think, is what makes people feel the healing.”
 
He hopes listeners find healing in his new album, as well as a sense of self. If he can help someone discover their identity in Christ through one of his songs, he would count Enough Already a success. He adds, “I feel like in the season of history that we find ourselves in, it’s really important for us to be rooted in this truth: He is whom He says He is, and we are whom He says we are.”
 
It’s this anchoring stance that continues to inspire Brandon to dig deep for songs as he processes who he is and where his identity lies. “I feel like I’m building a repertoire that will be my legacy,” Brandon shares. “Outside the realm of being a dad, I have not yet found a better feeling than creating a song and then one day randomly hearing what that song that I wrote is doing in somebody’s life. Nothing compares to that. Nothing.”