“This is what I know I’ve been put on this earth to do: to make music.” 

Rebekah Reitzel’s passion and talent arrived even before she did: her mother played worship music and put headphones to her belly when Rebekah was in the womb. From an early age, Reitzel’s propensity for music was apparent, and she decided when she was as young as 7 years old that music was her mission, her lifework. 

That odyssey is finally realized in Pages, Rebekah Reitzel’s debut record, a collection of songs that unfolds like a story before the listener. “Take me back to the basics again,” Rebekah sings at the opening of the album, the first of many allusions to her journey of rediscovering God, beauty, and creation. “Tell me who I am and why I was born.” 

Throughout the course of five tracks, the answers to those questions become apparent. Soaring melodies and alt-folk riffs, deftly blended by the hand of Billboard hitmaking producer Sal Oliveri (P!NK, Carrie Underwood), evidence years of growth and maturity of a singer-songwriter that belie the artist’s youth. And apart from merely having a voice, an expression, Rebekah has an impetus. 

“You are the reason that I sing,” Rebekah tells the “One and Only,” the title of the fourth track and one of many names she gives that Reason throughout the song. My Victory, the Light-Bringer, the Savior-King … it’s clear Who gets top billing throughout the course of Pages: not Rebekah herself, not her immense musical savvy or her accomplished, masterly band, but God. 

“My lyrics come out of an overflow of what God has done for me, what His word says – my own experience and encounters in life and with God,” says Rebekah. “His creation influences me; His love and His word.” 

Rebekah explores those themes across the span of Pages, from admiring God as a creator and restorer in “All Things New” to a lover who brings the church out of its slumber on “Wake Up O Sleeper.” When Rebekah surrenders “I withhold nothing” on the track “It’s Not Too Late,” she lays herself bare to God, leaving everything she has as an offering lyrically and musically. 

For as intensely personal as the album is, its accessibility and openness invite the listener to go on their own journey with God through the peaks and valleys of life. “He will never let down or hold out on us,” says Rebekah, a sentiment echoed on the track “Close.” “Even in my darkest moments, your love has carried me,” she sings over ringing acoustic tones and fingerpicking. “Even in the lonely seasons, you have always been right here with me.” 

Rebekah hopes the album serves as an encouragement to the listener. “Ultimately, it is about others,” Rebekah says, “bringing the Kingdom to earth with what I have been entrusted to steward. The redemption and the hope and the love and the grace and the mercy of our creator God is for them, too – for everyone. Our God is a God of redemption, and he can and will take every experience in life and use it for our good and His glory.”