GRAMMY Award-winning artists Amy Grant, Ashley Cleveland, Ron Block, Kevin Max, Tommy Sims, and over a dozen other recording artists have united to release a new album to celebrate the songs of one of Christian music's all-time best songwriters, Rich Mullins. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Mullin's tragic passing in a car accident in Central Illinois.
The new album is titled Bellsburg - The Songs of Rich Mullins and will release on September 16. Instead of a slick, highly-produced "Nashville industry" tribute, this recording embodies a warm, gentle, sparse setting -- recorded in Rich's old house in Bellsburg, Tennessee.
"This 120-year-old farmhouse in Bellsburg was the perfect setting to make this album," shares Andrew Greer, the executive producer of the tribute album. "We are celebrating Rich's life and legacy, and this is the space he lived... and very possibly wrote many songs. Recording with this community, in this special way, I believe gets us closer to the barefooted Rich."
Besides the names listed above, the project will also feature critically-acclaimed artists Andrew Peterson, Cindy Morgan, Jason Gray, Mitch McVicker, Sara Groves, Carolyn Arends, Jimmy Abegg, and several more -- including Rich's brother David Mullins.
"This was an incredible communal effort," reflects the album's producer Chris Hoisington (Brothers McClurg, co-founder of Old Bear Records). "When I compare Rich Mullins to great American songwriters like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, or Paul Simon, it's possible that this more simple folk/acoustic style would be the lane that Rich would be in today, musically speaking."
Listeners have the unique opportunity to join the Kickstarter Campaign and be a part of the making of Bellsburg, now through June 30. Reward tiers include digital downloads, CDs, vinyl, unique art, a Mullins mystery box, and (among several other tiers) a Mullins Fan Weekend experience in Nashville, September 16-18.
A documentary of the making of Bellsburg will also be released in 2022 -- for which all Kickstarter backers will receive an advanced copy.
