Brandon Heath is a contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee who began his career by writing songs as a teenager. He has released four studio albums: Don't Get Comfortable, What If We, Leaving Eden and Blue Mountain. He is best known for the No. 1 "I'm Not Who I Was" and "Give Me Your Eyes". He was nominated four times at the Dove Awards of 2008 and won in the "New Artist of the Year" category. His second album was nominated for "Gospel Album of the Year" at the 51st Grammy Awards of 2009. Brandon has been nominated for three Grammy Awards - Best Contemporary Christian Music Song, Best Gospel/Contemporary Music Performance and Best Contemporary Christian Music Album (Leaving Eden). The opening title track “Leaving Eden”spoke of the obvious pain in the world, with the state of things around us, "it’s clear we’ve left Eden,” he says. Leaving Eden represented that important step forward for Heath, as artist, as singer, as chronicler of the world around him. Through this remarkable collection of songs, he reminds us moment by moment, decision by decision, of the hope given to us. Although we often may feel the weight of the world pushing in, by looking back and leaning on the One who created us, can we truly experience that burden lifted.
Brandon's first single from his latest album Blue Mountain is “Jesus in Disguise”. “Jesus isn’t always in the obvious,” Heath notes. “But from busy city streets to the rural roads of ‘Blue Mountain,’ Jesus is always there to be found. You just have
to know what to look for and be willing to look for it. It’s been a burden; it’s still a burden for God to open my eyes, so much so that I’m still writing about it after all these years.” In recording Blue Mountain, Heath collaborated with some of his favorite Nashville songwriters, including Lee Thomas Miller, Luke Laird, Barry Dean and Deana Carter. Once he crafted the songs, he hit the studio with producer Dan Muckala. “I wanted to take on a whole new flavor,” Heath says of fusing pop, hip-hop beats and Appalachian roots music. The album was recorded at Echo Mountain Recording Studio in picturesque Asheville, N.C. “We rented a cabin and we lived there for 10 days while we worked on this record. It’s a cool place,” says Heath of the studio where Dierks Bentley recorded his Home album and MercyMe recorded its current disc, The Hurt & the Healer. Dan did Mercy Me’s record so that’s how he knew about the studio. He said, ‘We need to take your Blue Mountain idea to Asheville; I know a great studio that’ll give us the perfect setting.’”
The album is as inventive lyrically as it is sonically. One of the most poignant tracks is “Dyin’ Day,” the story of a death row inmate. “I wanted to write about a guy who had led a life so evil that it ultimately put him in prison where he’s since lost his identity – he’s been reduced to his prison number. The redemption is it’s here that he finds a level of forgiveness that most of us don’t even allow ourselves,” Heath explains of the fictional character. “He’s a man who has been cut off from the world and hasn’t seen forgiveness from his family or society, yet he understands forgiveness so deeply and that’s amazing to me.” Forgiveness, servanthood and the power of grace are topics that have been woven throughout Heath’s musical repertoire, but never have they seemed to coalesce into a more potent musical offering than on Blue Mountain. “I want people to feel loved and comforted because that’s what I feel I can offer through the songs on this record,” he says. “I hope listeners will take a journey with me; that they’ll step out of their lives for a moment to explore Blue Mountain and its’ characters. My hope is that they’ll find themselves there.”
