His new album, ‘Echoes,’ is full of catchy, church-ready songs.Matt Maher released a brand new album last week, called Echoes. Maher’s music continues to proclaim his faith with catchy, church-ready tunes that are bound to get your toe tapping. The 41-minute album contains some really good hooks, with songs like “What a Friend,” the album’s single “Your Love Defends Me,” and, of course, “Faithfulness.”
For this track, Maher was joined by Bethel Music’s Steffany Gretzinger, a singer-songwriter who provides backup vocals for “Faithfulness.” She was an excellent choice for the part, since her voice melds wonderfully with Maher’s tenor.
The chorus of “Faithfulness” was drawn from the Book of Lamentations 3:22-23:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
During a “Studio Session” in which Maher performed an “unplugged” rendition of “Faithfulness,” the worship artist spoke about the inspiration for the song. About eight months after Maher finished “Faithfulness,” his father became ill and passed away. It was in his grief that he came to a realization:
“Faith is mostly made up of memory. What I mean by that is that faith, a lot of the faith that we have about who God is and what he’s done for us, is based on what we’ve experienced and the realization that He is consistent and constant with that. There are great memories of God’s faithfulness and that gives us the strength to sing a phrase like ‘Great is your faithfulness,’ when we have memories that are the exact opposite of that. When we have painful memories or painful seasons. When going through loss, when we’re going through struggle.”
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