Russ Lee

Discography

2000 Words In Time

(All releases on Sparrow Records)

Biography

"My own history is proof of the importance and the timeliness of the Gospel message and of the power it contains to rescue people. It's almost like a suspense movie where at that crucial moment when you're in trouble and you don't know what to do, someone suddenly gives you the answer to a life-threatening question, and that answer comes just in the nick of time. That's the way the Gospel came to me. That's why I'm so passionate about my call to take it to others." —Russ Lee

You quickly get the idea that it wouldn't matter to Russ Lee whether he was a carpenter, a shoe salesman, or a singer/songwriter. His life's focus and passion exist independent of his vocation. It just so happens that he possesses one of the grittiest, blues-tinged, soul and pop voices ever to grace ten number one songs on Christian radio. Russ says, "When you're someone like me, you use whatever tools you have in your hands."

Learning to use those tools effectively during his years as frontman for the group NewSong and a featured vocalist for Truth, Russ racked up a long list of accolades, hits, and awards (including a Dove nomination for best male vocalist). But, the details of his resume don't tell the depth of his story. Now, as Sparrow Records' newest solo artist, Russ' debut Words In Time reveals not only his intense, soulful musical tastes, but also something of the intense, soul-searching journey that compelled him to write and sing in the first place.

Born in Cleveland, Tennessee, a quaint church town near the Smokey Mountains, Russ’ early years were filled with happy times of much love and laughter. Though upon entering his teenage years, he began to watch his father struggle with alcoholism and his mother face a mental illness. Russ quickly learned to be a survivor and became the caretaker for his three younger siblings. To deal with the pressures of life Russ took a second-shift job at 13 where he believed money to be the stability and power he needed. In addition to money, drugs and pornography soon became his escape. By the age of 17, Russ was dealing drugs out of his car and playing guitar in a bar band.

"I was looking for purpose in life," he says, "and when I realized that money, possessions, and a girlfriend couldn't fill the longings of my heart, I was distraught."

One night on his way home from a bar, Russ reached the breaking point. He pulled his car to the side of the road and offered up a cry for help to a God he wasn't even sure existed. Two days later, at a friend's invitation, Russ found himself in a borrowed dress shirt sitting in the second row of a small church.

"As the pastor preached the sermon," Russ remembers, "I felt God knocking at my heart's door. I stepped out of the pew and went down front while the pastor was still preaching."

Russ Lee's conversion was an experience he never recovered from. Now an ordained minister as well as an experienced performer, the whole thrust of Russ' life seems to be focused on sharing the good news of Christ, however and with whomever he can.

"There are so many people all around us every day who are hurting and searching and open to hear the truth," Russ says. "If I can use music as a way to get close to their hearts and down to where the fire burns in them, and expose them to the greatness of the gospel, then that's what I'm going to do. I think my record communicates an honest passion toward people, and a longing for them to know Christ. I don't want to live in my own comfort zone. I want to 'press in' to the lives of other people. I'm a fallible, frail human being who knows what it's like to be held intimately by a God who loves me, and I want to pull other people into that place too."

Produced by Brian McCloud (Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Tears For Fears, The Waiting) and Glenn Rosenstein (Caedmon's Call, Plumb), Words In Time boasts several songs--like the funk-laced euro-pop tune “Why,” and the melodic laid back “Tell Me”--that spring from that ever-present desire to bring others face to face with God. Russ says he penned “Why” as a challenge and an invitation to skeptics, while he took a softer approach on “Tell Me,” chronicling the story of one girl's journey through tragedy to faith.

"’Tell Me’ is about that hunger and desire in the heart of every person to know the truth," Russ explains. "But it's also about the responsibility and the privilege bestowed on believers. As the ones who have been entrusted with the life-changing message, it's our job to bring it to those who need it."

Russ' desire for Christians to impact the culture around them with the message of truth is expressed most blatantly in the driving anthem “Live What I Believe,” a song already well on its way to becoming a standard.

"There comes a time," Russ says, "when you have to stand up and say 'The world is confusing, but there is a plumb line and a foundation, and I've found it in God, and I won't be moved from it.' Someone has to hold up a light and carry the flag of truth and justice. I've gotta do that. Because of the presence of God in my life, I'm part of the solution, and I'm not going to keep it to myself. A lot of other people seem to relate to that. “Live What I Believe” has already generated an overwhelming response in the live setting. People stand to their feet and point toward heaven. Afterwards they'll tell me things like 'I've been waiting a long time for this. This is my new theme song.'"

Another audience favorite is the evocative, compelling, soulful admonition “Go There.” Inspired by Russ' involvement in the work of World Vision, “Go There” paints stirring pictures of heaven and of this world's needs, positioning surrendered Christians as the divinely appointed bridge between the two. "I have a strong passion for what World Vision is all about and I want to help them however I can," Russ says. "I've seen how they become the hands and feet of Jesus in a community, meeting physical and spiritual needs at the same time. I'm committed to journey with them in that."

No stranger to journeys in his own life, Russ—together with his wife Mary and his two kids—sold their house in Atlanta when they felt God prompting Russ toward a solo career. They packed up and headed north for Nashville. It was a time of enormous transition in their lives—they soon found out Mary was pregnant with their third child. "We were trying to birth a record and a baby at the same time," Russ quips. “Even though it was an exciting time, the whirlwind going on around him forced Russ to quiet himself and to reach beyond his own strength for direction and inspiration.

"It was a difficult season to be in," he remembers, "making the transition, getting ready for a new baby, making a record. It became critical for me to get quiet on a regular basis and be still in the presence of God so that I would be the husband and father I needed to, but also so that I could be the messenger that I needed to be as a songwriter. I looked to God for direction, asking Him what he would say to others through my music. It was my goal to make a record with depth that was enjoyable and fun and serious and pensive and thought provoking, but more than that, it had to have spiritual integrity before God--because ultimately, I was making a record for an audience of One."

While the lyrical emphasis of his album tends to move consistently in one direction, the musical diversity of Words In Time is more reflective of Russ' exposure to and involvement in a wide variety of styles over the years. While he isn't afraid to switch gears now and then from an R&B ballad to an aggressive pop single to a 1980's era cover (i.e. Mike and the Mechanics hit song about forgiveness, “The Living Years”), Russ weaves it all together on this project in such a way that the magic never falters. His ability to vocally paint the broad strokes, the details, and the moody textures of any given song creates a strong and recognizable musical identity, regardless of the style and instrumentation.

"The bottom line musically for this project," Russ says, "is that it's all stuff I would like to listen to. I'm kind of a melting pot. There are moments when you might say 'That sounds like Rich Mullins and Tom Petty wrote a song together,' and there are other moments when you might say 'That sounds like the old Philadelphia pop R&B sound.' I think Words In Time is kind of like one of those globes where the mountains aren't just drawn on, but they poke out, and the oceans are a little deeper than the land. You can see the landscape. Well, this record has a lot of landscape.

"The thing that holds it all together is the passion of the message, the passion for truth, the passionate relationship with Jesus, and the longing to bring other people into that. That's the center."