Sara Groves
Encyclopedia
Sara Groves is an American
Contemporary Christian
singer, record producer
, and author
.
Sara received her Bachelor of Science
degree in History and English in 1994 from Evangel University
, a private Christian
university in Springfield, Missouri
. Sara spent four years teaching high school in Rosemount, Minnesota
before recording her first album, Past the Wishing, in 1998. Since then, she has released nine additional albums and appeared on several others. Sara has been nominated for three Dove Awards including "New Artist of the Year" in 2002 and "Special Event Album of the Year 2003" by the Gospel Music Association
. She was named one of the best Christian music artists of 2005 and the album, Add to the Beauty
, was named "Album of the Year" for 2005 by CCM Magazine
.
In 2001, she appeared on Word Entertainment's What a Mom album with the song "Generations", and also on Word Entertainment's New Music From Our Heart To Yours album.
In 2002, she performed with Randy Stonehill
on the song "Take Me Back", performed with Joel Hanson
on the title song for the album Traveling Light: Songs From the 23rd Psalm, and performed the song "Child of Love" for the album City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time
.
In 2003, she appeared on the City on a Hill: The Gathering
album with the song "Come Be Who You Are", and the following year's sequel City on a Hill: The Collection album, with the song "Jesus Went to the Garden".
Groves was recognized by the Alumni Board from Evangel University
in 2004, for her significant achievements in the years since graduation.
In September 2005, Sara, her husband Troy, her father-in-law, a neighbour, and a Minneapolis ER doctor delivered a tour bus and trailer load of baby supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina
in Slidell, Louisiana
.
Sara was chosen as the subject of a film released in August 2006, titled Sara Groves - Just Showed Up For My Own Life, the first installment of a new reality film series called Nomad: The Show With No Home produced by Fearless Films Inc. Included in this film were video of the Katrina relief effort by Groves in 2005 and a subsequent trip to Rwanda
, Africa
with Pastor Rick Warren
and a group from Saddleback Church
to learn about the challenges of reconciliation and economic development 11 years after the mass Rwandan genocide
. Bonus features included Sara's live set from the 2006 Jars of Clay
Tour, Nomad vignettes for small groups and more.
Sara gave birth to her third child, a girl, on July 13, 2007 and named her Ruby Cate. Sara and her husband, Troy, also have two sons Kirby (born in 2001) and Toby (born in 2003). On October 30, 2007, the first single from the upcoming album Tell Me What You Know, titled "When the Saints", was featured as a free download from Apple's iTunes Store
. INO Records
released the album Tell Me What You Know on November 6, 2007. Tell Me What You Know held the #1 sales spot for Christian music on iTunes for one week and landed at #2 for iTunes album of the year. Sara produced her father's, Dwight Colbaugh, first album titled Beautiful Story. Groves ended 2007 in the lineup with Andrew Peterson on his Behold the Lamb of God Tour in November and December 2007.
In 2008, Groves toured throughout the year to promote her new album Tell Me What You Know and to benefit several Christian ministries. Sara and Troy Groves teamed up with Charlie Peacock
, Derek Webb
, Sandra McCracken
and Brandon Heath
in September and October 2008 for the Art*Music*Justice Tour to benefit both the International Justice Mission
and Food For the Hungry
. Sara released her first Christmas album, O Holy Night, in October 2008. The album contains both Christmas standards and newly written material. Groves was in the linup in December 2008 of the Love Came Down Tour: A Christmas Pageant with Jars of Clay
, Sixpence None the Richer
and Leeland
. She ended 2008 with a free concert at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri
. The USMCFP is the same prison that Sara's grandparents, Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh, have visited for 39 years and to which they took her as a baby at Christmas-time 1972. Sara said later about this concert, "More than anything I wanted to say something of encouragement, something to remind these men that they are the art of God, especially in this place. Like always, I left encouraged myself."
Groves' ninth album, Fireflies & Songs, was released on November 17, 2009. On the track "From This One Place," Groves sings about her battles with onstage anxiety attacks. The album, Fireflies and Songs, was named Album of the Year by Christianity Today
as the "runaway" #1 choice by a panel of ten music critics choosing Christianity Today's Top 12 Albums of 2009. Groves ended 2009 with her first solo Christmas tour performing songs from her 2008 Holiday release O Holy Night.
Groves released her latest album, "Invisible Empires," on October 18, 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Contemporary Christian
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
singer, record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Sara received her Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in History and English in 1994 from Evangel University
Evangel University
Evangel University is the national university of arts, sciences and professions in Springfield, Missouri. Evangel College was renamed Evangel University on June 8, 1998. The campus sits on that were originally part of . The first President of Evangel was Klaude Kendrick who served from 1955-1958....
, a private Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
university in Springfield, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
. Sara spent four years teaching high school in Rosemount, Minnesota
Rosemount, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 14,619 people, 4,742 households, and 3,931 families residing in the city. The population density was 434.2 people per square mile . There were 4,845 housing units at an average density of 143.9 per square mile...
before recording her first album, Past the Wishing, in 1998. Since then, she has released nine additional albums and appeared on several others. Sara has been nominated for three Dove Awards including "New Artist of the Year" in 2002 and "Special Event Album of the Year 2003" by the Gospel Music Association
Gospel Music Association
The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of Gospel music. There are currently about 4,000 members worldwide...
. She was named one of the best Christian music artists of 2005 and the album, Add to the Beauty
Add to the Beauty
Add to the Beauty, a contemporary Christian album, is the fifth album by Sara Groves. It was released in the United States on October 4, 2005 by Sony BMG.-Track listing:#"When It Was Over"#"Just Showed Up For My Own Life"#"You Are The Sun"...
, was named "Album of the Year" for 2005 by CCM Magazine
CCM Magazine
CCM Magazine was a monthly magazine published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications. It was first published in July 1978, and it has always been a Christian music magazine. On January 16, 2008, Salem announced that the April 2008 issue would be the final printed issue of the...
.
Career
Sara Groves started writing songs when she was four years old. She describes her youth as being "lonesome", and she wrote about deep issues while still in junior high school. Eventually, she took a songwriting course, prompted by her husband, and she began to take the art seriously.In 2001, she appeared on Word Entertainment's What a Mom album with the song "Generations", and also on Word Entertainment's New Music From Our Heart To Yours album.
In 2002, she performed with Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
on the song "Take Me Back", performed with Joel Hanson
Joel Hanson
Joel Hanson was the lead singer and guitarist for Christian rock band PFR. After the breakup of the band, he went on to a solo career with the albums Captured and Broken. Joel is a songwriter who has collaborated with several artists across the music industry, including Sara Groves, Geoff Moore,...
on the title song for the album Traveling Light: Songs From the 23rd Psalm, and performed the song "Child of Love" for the album City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time
City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time
City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time is the third album released in the City on a Hill series of compilation albums by popular CCM musicians.-Track listing:#"I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day"#"It's Christmas Time" -...
.
In 2003, she appeared on the City on a Hill: The Gathering
City on a Hill: The Gathering
City on a Hill: The Gathering is the fourth album released in the City on a Hill series of compilation albums by popular Contemporary Christian musicians.-Track listing:#"Shall We Gather at River" - Prelude...
album with the song "Come Be Who You Are", and the following year's sequel City on a Hill: The Collection album, with the song "Jesus Went to the Garden".
Groves was recognized by the Alumni Board from Evangel University
Evangel University
Evangel University is the national university of arts, sciences and professions in Springfield, Missouri. Evangel College was renamed Evangel University on June 8, 1998. The campus sits on that were originally part of . The first President of Evangel was Klaude Kendrick who served from 1955-1958....
in 2004, for her significant achievements in the years since graduation.
In September 2005, Sara, her husband Troy, her father-in-law, a neighbour, and a Minneapolis ER doctor delivered a tour bus and trailer load of baby supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in Slidell, Louisiana
Slidell, Louisiana
Slidell is a city situated on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 25,695 at the 2000 census. The Greater Slidell Community has a population of about 90,000...
.
Sara was chosen as the subject of a film released in August 2006, titled Sara Groves - Just Showed Up For My Own Life, the first installment of a new reality film series called Nomad: The Show With No Home produced by Fearless Films Inc. Included in this film were video of the Katrina relief effort by Groves in 2005 and a subsequent trip to Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
with Pastor Rick Warren
Rick Warren
Richard Duane "Rick" Warren is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States...
and a group from Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church
Saddleback Church is an evangelical Christian megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church was founded in 1980 by pastor Rick Warren...
to learn about the challenges of reconciliation and economic development 11 years after the mass Rwandan genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
. Bonus features included Sara's live set from the 2006 Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay is a Christian rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. They met at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois.Jars of Clay consists of Dan Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on piano and keyboards, Stephen Mason on lead guitars and Matthew Odmark on rhythm guitars...
Tour, Nomad vignettes for small groups and more.
Sara gave birth to her third child, a girl, on July 13, 2007 and named her Ruby Cate. Sara and her husband, Troy, also have two sons Kirby (born in 2001) and Toby (born in 2003). On October 30, 2007, the first single from the upcoming album Tell Me What You Know, titled "When the Saints", was featured as a free download from Apple's iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. INO Records
INO Records
INO Records, also known as Fair Trade Services, is an American record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, specializing in Contemporary Christian music . It is distributed through Sony Music Entertainment, and was owned by Integrity Media until June 2011. When Integrity Media sold its assets...
released the album Tell Me What You Know on November 6, 2007. Tell Me What You Know held the #1 sales spot for Christian music on iTunes for one week and landed at #2 for iTunes album of the year. Sara produced her father's, Dwight Colbaugh, first album titled Beautiful Story. Groves ended 2007 in the lineup with Andrew Peterson on his Behold the Lamb of God Tour in November and December 2007.
In 2008, Groves toured throughout the year to promote her new album Tell Me What You Know and to benefit several Christian ministries. Sara and Troy Groves teamed up with Charlie Peacock
Charlie Peacock
Charlie Peacock is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, record producer, session musician and author. While growing up in California Peacock was inspired by John Coltrane and began playing the piano. After completing his education, Peacock formed a band and began a career as a professional...
, Derek Webb
Derek Webb
Derek Walsh Webb is an American singer-songwriter who first entered the music industry as a member of the band Caedmon's Call, and later embarked on a successful solo career....
, Sandra McCracken
Sandra McCracken
Sandra McCracken is an independent singer-songwriter. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and fellow singer-songwriter Derek Webb.-Background:...
and Brandon Heath
Brandon Heath
Brandon Heath is a contemporary Christian musician from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released three studio albums: Don't Get Comfortable , What If We and "Leaving Eden" . 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...
in September and October 2008 for the Art*Music*Justice Tour to benefit both the International Justice Mission
International Justice Mission
International Justice Mission is a U.S.-based non-profit human rights organization that operates in countries all over the world to rescue victims of individual human rights abuse. IJM works to combat human trafficking including the commercial sexual exploitation of children, forced labor...
and Food For the Hungry
Food for the Hungry
Food for the Hungry is an international relief and development organization working in more than 26 countries around the world. Food for the Hungry was founded in 1971 by Dr. Larry Ward...
. Sara released her first Christmas album, O Holy Night, in October 2008. The album contains both Christmas standards and newly written material. Groves was in the linup in December 2008 of the Love Came Down Tour: A Christmas Pageant with Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay is a Christian rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. They met at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois.Jars of Clay consists of Dan Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on piano and keyboards, Stephen Mason on lead guitars and Matthew Odmark on rhythm guitars...
, Sixpence None the Richer
Sixpence None the Richer
Sixpence None the Richer is an American rock/pop band that formed in New Braunfels, Texas, eventually settling in Nashville, Tennessee. They are best known for their songs "Kiss Me" and "Breathe Your Name" and their covers of "Don't Dream It's Over" and "There She Goes". The name of the band is...
and Leeland
Leeland
Leeland is a Christian rock band from Baytown, Texas. The band was formed in 2004, although lead singer Leeland Mooring had been writing songs beforehand. Leeland is composed of Leeland Mooring , Jack Mooring , Casey Moore , Shelly Mooring and Mike Smith...
. She ended 2008 with a free concert at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
. The USMCFP is the same prison that Sara's grandparents, Lloyd and Nita Colbaugh, have visited for 39 years and to which they took her as a baby at Christmas-time 1972. Sara said later about this concert, "More than anything I wanted to say something of encouragement, something to remind these men that they are the art of God, especially in this place. Like always, I left encouraged myself."
Groves' ninth album, Fireflies & Songs, was released on November 17, 2009. On the track "From This One Place," Groves sings about her battles with onstage anxiety attacks. The album, Fireflies and Songs, was named Album of the Year by Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
as the "runaway" #1 choice by a panel of ten music critics choosing Christianity Today's Top 12 Albums of 2009. Groves ended 2009 with her first solo Christmas tour performing songs from her 2008 Holiday release O Holy Night.
Groves released her latest album, "Invisible Empires," on October 18, 2011.
Albums
| Year | Album | Chart | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Past the Wishing | ||
| 1999 | Conversations | ||
| 2001 | Top Contemporary Christian | 35 | |
| 2002 | All Right Here | Heatseekers | 18 |
| 2004 | The Other Side of Something | Top Christian Albums | 29 |
| 2005 | Station Wagon: Songs for Parents | ||
| Add to the Beauty Add to the Beauty Add to the Beauty, a contemporary Christian album, is the fifth album by Sara Groves. It was released in the United States on October 4, 2005 by Sony BMG.-Track listing:#"When It Was Over"#"Just Showed Up For My Own Life"#"You Are The Sun"... |
Top Christian Albums | 19 | |
| Top Heatseekers | 28 | ||
| 2007 | Tell Me What You Know | ||
| 2008 | O Holy Night | ||
| 2009 | Fireflies and Songs | Billboard 200 | 119 |
| 2011 | Invisible Empires |
Publications
- Essay in The Art of Being, 2004 original essays and stories from a diverse list of contributors (compiled and edited by Constance Rhodes)