Charles Billingsley is revisiting 10 songs that helped define Christian music on Replay, arriving Oct. 2 through StowTown Records. Russ Taff, Steve Green and TaRanda Greene join him across arrangements built for full choir and orchestra.
The album is Billingsley’s first full-length project in three years. He produced it with Bradley Knight, Wayne Haun, Matt Summers and Adam Lancaster.
Replay Lets the Original Voices Answer Back
Russ Taff joins Billingsley for a new arrangement of “Trumpet of Jesus,” which Taff originally recorded as lead singer of The Imperials. Billingsley grew up playing trumpet and remembers the song as both a musical favorite and an early influence.
Steve Green returns to “People Need The Lord,” a song Billingsley credits with helping define his own calling while he was in college.
“God told me I was called to preach, but the sermons would be four-minute songs,” Billingsley said.
TaRanda Greene also joins Billingsley for “The Home of the Lord.” Sandi Patty and Taff first recorded the spirited duet in 1981.
From Petra and Gold City to Steven Curtis Chapman
Billingsley describes the album as both nostalgic and fresh. Instead of treating the songs as museum pieces, Replay gives them new choral and orchestral settings designed for concerts, churches and another generation of listeners.
The selections cross several corners of Christian music history. Billingsley revisits Gold City’s “Midnight Cry,” Steven Curtis Chapman’s “His Strength Is Perfect” and the hymn “It Is Well.” He also pairs Petra’s 1983 song “Grave Robber” with the gospel standard “Ain’t No Grave.”
Replay Track List
- “It Is Well”
- “Home of the Lord”
- “Heaven”
- “Midnight Cry”
- “Trumpet of Jesus”
- “Grave Robber / Ain’t No Grave”
- “His Strength Is Perfect”
- “Under God”
- “Center of It All”
- “People Need The Lord”
Replay Is Built for Churches Too
Select songs will be supported through StowTown Worship Resource with choral charts, orchestrations, stems, rehearsal parts, accompaniment tracks and split tracks.
The album follows StowTown Records’ move to Syntax Creative for global distribution. That agreement brought Billingsley and the label’s broader catalog under one distribution system.
Billingsley will introduce music from Replay during an album release concert at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Sunday, Sept. 27. The concert begins at 6 p.m. EDT and will be livestreamed on YouTube.