The Rock Music will open its third decade with Not Alone, an eight-song collection shaped as much by life inside its Salt Lake City church as by the recording studio.
Set for release Sept. 11, the project includes six original songs and two established favorites. Jordan Clark and Joel Pack produced the album.
The Rock Music grew out of The Rock Church, where many of the songs have already become part of regular worship services and events.
For founder Steele Croswhite, that history gives the album a purpose beyond simply adding another collection to the group’s catalog.
“These songs have been woven into our regular worship services and events, and they’ve had significant impact on our brothers and sisters in Utah,” Croswhite said. “But the music isn’t limited to Utah. The themes of Truth, longing, and worship expressed in these songs are for the Church everywhere.”
‘Not Alone’ Centers on Grace and Compassion
The album’s central idea is contained in its title: Christians may experience loneliness, suffering and uncertainty, but they do not face those things abandoned by God.
That theme runs through songs about grace, longing, forgiveness and the nearness of Christ.
“Yearning Heart,” written by Croswhite, Caleb Yetton and Ryan Hall, draws inspiration from Dane Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers.
Croswhite said the book helped shape the song’s picture of God’s compassion.
“The book gripped me in its explanation of how God’s heart for us is yearning with affection, love and grace,” Croswhite said.
Rather than treating grace primarily as an abstract theological idea, the song focuses on the character of the God offering it.
The Rock Music Revisits Familiar Worship Songs
Not Alone also includes songs listeners may already recognize.
Caleb and Kelsea Yetton lead “Jesus Paid It All,” while The Rock Music gives “Good Good Father” a rock-oriented arrangement led by Croswhite.
Other tracks include “Loved Me At My Worst,” “amazed again,” “Forever Love,” “Over and Over” and closing song “Grace Will Come.”
Croswhite wrote “Grace Will Come” with Caleb Yetton and Terell Davy. Its closing message brings the album’s larger theme into focus.
“There’s a line in ‘Grace Will Come’ that says, ‘Not alone in the dark or the desert/If we’re there, then You’re there/You won’t leave us,’” Croswhite said.
For Croswhite, the line summarizes what connects songs that otherwise move through different sounds and experiences.
“Within the theme of all of these songs is that central Truth—Jesus is with us. He is close, gracious, compassionate, forgiving, good, and amazing. And we are His!”
A Worship Collective Rooted in Salt Lake City
The Rock Music has spent more than two decades writing and recording as a ministry of The Rock Church in Salt Lake City.
Its catalog moves between worship, rock, indie and acoustic influences rather than holding to one musical style.
That variety remains visible on Not Alone, but the project is tied together more by subject than genre.
These are songs about the character of God and what that means when someone feels wounded, distant or alone.
After more than 20 years, The Rock Music is still beginning with songs intended to serve its own congregation and then allowing those songs to travel farther.
Listen to The Rock Music’s Not Alone.