New Music Tuesday:Sixteen Cities

“I wanna come closer, but I’d feel so out of place/You’re so beautiful, but I’m still ashamed/That after all I’ve done, I’ve fallen from grace/Are these hands I raise only raised in vain?”

Any idea where this is from? No it’s not my personal journal. And it’s definitely not from the top 40 radio station. It’s actually the opening lyrics to Sixteen Cities‘ “Come As You Are” from their soon-to-be-released self-titled debut album. Impressed? Well, you should be. Centricity Music has given me a sneak peak at this album and I can honestly say that if you took away the music, this album would still leave you moved.

Portland, Oregon’s Sixteen Cities brings powerful lyrics that can easily stand on their own, but combining them with beautiful melodies makes this band an up-and-coming favorite to watch. So what does it sound like? The band has been compared to The Fray and The Afters. Personally I would add Tenth Avenue North and Nitengale to that list as well. This Christian Contemporary Rock band has a very piano-driven sound which really brings the music and lyrics together in a way that will send you diving straight into worship by track 3.

So why haven’t you heard them before? You may have if you caught them on tour with Sanctus Real or Building 429 but chances are if you’re not in a public school auditorium, they’re still unknown to you. “We started out by leading our peers in worship on Wednesday mornings and we fell in love with it,” recalls Josiah (lead vocals/piano), citing the group’s moniker inspired by the tribe of Issachâr in Joshua 19 that also understood the current needs of its generation. “As soon as we graduated, we all prayed and sought God’s true heart and will. We felt called to full time music ministry, but knew nothing about the music industry. We started playing in the Portland area and four years later we got a phone call from a guy with a ministry called Common Ground.  It’s basically a huge production with concerts, games and a gospel presentation in a public school. So here we were thinking we’d have no chance to continue singing to students after having just graduated, and we wound up in front of hundreds and sometimes thousands of teenagers in gymnasiums singing about Jesus.”

Although they got their start playing to youth, don’t write them off as a band that you wouldn’t be interested in. The lyrics to each song are so personal and moving that it would be a shame if you never heard them. And it makes sense, Josiah reveals, “I’ve always written with a more personal approach because I believe it’s important to show God’s a real person in my life and not just someone I only talk about with Christianese lingo. In starting out in the public school system, you realize it’s really important to never come across judgmental or condemning and introduce Christ in a relevant way. It’s all about showing them how real God is and to encourage them to rise above the status quo and truly live for Christ. Sixteen Cities is more about challenging and pressing kids to make the most of what God has for their lives rather than living a life of complacency.”

Sixteen Cities’ debut album will be for sale in 1 week, on April 20th, but for now, you can hear some of their music through their website: www.sixteencities.com and myspace. But don’t forget to purchase their album next week!