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Known for his simple acoustic sound and profound lyrical style, Bebo Norman has opened his heart to his listeners through songs filled with hope and doubt, joy and sadness, light and dark. His new album, Big Blue Sky, is born out of the lessons he has learned about grace, the nature of God and his place in the world. Featuring the poetic lyrics his fans enjoy, the album also takes subtle departures from Bebo's signature rootsy guitar sound, a step that may bring his music to wider audience.

FamilyChristian.com: I've really enjoyed listening to the new album.

Bebo Norman: Do you really like it? I'm still real nervous. It's different and it's bigger, I guess.

FamilyChristian.com: Your songwriting is really par with Ten Thousand Days.

Bebo: That's cool. I think as a songwriter or as a solo musician, as opposed to a band, there's [a] certain flexibility. If you're a songwriter and you're a solo [act], people tend to be drawn to the songwriting itself or the songs themselves. If a band all of the sudden changes their sound, you're like, "All right, wait, what are they doing?"

[The] production on [each of my] records has been distinctly different. My independent record was really broken down and different. And some people thought my last record, Ten Thousand Days, was a huge departure from my first record. [Big Blue Sky] is a big departure from that one. I'm nervous [about] what people will think because I'm real happy with it.

FamilyChristian.com: The sound on Big Blue Sky is much more accessible. Do you hope it will draw more listeners in?

Bebo: I love that you just asked that. One of my faults [is] that I get really holed up as a singer/songwriter [in] that whole folky, breaking-my-heart, let-me-figure-out-why-I-am-the-way-I-am kind of thing. Sometimes I get really inward-focused songwriting-wise so one of my goals was, "Let me think outside of myself and base it on what I might be struggling with or happy about." The question is, how do you make that accessible to people that aren't inside of yourself? Sometimes I forget that there are other people involved in the process of listening. I forget that as a performer, part of writing a song is to write it so that other people can relate to it. I lose sight of that as a folk songwriter and I'll write some obscure thing [and] people are like, "Where do the angels sleep? What does that mean?"

FamilyChristian.com: There's a lot more production on Big Blue Sky. I'm hearing other instruments, background vocals and even some effects. Is this a whole new Bebo or is this where you're at right now?

Big Blue Sky by Bebo Norman

Bebo: More than anything it's where I'm at right now as opposed to being a whole new thing. I didn't really go into it saying, "Okay, let's make a bigger record" or "Let's make a pop record."

There are a couple pop songs. There's one song called "You Surround Me" that's about a girl. Ed [Cash] and I wrote it together. I was like, "I just want to write something different just for fun."

[I wanted] to look at every single song and pursue [it] as if there were no other songs on the record. Let's look at the song [and] take it where it can go. If that's being huge, just go ahead and take it there. Some songs dictate having very little production. Our goal was to look at each song, figure out where they could go and then just try our best to take them there.

[The album] runs the gamut because there are some huge songs on there and then the very last song [is] just me and the guitar recorded live in the studio-just sitting down in front of one microphone playing it one time and that was that.

CONTINUE TO PART 2: "ME & MY GUITAR".

Kevin McNeese , a writer in Grand Rapids, Mich., conducted this interview for FamilyChristian.com.

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