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After almost two decades in the studio, on the road and on the stage, NewSong remains one of the most musically vibrant and evangelistically driven groups in Christian music today. Known for classic songs like "Arise My Love" and "Miracles," the group gained a new segment of fans when their touching song, "The Christmas Shoes," hit #1 on the mainstream adult contemporary chart in late 2000.

While this success has opened new doors for them, NewSong has not lost sight of their mission: to win people to Christ. Their "Jam" tours have drawn thousands of people and their Xtreme Youth Conferences are expected to draw over 30,000 teens in 2001.

Friendship forms the thematic center of their latest album, Sheltering Tree. NewSong members Eddie Carswell and Michael O'Brien spoke with FamilyChristian.com about the album, the song that widened their audience and the importance of friendships in their own lives.

FamilyChristian.com: You experienced great mainstream success late in 2000 with "The Christmas Shoes." How did this song come about?

Eddie: D.C. Chymes, a radio personality in St. Louis [with] a syndicated radio show around the country, faxed me this story he'd been reading on the air. He said that I ought to think about this [story] and see if it inspired me to write a song. I read the story and just kept thinking about it and talking to Leonard [Ahlstrom] who I co-wrote it with, sharing ideas and writing. We gave up on it [for awhile.]

We had finished Sheltering Tree and were in a marketing meeting talking about what we would do with it. D.C. was there, my friend from St. Louis, and he insisted that I sing this Christmas song to him in this boardroom. I did and they all agreed, "I wish we had known to record this." The next day the record company called and said, "Let's record it." We went in and God just really helped us. It's been a God thing from the very beginning. I've been telling [the audience] in concert that if you want me to explain it to you, I can in one big word: God.

FamilyChristian.com: What opportunities have come about because of the song?

Michael: Just [after the song came out], we went to New York. Scott Shannon has a big radio station out there, one of the biggest stations in the country. He's a big supporter of the song. We went out there before Christmas and did a benefit concert for The Children's Hospital. Rob Thomas [lead singer of Matchbox Twenty] was there. The World Wrestling Foundation Commissioner was there. It was a hoot. You never knew who was going to walk in next. We're sitting here looking at each other saying, "What are we doing here?" God is amazing.

FamilyChristian.com: You've even been written about in USA Today.

Eddie: That was another God thing, the USA Today article. The fact that they [heard] about the song and [talked] to us helped get the word out even that much more. It was pretty amazing.

D.C., our buddy, kept saying, "It's going to be the number one song in the country." I kept saying, "Sure. OK." There wasn't enough time for it to be number one. But it made it in three weeks. All these things that we had talked about were just big dreams. Just in a matter of two or three weeks God let it all happen. I told him with the new things we're doing, I want to dream a little bigger.

FamilyChristian.com: Your Jam tours—both summer and winter—include a wide variety of artists, from Greg Long to Jake. How do you hope to impact audiences on this tour?

Eddie: The real fun thing about it is going out with this big entourage of people. It's like a festival on wheels. We play bigger arenas where there's a capacity for large crowds and we don't charge [for] tickets. It's just a donation at the door type of thing and we take an offering. God has honored it. It's been bigger and better than any of us ever dreamed.

When you can do that and not charge a ticket, any and everybody comes. You've got people there that would have gladly bought the $15 or $20 or $25 ticket. But you have all these people who just couldn't come, who maybe follow Christian music or loved our songs all these years. They just couldn't take that kind of money out of their budget to go to a concert. We've even talked to people who've been to the bookstore appearances and met a lot of the artists over the years, but have never been to the concerts because they couldn't afford the concerts. They would go home and listen to the CD and not go to the concert because it just cost too much money to go.

We're all about giving and having a lot of fun and then using it also [as] a tool for ministry and evangelism. When you do that, you've got such a wide variety of people there it's pretty amazing what you see happen. It is nothing to see literally hundreds of people making some sort of decision and God working in their lives and making a visible come forward-type decision. We're all set up with counselors. It's almost a festival/crusade/fun/have-an-impact-on-the-city type of event. We're really excited to be a part of it.

Michael: In that kind of a setting, you'll find a lot of people who are searching. They probably wouldn't go to church, but they don't mind going to an arena. They are more apt to go with friends. God's doing His work in spite of [us]. He's already picked who He wants to be there.

The other thing that's very cool is the camaraderie between the artists. It's not a competition thing. It's not a "Hey, I'm doing better than you." It's like, "Hey, we're working for the same thing here." We want to see people come to Christ and have a good time at the same time.

FamilyChristian.com: The title track of your latest album speaks to the importance of friendships. With all of the recent lineup changes in your group how have friendships grown and developed?

Sheltering Tree by NewSong

Eddie: If you're going to go out on a 45-foot bus and be out as much as we like to go out and do what we do, you definitely create some great friendships. I'm working on almost 20 years of doing this. I've met a lot of awesome guys who have come and gone, Russ Lee and Charles Billingsley and a lot of awesome guys who have been a part of it in some way-the crew and all of us guys. We all get out there and it's a big family thing, [everyone] just doing their part. Everybody is doing what they're gifted to do. We have some great friendships and have an awesome time.

These Jam tours are helping to broaden our base of friends in Christian music and know who to pray for. As iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. We're finding out things that maybe Rebecca St. James is doing that would be a wonderful thing for us or vice versa. We've been able to share some things. A lot of the time, you're isolated to a large degree [when] you're doing your thing and doing concerts.

Michael: For me, of the guys in the group, I'd say Leo is probably my dearest friend on and off the road. It's one of those situations where, like Eddie says, it's a family. We all know we're going to be on a bus together. There are certain things that maybe a guy does that get on your nerves and we probably do stuff that gets on their nerves. We just give and take and love each other through it. It's just a family. One of the things that I love about NewSong is that the age span [of the group members] is 25 to 50. We're kind of breaking the barrier where it says you've got to be in the same age group to get along. I think that's a witness when we're on stage together. I think that's why NewSong [has] such a wide span of fans.

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