This could be a career-making year for Christian artist Jason Crabb.
Hailing from the famous Crabb Family singers, Crabb was 19 when he and his family made their first album in 1996. The group racked up Grammy nominations, Dove Awards and 16 number one singles throughout their decade-long run but eventually disbanded to explore individual projects. Now, Crabb is stepping out on his own. After releasing a trio of albums with Spring Hill Music Group, he’s switched to Sony’s Provident record label and is dropping his debut album with the new team, Whatever the Road, on September 18.
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On an early afternoon phone call with Guideposts.org, he sounds surprisingly relaxed for a man going through such a big transition. As Crabb shares details of his family weekend out on a boat in sunny Nashville, Tennessee and jokes about the strange looks he’ll probably get thanks to a pair of lime green polka dotted shoes he’s currently sporting – his daughters picked them out – you get the feeling that the artist is completely confident about the direction his life and career are taking.
“It’s the weirdest thing,” Crabb tells Guideposts.org of his new album. “I feel more comfortable with this. I don’t want to say I feel certain about the record, but I just feel like it really is authentic to who I am. This is what I’ve waited for, what I’ve anticipated writing and creating.”
Though his roots will always be in the Crabb Family’s southern gospel style, he’s ready to branch out and hopefully touch an even larger audience with a fresh, contemporary sound.
“It’s a little more current,” Crabb says, of his new album, but “it’s not so far that people that I grew up singing to will go ‘Ugh, he’s trying to be something that he’s not.’ This is still me. It’s not like I just went and got a whole new facelift and I look like somebody else.”
Featuring songs he wrote about his life at home and on the road, the 10-track project is what he calls “an encouragement album.” In the lead single, “He Knows What He’s Doing” Crabb describes a meeting he had with an 11 year-old girl battling cancer. She got her wish to come on stage and sing with him at one of his concerts. She died after their meeting and Crabb was so affected by her loss that his producer told him to write this single. In it, Crabb reminds us that God has everything under control, even if we don’t understand everything He’s doing.
“If somebody’s story touches me that much, then I feel like it’s really something I need to share,” Crabb says of how he and his team crafted all of the songs on this album.
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His stories from touring give the best glimpse about who he genuinely is, as a solo artist and as a man.
“I’m one of the last ones to leave the auditorium,” Crabb says. “I’m standing there until the last person leaves. It’s something I’ve always done because the people are the ones that allow me to pay my house payment, to spend time with my children. When they come out and support, buy tickets, whatever, they’re letting me do this, so I want to be there for them too — not just on stage but interacting with them as well, letting them know I appreciate them. I get to hear their hearts and how songs have touched them or hear prayer requests; to hear their struggles and also hear their victories.”
He’s dedicating his latest solo effort to them.
“I wanted to write a record that encouraged them. This is completely for them — for the ones who’ve been supporting me through the years and hopefully for the people to come.”
