Big year ends on even bigger note
By Lauren Wicks | Suffolk News-Herald, Published
Saturday, December 27, 2008
At the beginning of the year,
Mickey Rose and his band Stronghold got some great news – they were
nominated for Contemporary Artist of the Year at the Independent Artists
Summit in Franklin, Tenn.
The band is ending the year on an
equally high note – earning a Top-10 hit on the largest Web-based Christian
music site, as well as landing local airplay on WGPS 88.3 and it’s affiliate
stations.
“It’s been a terrific year,”
Rose said. “You don’t see it until you get to the end of it, but we
just learned to be patient, and a lot of things came through.” Rosenfeld’s
latest single, “Sweet Breath of Life,” is a Christmas tune released
specifically for the holiday season.
This past spring, Rose was
listening to the radio, when he heard some words and phrases that instantly
resonated with him. “I can’t even tell you what the song was now,” he said,
“but after I heard it, I flew down the stairs and wrote the whole song out
for ‘Sweet Breath of Life.’” Writing the music for the lyrics took a little
longer, however.
Over the course of two months,
Rose played around with different sounds and different keys until he
got it right. “It was like, well, I got this beautiful song…but no music,”
he said. “I just kept playing with it, and finally I hit on a very nice
chord progression and worked the melody into it.” After recording his new
song, Rose uploaded it to IndieHeaven.com, a leading organization that
supports more than 800 active independent Christian artists. Less than a
month after Rose uploaded the song, the single jumped from an entry
point #142 on the charts to #7. That exposure led to the song being picked
up for rotation by local station WGPS 88.3. Rose said he has already
received a lot of feedback about the song.
“It’s a very pertinent message
for the season,” he said. “It’s just Scripture come to music come to life.
It’s gotten a lot of excellent comments. I’ve had a couple of people call me
and say, ‘Oh I heard your song on the radio, we loved it.’”
Rose said he and the band
are “elated” with the opportunities that have come this year, and they are
thrilled to be able to share their ministry with more people. On Christmas
Eve and New Years Eve, Stronghold was booked for performances, and Rose
said they are just patiently waiting for what next year holds.
“Sweet Breath of Life” is
available for download at Stronghold’s page on the IndieHeaven.com Web site.