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 Faith
Hill’s eight-year career has marked one of the music
industry’s most successful and steady climbs. She has
sold over 25 million records worldwide and has garnered ten
#1 singles and eleven #1 videos. Her last release, 1999’s
BREATHE, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Album Chart
and has sold in excess of 10 million copies to date.
Nearly three years removed from BREATHE, Faith Hill is ready
to release her fifth studio recording. Entitled CRY, it not
only draws upon her musical roots, but shows Faith creating
a fresh union between country, rock, rhythm and blues and
pop. It has been a project that has seen her invest the raw
emotion needed for any creation or passion. She will say that
this is a collection of great songs that she hopes will move
you just to feel what she has felt throughout the past year
in creating them. The joy, the frustration, the passion, the
tears, the ultimate pride for Faith, is all found on this
recording -- emotions that whether happy or sad, lead us to
CRY.
Co-produced by Faith, along with tracks done with Byron Gallimore,
Dann Huff and Marti Frederiksen, CRY is a collection of songs
that have moved the singer’s soul and brought out some
of the best vocal performances that she has ever given. The
album’s title track, released as the project’s first
single, has made the connection that Faith had hoped this
album would make. It marks the highest chart debut of her
career and was the most added single at country radio thus
far this year.
“I simply hope that people like the music,” says
the singer. “In the end that is what it is all about.
We all worked very hard to put this record together and I
think that everyone involved worked with one common goal in
mind – to make the best record that we could.”
Fourteen tracks are contained on a roughly one-hour recording
that Faith says she has been preparing for since the release
of Breathe. “I knew that with the initial success of
Breathe that the stakes would be higher for this record,”
she says. “We were doing all of these major appearances
and performances and I could just feel the bar rising.”
And her instinct was correct. Throughout the past 3 years
alone, Faith received countless nominations and statues from
the Grammy Awards, People’s Choice Awards, American Music
Awards, The CMA’s and ACM’s. She provided her vocal
talents for the Oscar nominated track from Pearl Harbor, “There
You’ll Be”. She performed at SuperBowl XXXIV, The
Academy Awards (twice), The Grammy Awards, VH1 Divas 1999
and 2000. Last year, Faith took time away from a self-imposed
break to take part in “America: A Tribute To Heroes,”
the groundbreaking cross-networked effort to raise money to
benefit the rescue workers and victims of the September 11th
attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. After completing
a 50-city tour in 1999, her first series of headline performances,
Faith co-headlined the “Soul 2 Soul Tour 2000,”
which was one of the top-grossing and most successful U.S.
tours of that year.
Those that work with Faith know that her desire to grow as
an artist, as a singer and as a songsmith (producer) is unwavering.
Many believe that beyond her extraordinary vocal talents,
this is the key to her success. “I consider myself a
student of my craft,” she says. “I follow my instinct
quite often, but I listen, I watch and I absorb.” And
one only needs to listen, to hear and see her growth on CRY.
It is undeniable.
Whether the infectious and liberating rhythms of tracks like
“Free”, “One” or “I Think I Will”
or the passionate and poignant vocal performances on songs
like “When The Lights Go Down” or “Stronger”
and “You’re Still Here”, CRY, it seems, stands
poised to make yet another indelible mark upon the musical
legacy that began almost ten years ago.
Raised in Star, Mississippi, Faith moved to Nashville at
the age of 19. In 1993, her debut single, “Wild One”,
spent four weeks at #1 and from there she never looked back.
Many are calling CRY her best album yet. They are saying that
it contains some of the best vocal performances that they
have ever heard. “I don’t think about success in
terms of chart positions and sales. I make the best music
that I know how.”
Faith Hill has based her career on dedication, passion and
commitment. Combined with her unparalleled vocal talents and
style she has become one of the most sought after vocalists
in the business and has firmly planted herself at the top
of the music scene, where its easy to see (and hear) that
she might just stay for awhile.
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