Award-winning singer-songwriter Christa Wells writes deep-reaching, piano-driven songs about family, home, grief, and hope. Feed Your Soul, released in 2013, was recorded at Zodlounge Music in Nashville and represents a departure from her past records. From the title track’s horn lines to the driving kick drum and rhythmic hits on “The Way That You Love Me,” it’s bigger & sassier, even as it maintains Wells’ recognizable introspective lyricism.
Feed Your Soul explores a sub-theme of giving and receiving love, especially relevant, since for this project, Christa received plenty of love from her fans: a successful Kickstarter campaign raised over $15,000 to cover recording expenses. Despite the outpouring of support, Christa found the process terrifying. “You feel so vulnerable and exposed and indebted and needy,” she wrote. The experience is reflected in some of the album’s lyrics. “Being Loved,” for example, sings: Being loved is a hard thing to take / It’s a hard thing to take/I will try, I will try, while the song’s cinematic bridge conveys vulnerability: We are born unclothed / As we came, we will go.
Prior to Feed Your Soul, Christa recorded one solo album and two EPs (Frame the Clouds, Before the Tree Comes Down, How Emptiness Sings) and collaborated on several other projects. In spring of 2013, Christa and fellow songwriter Nicole Witt released an album of folk-inspired music under the band name More Than Rubies. Christa’s 2011 EP How Emptiness Sings received excellent reviews, with Kevin Davis of New Release Tuesday calling it “one of the most captivating albums I’ve ever heard.”
The path to her Christa’s present success was non-traditional. Instead of spending her twenties networking and performing at showcases, Christa married early, started a family, and moved away from Nashville to Raleigh, North Carolina. Motherhood, performance anxiety, and advice from veteran songwriter Dwight Liles led Christa to focus on her writing rather than performance. In 2006, Christa was named Songwriter of the Year by the Gospel Music Association for Natalie Grant’s recording of “Held.” In this heartbreaking and inspirational song inspired by the death of her friend’s infant son, Christa writes: This is what it is to be loved and to know / That the promise was that when everything fell / We’d be held.
In 2009, Christa returned to the stage, overcoming her performance anxiety along the way. Since then, she has performed 30-50 dates a year (varying by season), frequently with collaborator Nicole Witt, while continuing to write for other artists. Christa has written for and with a number of recording artists, such as Plumb, Selah, Sara Groves, Nicol Sponberg, and Point of Grace.
Christa currently lives with her family in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Learn more about Christa Wells' music here.
Hear the full interview with Christa Wells here.
Christa is going to be our musical guest at this years September Conference. Find out more here.
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