Hear My Praise
After a two-year break from recording songs and a foray into film composing, Kenneth Cope has returned to the inspirational genre with the release of Hear My Praise, a collection of inspirational Christian favorites.One of the top-selling artists in the intermountain West, Cope is best known for his original concept albums like Greater Than Us All and Women at the Well. A multiple PEARL Award winner, Cope’s film score-like soundtrack to Joseph Smith, The Seer has garnered him a 2002 PEARL Award nomination from the Faith Centered Music Association. His latest project, Hear My Praise, breaks from previous models and breaks new ground in the LDS inspirational genre by combining original material with covers of some of the best-loved songs from other contemporary Christian artists.The album weaves three new original songs, three new recordings of songs previously released on different projects and five covers of songs from Christian artists like Michael W. Smith and Chris Rice."I know it probably sounds like a cliché, but I really feel that this is the best recording I’ve ever done," says Cope. "The material is really amazing, or at least I know the five cover songs are," he continues in his gently self-effacing way.The album grew out of Cope’s desire to create an album that expressed his personal faith in and love for Jesus Christ. "I wanted this album to simply say that Christ is magnificent. Everything around us says it, but man doesn’t say it enough. Each song on the album expresses that magnificence in a different way."Cope re-recorded three of his songs previously released on albums for Especially for Youth, a summer youth program run by Brigham Young University, for Hear My Praise. "I’ve always wanted to re-record some of those EFY songs. This album was a great opportunity to dig in deeper and do some great things with those songs."