Listen to Mark’s "Charisma" Magazine Phone Call

For those of you were unable to listen in live to hear Mark's conversation with Charisma magazine's Lee Grady, visit http://connect2leaders.com/replay/castingcrowns/ to hear the playback in its entirety. Thanks to everyone who partipated by submitting questions or listening to the call!

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Listen in on Chat with Mark Hall and Charisma Magazine

Charisma magazine is hosting a live phone interview with Mark Hall on Tuesday, May 27 at 8 p.m. (EST) and you're invited to join in.

CLICK HERE to register and submit your question for Mark

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Yahoo! Music To Premiere New "Slow Fade" Music Video on Wednesday

Casting Crowns' new music video, "Slow Fade," will premiere on Yahoo! Music on Wednesday, May 21. The video will go live on Yahoo! Music's homepage at midnight EST on Tuesday, and will have homepage and video premier page placement. Casting Crowns is in line with Yahoo's recent premieres from Sugarland, Kid Rock, Scarlett Johansson and Rascal Flatts.

"Slow Fade" is the first music video from the GRAMMY-winning, multi-platinum band's blockbuster RIAA Gold album The Altar and The Door. Produced and directed by the Erwin Brothers, the "Slow Fade" music video was shot in Birmingham, AL., and features crashing pianos and stained glass windows as the storyline follows the heart-wrenching reality of a deteriorating family.

The song, which highlights vocals from lead singer Mark Hall's daughter Reagan, was "inspired by the spreading cancer of moral failure in the fathers of this generation," Hall said. 

The "Slow Fade" video tells the story of a family slowly fading because of compromising decisions they have made. Hall adds, "As believers, we must guard our hearts and understand that no one crashes and burns, they just slowly fade away, one little compromise at a time." 

View it May 21 on Yahoo! at: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/premieres/.

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Casting Crowns and Mark Hall Top 39th Annual Dove Awards

Christian music's top-selling, top-touring, and multi-platinum artist, Casting Crowns was the lead winner at Wednesday's 39th annual Dove Awards, taking home seven trophies between the band and lead singer, and top nominee of the night, Mark Hall. Honoring the best in gospel music, the Gospel Music Association selected Casting Crowns as Group of the Year for the fourth year in a row.
 
The Atlanta-based band entered into the evening's show with four nominations and left with three Doves in tow. Additional wins by Christian music's top group were for its latest blockbuster, RIAA Gold project, The Altar and The Door which was named Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year, and included the No.1 smash hit, "East To West," which won the coveted Song of the Year honor, and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.
 
Mark Hall, the leading nominee going into the night with seven (including Songwriter of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year), collected four individual Doves, including two as songwriter of "East to West" in the above mentioned categories, and two for his participation on the Glory Revealed project which nabbed Special Event Album of the Year, as well as its hit radio single, "By His Wounds," receiving the award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year.

"I'm so thankful just to get to be part of the songs," Hall said to the press backstage and noted by the Associated Press.

The Altar and The Door, the third studio recording from Casting Crowns, achieved an historical debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart with 130,000 first-week copies sold, making it the highest debut in the country that week. The album sailed to RIAA Gold status in 10 weeks. Its massive first single, "East to West," topped four Christian radio charts, including a record-setting 14 weeks at No. 1 on Christian AC radio.
 
Hall is a full-time youth pastor, serving his 17th year in youth ministry as a student pastor at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. All seven band members remain active in student ministry in the Atlanta area and tour part-time around their local church duties.
 
Casting Crowns wrapped 2007 as the No. 1 top-selling Christian music artist of the year. The group's "The Altar and The Door Tour" will wrap May 4 in Louisville, Kentucky as the top-grossing tour of 2007/08 season for a Christian music artist. On this tour, Casting Crowns has played to 500,000 fans over 84 dates with 21 sell-out shows. In addition to this week's multiple Dove Award wins, the band won its first American Music Award in November and received three GRAMMY nominations for The 50th GRAMMY Awards.
 
The Dove Awards were presented live from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville and broadcast to a nationwide audience live on Gospel Music Channel. A complete list of winners is available at DoveAwards.com.

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Casting Crowns and Mark Hall Honored with Multiple Dove Awards Last Night

Casting Crowns walked away with 3 Dove Awards at the 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards last night in Nashville, TN, while lead singer, Mark Hall, received 4 individual awards. Please see a full listing of the awards below.

GROUP OF THE YEAR - Casting Crowns
SONG OF THE YEAR - "East To West" - Mark Hall, Bernie Herms (songwriters)
POP/CONTEMPORARY RECORDED SONG - "East To West" - Casting Crowns; Mark Hall, Bernie Herms (songwriters)
POP/CONTEMPORARY ALBUM - The Altar and the Door - Casting Crowns; Mark A. Miller (producer)
INSPIRATIONAL RECORDED SONG - "By His Wounds" - Glory Revealed - Steven Curtis Chapman, Mark Hall, Brian Littrell, Mac Powell; David Nasser, Mac Powell (songwriters)
SPECIAL EVENT ALBUM - Glory Revealed - Josh Bates, Steven Curtis Chapman, David Crowder, Mark Hall, Shawn Lewis, Brian Littrell, Trevor Morgan, Tim Neufeld, Candi Pearson-Shelton, Mac Powell, Shane & Shane, Michael W. Smith; Mac Powell (producer)

More coverage including photos and video coming soon!

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Mark is Nominated for GMA Songwriter of the Year!

The Gospel Music Association recently announced that lead singer Mark Hall is among the nominees for this year’s "Songwriter of the Year" Dove Award. This increases Mark’s total nomination tally as a songwriter for this year to seven, leading all artists in nominations, with four additional nominations for Casting Crowns. Click here to view the official GMA press release.

The 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards will be broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel from 8-10 p.m. (ET/PT) on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Juan Recommends...Leeland!

Hey everyone in MySpace land. Juan here. You know, the guy with the glasses who plays guitar. Many of you probably know that Leeland has been touring with us for several months now. What you may not not know that their new CD, "Opposite Way," just came out yesterday. And it's fantastic.

Here's the deal. They're currently 16 on the iTunes Top 100 albums chart (this is overall, both Christian and mainstream). I want to help them make the Top 10. Will you help? Seriously, you won't regret it. It might even be the best $9.99 you spend all week.

CLICK HERE to buy your copy now!

Peace,
Juan

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Casting Crowns and Mark Hall Lead GMA Dove Award Nominations

CASTING CROWNS AND MARK HALL LEAD NOMINATIONS 
FOR THE 39TH ANNUAL GMA DOVE AWARDS
 
Multi-Platinum Artist Recognized in Four Major Categories Including Artist of the Year;
Hall Honored with Six Nods

(Nashville, Tenn.) February 14, 2008 – With nominations announced today for the 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards by the Gospel Music Association (GMA), multi-platinum artist Casting Crowns once again cements its place as the premiere force in Christian music. The Atlanta-based pop/worship band is recognized with four nominations, including the prestigious Artist of the Year award.

Casting Crowns is also nominated for Group of the Year, an honor it has won for the last three years. Lead singer/songwriter Mark Hall leads all artists in the extremely diverse Dove field with an additional six individual nominations, including a nod for Male Vocalist of the Year and as writer of Song of the Year nominee, "East To West," from Casting Crowns' RIAA Gold-selling The Altar and the Door album.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution spoke with Mark Hall today from Grand Rapids, Mich., where Casting Crowns will play tonight, and asked him if being a perennial nominee ever becomes old hat. Hall answered, "It never gets old, because it's new music," the hard-working youth minister from Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church says. "Can't coast on what you did in the past. The thing I like about the Doves is that it's your peers, those people that do what you do recognizing you, telling you, 'hey, you're doing a good job, keep it up.' To me, that's pretty cool."

The Altar and the Door, produced by country music superstar Mark Miller (Sawyer Brown), is recognized in the Pop/Contemporary Album category. The lead single from this project, "East To West," which topped four Christian radio charts, including 13 weeks at No. 1 on R&R's AC-Monitored chart and a record-setting 14 weeks at No.1 on R&R's AC-Indicator chart, is nominated for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song.

Mark Hall is also recognized with two noms for his work on the multi-artist Glory Revealed project, in the Special Event Album and Inspirational Recorded Song ("By His Wounds") categories. Another of Hall's nominations is as writer of the No. 1 smash anthem from Casting Crown's sophomore Lifesong project, "Praise You In This Storm," in the Worship Song category. He also receives a nod as writer of "East To West" in the Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song category.

The GMA Music Awards show will be presented on April 23, 2008 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville and broadcast live on Gospel Music Channel. A complete list of nominations is available online at DoveAwards.com.

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Casting Crowns Receives 3 Grammy Nominations

CASTING CROWNS RECEIVES MULTIPLE GRAMMY
NOMINATIONS REPRESENTING THREE CATEGORIES

WINNERS ANNOUNCED LIVE ON CBS-TV SUNDAY, FEB. 10

(Nashville, Tenn.) Dec. 6, 2007 – Christian music's top-selling, top-touring and multi-platinum artist Casting Crowns celebrates three GRAMMY nominations as announced today during a press conference at The Music Box in Hollywood, Calif. The band's record-setting No.1 song "East to West" is recognized in two categories for Best Gospel Performance and Best Gospel Song, with lead singer Mark Hall pulling in the nomination as the songwriter, and the group's blockbuster new album The Altar and The Door is nominated for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. This follows Casting Crowns' recent win at the 2007 American Music Awards and the 2006 GRAMMY win for previous album Lifesong.
 
Winners will be announced at The 50th GRAMMY Awards ceremony broadcasting live on CBS, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT) at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.

Norman Miller, music industry veteran and Casting Crowns manager says, "In all my 44 years in various aspects of the music business, I have not seen an artist impact sales, radio and touring on the tremendous level that Casting Crowns has, or as quickly. This artist truly has become the face of Inspirational/Gospel music, and I congratulate them on the GRAMMY nominations today."

Casting Crowns is poised to have the No.1 top-selling album in Christian music for 2007 with its RIAA Gold project The Altar and The Door. The landmark album has shipped 500,000 units in the 10 weeks since its historical debut at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 chart. The album's first radio single "East to West" spent a record-setting 14 weeks at No. 1 on Christian AC radio.  Plus, more than 200,000 fans attended the fall leg of Casting Crowns' The Altar and The Door Fall Tour claiming the top-grossing Christian music event of the year.

During its four-year career, Casting Crowns has been honored with a GRAMMY Award, an American Music Award, and multiple Gospel Music Dove Awards serving as the industry's "Group of the Year" for the last three years. Casting Crowns has been the most played artist on all Christian radio formats combined, with seven consecutive No. 1 AC radio hits, and the group has sold more than 3 million albums to date. Earlier this year, Casting Crowns set an RIAA record as the fastest Christian music artist in its career to have its first two albums certified Platinum, and only the second in RIAA history ever to achieve it. Casting Crowns' lead singer and songwriter is full-time youth pastor Mark Hall, who is serving his 17th year as student pastor at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. All seven band members remain active in student ministry in the Atlanta-area and tour part-time around their local-church duties. For more information, please visit CastingCrowns.com.
 
Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. In its 50th year, The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit Grammy.com.

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Thanks to the 200,000 of you who came to see us this fall

CASTING CROWNS HAS TOP-SELLING TOUR OF FALL SEASON DRAWING 200,000 FANS TO "THE ALTAR AND THE DOOR" SHOWS

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