Dove Award winning recording artist and speaker Cheri Keaggy is among the musical lineup at the 2012 Cider Carols, an event scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, November 29, at Rocketown, to benefit the Hope Clinic for Women, a faith-based crisis pregnancy organization with locations throughout Middle Tennessee.
Keaggy will join musical guests Jenny Gill, Jeremy Drinkwine, Kim Keyes, Sam Ashworth, and Danny Rader, guitarist for Keith Urban, for an evening of Christmas music, with Eric Wyse serving as musical director. Guests will enjoy desserts, hot cocoa, cider and wine while participating in an extensive silent auction and a Christmas marketplace with more than 20 vendors.
“It's so good to know an organization like the Hope Clinic exists. Cider Carols is just one way to show our support of the work they do day in and day out, bringing hope and help to those who need it,” Keaggy says. “We're going to sing, shop, and eat something sweet. And we're going to make a difference while doing it. I'm so happy to be a part.”
Past Cider Carols have featured the likes of Little Big Town, Sixpence None the Richer, Todd Smith from Selah, Rachel Lampa and Brandon Heath.
The Cider Carols silent auction, which this year features more than 100 items, has in the past included diamond earrings; autographed memorabilia; Titans and Predators packages; tickets to TPAC, Ryman and Nashville Symphony events; a lake house weekend; a weekend trip on a luxury motor coach and more.
The 2011 Cider Carols raised more than $25,000 for the Hope Clinic, a safe and confidential place for anyone dealing with life choices regarding past, present, and future pregnancies. The Hope Clinic staff provides education, counsel and medical care for anyone regardless of age, race, or religion.
Tickets for the Cider Carols event cost $15 in advance, $20 at the door. For more information, visithopeclinicforwomen.org/CiderCarols or call (615) 627-2791. For more information about Keaggy or her current release, So I Can Tell, visit cherikeaggy.com.
Photo caption, top: Cheri Keaggy joins the musical line up for the 2012 Cider Carols, an event benefiting the Hope Clinic for Women. (Hope Clinic for Women artwork)
Photo caption, bottom: Dove Award-winning singer/songwriter Cheri Keaggy currently is touring in support of her latest CD, So I Can Tell. (Craig Mason photo)
About Cheri Keaggy:
Cheri Keaggy began her career as a worship leader at a small church in Southern California before recording her debut album on Sparrow Reco
rds, Child of the Father, in 1994. Honored with a Dove Award nomination for New Artist of the Year, Keaggy has gone on to record seven additional albums, resulting in nine No. 1 songs, three Dove Award nominations and a Dove Award win. After more than two decades in music, her ministry has expanded to include speaking engagements as well.
Keaggy's new release, So I Can Tell, which was released July 10 on her Psalm 91 record label, is Keaggy's first CD since her independent 2007 release, Because He First Loved Us.
Under the guidance of Gospel Music Hall of Famer and legendary guitarist Phil Keaggy, Cheri Keaggy called on the combined talents of Scott Dente and Ken Lewis from Global Genius Productions to produce So I Can Tell. The combination of rich, acoustic sounds with Cheri Keaggy's signature plaintive vocals and searingly honest lyrics results in a project that confronts life's realities, even when filled with despair, and offers listeners the way to navigate through the challenges to a place of hope through Christ.
Penned following the end of her nearly 23-year marriage to her high school sweetheart, So I Can Tellis a testimony of God's goodness in the midst of pain and suffering. Like a modern day psalmist, Keaggy's lyrics express grief, loneliness, and God's comfort in the contemporary hymns “Bind Me To You,” “There Will Be One Day” and the arresting “Hello, God.” She echoes the apostle Paul in the memorable piano ballad “To Live is Christ” and celebrates Christ's provision in the ukulele-based crowd favorite “Air, Food, and Water.”
Through an accessible folk-pop presentation, the album leaves listeners with a renewed sense that God is with us, no matter what. So I Can Tell is filled with the radio-ready songs for which Keaggy is known and loved. Her lush vocals lovingly caress piano ballads like the title cut and the haunting “When You Were Jesus To Me.” Her voice takes on a lilting quality in the hope-infused “Starting a New Year Today,” written on the one-year anniversary of her divorce. As an added bonus, guitar maestro Phil Keaggy closes the album with the peace-evoking benediction “Postlude: Invitation to Hope.”
For more information about Keaggy and So I Can Tell, visit cherikeaggy.com. Like Keaggy on Facebook (facebook.com/CheriKeaggy) or follow her on Twitter (@cherikeaggy). For information about booking Keaggy for an event or conference, visit NewHopeManagement.com or contact Michael Lederer at (972) 862-6160 or michael@newhopemanagement.com.