Tag: 11th Hour

11th Hour finds gratitude in a new day with “Today is the day”

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TEXAS GOSPEL CANADA VOLUNTEER

Southern gospel trio 11th Hour is leaning into gratitude with their new single “Today Is The Day,” a song built on a simple but stubborn idea, that mercy resets every morning, whether you feel like accepting it or not.

Amber Eppinette Saunders points to scripture as the spark. “His mercies are new every morning,” she says, citing the familiar verse that anchors the song’s message. She and her bandmates, Garrett Saunders and Victoria Bowlin, wrote the track from a place of plain gratitude, the kind that comes from simply waking up and getting another day.

Eppinette Saunders penned the song alongside Kenna Turner West and Jason Cox, the same team behind the group’s previous release, “Just Keep the Faith.” Musically, “Today Is The Day” borrows a page from mid-60s Beatles records, favoring off-kilter phrasing over anything predictable. Producer Roger Talley builds the arrangement around staccato piano, a rhythmic backbone that pushes the song through its shifting tonal centers without ever losing the thread of its central message.

For Eppinette Saunders, the daily decision behind the song matters more than the music itself. “It’s about starting fresh,” she says, “trusting God a little more, and making the choice every day to be more like Him.”

11th Hour has built a decade-plus career on that same instinct toward renewal, adapting their sound while staying rooted in worship music. The group has landed multiple Top 10 hits on the Singing News charts and picked up award nominations across Southern Gospel music, including a Singing News Trio of the Year nod and an AGM Album of the Year nomination, with Eppinette Saunders herself nominated for Soprano of the Year.

“There is nothing more fulfilling than ministering to the body of Christ and sharing the gospel,” Eppinette Saunders says. “Every dream we have ever had, God has already fulfilled. He never ceases to amaze us.”

The trio shows no signs of slowing. Eppinette Saunders, Garrett Saunders and Bowlin say they intend to keep singing wherever the opportunity leads, treating each new stage as another chance to spread their message.

11th Hour’s “Just keep the faith” is the Southern Gospel reminder weary believers didn’t know they needed

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AMY TURNER

Amber Eppinette Saunders does not write songs for the highlight reel. She writes them for the Tuesday afternoon, the 3 a.m. ceiling stare, the moment when the prayer feels like it is bouncing off the roof and going nowhere. The soprano voice of Southern Gospel trio 11th Hour has built a career on meeting people in those moments, and with “Just Keep the Faith,” the group’s latest single for Sonlite Records, she has landed squarely in that territory once again.

“This song was written with every believer in mind,” says Eppinette Saunders, who co-wrote the track alongside longtime collaborators Kenna Turner West and Jason Cox. It shows. The song does not open with triumph or arrival; it opens with admission: Sometimes we grow weary from all of the trials we go through. From the stage to the pew, the lyric says. No exceptions made, no one excused from the struggle.

Producer Roger Talley frames that honesty in an arrangement built around Tim Parton’s piano and organ, kept front and centre throughout, grounding the track in the African-American-influenced gospel tradition that 11th Hour has long drawn from with both reverence and fluency. The result is music that breathes, that gives Eppinette Saunders room to move through the song’s emotional range without forcing anything.

And she uses that room. When the chorus lands, Just keep the faith as you watch and pray, remember God’s promises and trust in His name, it does not arrive as a slogan. It arrives as something closer to a hand on the shoulder from someone who has been in the same dark hallway and found the way through.

“We all get weary from fighting battles no one else can see,” she says. “Even though it only takes a little faith to keep going, sometimes we need a reminder to hold on to a little bit more.”

That kind of plain-spoken pastoral honesty is part of what has kept 11th Hour, rounded out by Garrett Saunders and Victoria Bowlin, consistently relevant in a genre that rewards authenticity over novelty. The trio has accumulated multiple Top 10 Singing News chart hits and earned nominations for Trio of the Year, AGM Album of the Year, and, individually for Eppinette Saunders, Soprano of the Year. The accolades reflect a group that has never mistaken polish for purpose.

The ministry remains the point. “There is nothing more fulfilling than ministering to the body of Christ and sharing the gospel,” Eppinette Saunders says. “Every dream we have ever had, God has already fulfilled. He never ceases to amaze us.”

“Just Keep the Faith” carries that conviction without wearing it heavily. The message is distilled down to its simplest, most durable form: perseverance matters, God comes through, hold on. In a landscape full of songs that complicate faith or celebrate it from a comfortable distance, this one sits down beside the listener in the middle of the hard part and says the thing that needs saying.

With Amber, Garrett, and Victoria continuing to follow wherever the next open door leads, 11th Hour shows no sign of softening their mission or their sound. If anything, this single makes clear they are just getting started.

11th Hour’s Amber Eppinette Saunders embarks on solo recording career

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JEFF TURNER

Amber Eppinette Saunders, known for her work with 11th Hour, is launching a solo music career under the stage name Amber Lynn, Sonlite Records announced this week. The new venture will showcase more personal songwriting while she continues her involvement with 11th Hour.

“While still looking forward to everything that’s coming with 11th Hour, I’ve been working quietly on so much new music, waiting for the moment that felt right…and that moment is finally here,” Saunders said. “I can’t wait to share more of my heart and story with you through my first ever solo release.”

The Sterlington, Louisiana native’s solo work will feature an inspirational approach that builds upon her southern gospel foundation. Her debut single, “Yahweh (Your Will Your Way),” is scheduled for release on 23 January. The track is intended to establish the direction for subsequent releases that will give Saunders opportunity to expand her artistic expression.

“This next chapter means a lot to me,” she said. “Time to share my heart with you all.”

Raised as a pastor’s child, Saunders grew up immersed in both music and Christian ministry. Over the years, she has contributed to more than 200 compositions, many recorded by 11th Hour alongside other artists including The Martins, The Whisnants, and The Bowling Sisters. She has also earned multiple fan award nominations for Soprano of the Year, and she recently received a Songwriter of the Year nomination.

Listen for music from her solo project soon on Texas Gospel Canada!

Victoria Bowlin’s Baby Gender Reveal!

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JEFF TURNER

We told you a few weeks back that Victoria Bowlin of 11th Hour was expecting her second child. Well, the family just had the big gender reveal!

Friends and family gathered for the announcement. There were lots of cheers from Team Girl…. but… It’s another boy!

Victoria and Aaron’s son will be named Jedediah Asher. The couple says they are very excited!

11th Hour’s new album,That’s Who He Is, out now

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SPECIAL: CROSSROADS RECORDS

Arden, North Carolina (May 17, 2024) — “This album!!! Wow, what can I say??” enthuses Amber Eppinette Saunders, powerhouse vocalist with Sonlite Records’ 11th Hour. “We have literally watched God do miracles and wonders from the beginning process of this project to even now! This is probably the most personal project we have ever done, and we can’t wait for you to hear our hearts through these songs!” 

Sure enough, one listen to the trio’s new collection is enough to justify the enthusiasm. With their first new music in more than two years, That’s Who He Is builds on the decade of successes embodied in last year’s A Collection of Hits to offer an album that blends full-throated proclamations of God’s strength and intimate meditations on doubt and faith, presented in a set of arrangements that range across equally broad musical ground. Yet each song, whether it’s given a straightforward Southern Gospel treatment or a more contemporary setting, is a vivid example of the inspired creativity and abundant talent for which 11th Hour has been known since their earliest days.

That deep craft and spirit is evident from the opening “Rock Bottom,” with a lyric that uses the title’s image in a clever, yet meaningful twist in its memorable chorus:

There’s a rock at the bottom 
And it’s Jesus, the Rock of Ages
So stand up, the ground is solid
There’s a rock at the bottom 
When you hit rock bottom

and a gripping lead vocal from Amber that soars over an expansive musical texture that has room for keyboards and banjo, too.

Similarly, the title track underpins emotive leads from Garrett Saunders and Amber with deft touches that include a soulful choir lifting up its message of a loving God who can supply everything the believer needs. Garrett leads on the album’s first single, too, delivering a prayerful “Dear Heavenly Father” that builds from a restrained, intimate opening to a triumphantly full texture over the course of its three and a half minutes, while Victoria Bowlin is well represented with featured numbers that include the pointed “You Can’t Tell Me That Ain’t God” and the serenely confident “Still Faithful.” There’s even a nod to sounds from beyond the Gospel music realm in the boldly contemporary, hopeful sound of “This Is Not The End.”

Adding to the excitement of the release, the entirety of That’s Who He Is will be available in immersive audio on platforms supporting Dolby Atmos, including Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. “It sounds like you’re sitting in the middle of a recording session hearing all these wonderful sounds,” says producer Roger Talley, who adds, “I thoroughly enjoyed working with 11th Hour on this, my first time producing a project for them. They did such a wonderful job on this project and I am so excited for you to hear it.”Listen to That’s Who He Is on Texas Gospel Canada!