Michael W. Smith

Sep 10, 2021
Oct 09, 2020
Feb 22, 2019
2
Feb 23, 2018
5
Feb 16, 2018
5
Jan 29, 2016
Sep 30, 2014
May 13, 2014
Mar 24, 2014
Jan 17, 2012
5
Nov 22, 2011
Sep 28, 2010
5
Jan 01, 2008
Jan 01, 2007
1
Jan 01, 2006
Jan 01, 2004
Jan 01, 2003
Jan 01, 2002
1
Sep 11, 2001
1
Nov 21, 2000
Jan 01, 2000
1
Nov 08, 1999
Oct 13, 1998
1
Apr 28, 1998
1
Aug 22, 1995
Oct 12, 1993
Jan 01, 1993
1
Jan 01, 1992
Oct 01, 1990
1
Jun 01, 1989
4
Sep 01, 1988
1
Jan 01, 1987
Jan 01, 1986
Jan 01, 1985
2
1
Jan 01, 1984
1
Jan 01, 1983

Michael W. Smith is listed in the credits for the following albums:

Year Artist Album Role
1980 Jamie Owens-Collins Straight Ahead Songwriter
1981 Gary McSpadden It Was Enough Songwriter
1981 Farrell & Farrell Make Me Ready Songwriter, Keyboards
1981 Brown Bannister Talk to One Another Songwriter
1982 Various Artists Good Night Sleep Tight Piano
1982 Truth Keeper Of My Heart Songwriter
1982 White Heart White Heart Songwriter, Piano
1982 Amy Grant Age to Age Songwriter, Keyboards
1982 Glenn Garrett Nothing Without You Piano, Background Vocals
1982 Kathy Troccoli Stubborn Love Songwriter, Keyboards
1983 Sandi Patty More than Wonderful Songwriter
1983 David Meece Count the Cost Songwriter, Keyboards, Synthesizers
1983 Michael W. Smith Project Producer, Songwriter, Assistant Engineer, Piano, Synthesizers, Vocals
1983 Amy Grant A Christmas Album Songwriter, Keyboards
1984 Truth Second To None Songwriter, Piano, Synthesizer
1984 Billy Sprague What A Way To Go Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Vocoder, Effects, Background Vocals
1984 Pam Mark Hall Supply and Demand Songwriter
1984 Amy Grant Straight Ahead Songwriter, Keyboards
1984 Michael W. Smith 2 Producer, Songwriter, Synthesizers, Vocoder, Piano, Vocals
1984 Kathy Troccoli Heart and Soul Songwriter, Synthesizer, Piano, Moog Bass
1985 Imperials Let the Wind Blow Songwriter, Keyboards, Piano, Fairlight
1985 Amy Grant Unguarded Songwriter, Keyboards
1985 Scott Wesley Brown Somebody's Brother Songwriter
1986 Sonlight Outta This World Songwriter
1986 Sandi Patty Morning Like This Songwriter
1986 Amy Grant Collection Songwriter, Keyboards
1987 Prism Yellow Songwriter
1987 Michael W. Smith Live Set Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Vocals
1987 John Fischer Casual Crimes Vocals
1988 Rich Mullins Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth Piano
1988 Amy Grant Lead Me On Songwriter, Keyboards
1989 White Heart Collector's Disc (Whiteheart / Vital Signs) Songwriter, Piano
1989 Amy Grant A Moment In Time Songwriter, Keyboards, Background Vocals
1989 Michael W. Smith Christmas Producer, Track Arranger, Songwriter, Piano, Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals
1992 Michael W. Smith Change Your World Songwriter, Keyboards, Vocals
1992 Mylon LeFevre Faith, Hope and Love Background Vocals
1994 Randy Stonehill Lazarus Heart Keyboards, Vocals
1994 Guardian Swing Swang Swung Piano
1994 Kathy Troccoli Stubborn Love '94 Songwriter
1995 Geoff Moore Familiar Stranger: The Early Works of Geoff Moore Keyboards
1995 David Meece Odyssey Songwriter
1995 Michael W. Smith I'll Lead You Home Executive Producer, Producer, Songwriter, Programming, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
1997 Chris Rice Deep Enough To Dream Executive Producer
1998 Michael W. Smith Live the Life Producer, Songwriter, Programming, Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
1998 Crystal Lewis Gold Songwriter
1999 Guardian Sunday Best Piano
1999 Michael W. Smith This Is Your Time Executive Producer, Producer, Songwriter, Piano, Keyboards, Programming, Hammond B-3 Organ, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
2000 Michael W. Smith Freedom Executive Producer, Producer, Songwriter, Piano, Keyboards, Programming, Hammond B-3 Organ
2001 4Him Chapter One ...a decade Songwriter
2001 Tait Empty Piano
2001 Michael W. Smith Worship Producer, Songwriter, Arrangements, Programming, Piano, Vocals
2003 Point of Grace 24 Songwriter
2006 Michael W. Smith Stand Executive Producer, Songwriter, Piano, Vocals
2012 Dan Macaulay From You For You Producer, Songwriter, Piano
2013 Graham Kendrick Worship Duets Duet Vocals
2014 Michael W. Smith Sovereign Songwriter, Keyboards, Vocals
2016 First Call Second Birth Songwriter
2016 Jean Watson Wonder Piano
2019 Danny Gokey Haven't Seen It Yet Featured Vocals (Love God Love People)
Award Organization Year Award Name Song
KLOVE Fan 2021 Worship Song of the Year Waymaker
GMA Dove 2002 Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year Above All
American Music 1992 Favorite Adult Contemporary New Artist
GMA Dove 1992 Song of the Year Place In This World

Michael W. Smith

Genre: 
Born: 
Oct 07, 1957
Age: 
66

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Michael W. Smith is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in Contemporary Christian music. Smith also has achieved a considerable amount of success in the mainstream music industry, and is a three-time Grammy Award winner, and has earned 40 Dove Awards. Over the course of his career, Michael W. Smith has sold more than 13 million albums and recorded 29 #1 Hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums. Michael W. Smith is also an American Music Award recipient.

Early life 
Michael Whitaker Smith was born to Paul and Barbara Smith in Kenova, West Virginia. His father was an oil refinery worker at the Ashland Oil Refinery, one of the top ten largest oil refineries in the world, in nearby Catlettsburg, Kentucky and his mother was a caterer. He inherited his love of baseball from his father, who had played in the minor leagues. As a child, he developed a love of music through his church. He learned piano at an early age and sang in his church choir. At the age of 10, he had "an intense spiritual experience" that led to his becoming a devout Christian. "I wore this big cross around my neck," he would recall, "It was very real to me." He became involved in Bible study and found a group of older friends who shared his religious faith.

After his older Christian friends moved away to college, Smith began to struggle with feelings of loneliness and alienation. After graduating from high school, he gravitated toward alcohol and drugs. He attended Marshall University for a few semesters while developing his songwriting skills. He also played with various local bands around Huntington, West Virginia. During that time, his friend Shane Keister, who worked as a session musician in Nashville, encouraged him to move to Nashville, the Country Music capital, and pursue a career in music.

In 1978, Smith moved to Nashville, taking a job as a landscaper to support himself. He played with several local bands in the Nashville club scene. He also developed a problem with substance abuse. “ I really started losing touch when I moved to Nashville, around April of '78. I was smokin' marijuana, drinking, doing some other drugs; just being crazy, you know. My mom and dad knew what I was doing. But they never hassled me, they just prayed for me. And I felt convicted by God. Every time I'd wake up I knew: This isn't me. But I couldn't change myself.”

In November 1979, Smith suffered a breakdown that led to his recommitment to Jesus Christ. The next day he auditioned for a new Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) group, Higher Ground, as a keyboardist and got the job. It was on his first tour with Higher Ground, playing mostly in churches, that Smith was finally able to put the drugs and alcohol behind him.

Career
In 1981, Smith was signed as a writer to Meadowgreen Music, where he wrote a number of gospel hits penned for artists such as Sandi Patty, Kathy Troccoli, Bill Gaither and Amy Grant, to the effect that some of these popular worship songs can now be found in church hymnals. The following year, Smith began touring as a keyboardist for Grant on her Age to Age tour. He would eventually become Grant's opening act and recorded his first Grammy-nominated solo album The Michael W. Smith Project (which he also produced) in 1983 on the Reunion Records label, a label started by Grant's brother-in-law, Dan Harrell, along with Michael Blanton. This album contained the first recording of his hit "Friends", which he co-wrote with his wife Deborah. They wrote it one afternoon for a friend who was moving away.

By the time Smith's second pop album was released in 1984, he was headlining his own tours. In 1986, Smith released The Big Picture, produced by Johnny Potoker. Smith intros "Tearing Down the Walls" with an Amy Grant recording of "Emmanuel" played backwards via the CD search button. He has explained that he and Potoker were trying to come up with a different way to go into the song.

After the release of his 1988 effort, i 2 (EYE), Smith once again teamed up with Grant for her "Lead Me On World Tour". The following year, Smith recorded his first Christmas album.

In the mainstream
In 1990, Smith released Go West Young Man, his first mainstream effort, including the mainstream crossover hit "Place in This World," which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1992, he released Change Your World (which included the No. 1 adult contemporary hit "I Will Be Here for You"), 1995's I'll Lead You Home, and 1998's Live the Life. Also in 1998, Smith released his second Christmas effort, Christmastime. In 1999, Smith released "This Is Your Time" (about Cassie Bernall, one of the students killed during the Columbine massacre). In the music video for this song, the beginning shows a real video of Bernall talking about her religious beliefs and how she wanted to spread the word of God. Smith wrote the song with Wes King, the brother-in-law of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Smith had been asked to perform at some of the memorial services that were held in honor of the victims.

In 1996, Smith opened his own record label, Rocketown Records, named for a song on The Big Picture. He does not personally record on it. He states the label is driven by the artists, and the first artist signed was Chris Rice, who had written "Go Light Your World", a No. 1 hit song by Kathy Troccoli, in 1995. In 1999, Smith collaborated with Jim Brickman on "Love of My Life" from the album Destiny, which went to No. 9 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks.

Nearly all of Smith's albums contain at least one instrumental track, and in 2000, Smith recorded his first all instrumental album, Freedom. The following year, Smith released an all Christian music album, Worship, on September 11. This album was followed by a sequel, Worship Again in 2002, recorded live at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. Both albums were recorded live in concert. (Both are also the only two albums to be composed almost entirely of songs he did not write himself). A Worship DVD, which comprised a selection of songs from both albums, was recorded live in Edmonton, Alberta at YC Alberta and released in 2002. It immediately topped the Billboard video charts and went gold in both the U.S. and Canada.

Smith won the Male Vocalist of the Year award at the GMA Music Awards in 2003.

Michael wrote a song entitled "There She Stands", inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks. He performed this song live for the 2004 Republican National Convention, saying that President George W. Bush, whom he said is a fan and a family friend, had asked him to write a song about the attacks.

Smith's album, Healing Rain, was released in 2004 and debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 200 Chart. The title track rose to No. 1 on the Radio & Records Charts and a music video for the song was released. The album nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album, combines the pop style of his previous recordings with the religious feel of his two releases in that genre. A new album, Stand, was released in November 2006.

In October 2007, he released It's a Wonderful Christmas. On June 20, 2008, Smith recorded his third live Worship album at the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, titled A New Hallelujah. It was released in October 2008. That same month he began a tour with Steven Curtis Chapman. In September 2010, he released Wonder,[8] and in October started touring with Third Day, tobyMac, and Max Lucado on the "Make a Difference" tour.

Other ventures
In 1994, Smith opened a teen club, named Rocketown, in Nashville, Tennessee (6th Avenue). Later in early 2003, the club was moved to a new location — a renovated warehouse in downtown Nashville. The venue offers a large dance floor, extensive indoor skate park, and a cafe hosting live acoustic music.

Smith is actively involved in volunteer service and is vice chair of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, which is chaired by Jean Case of the Case Foundation. He is also an avid spokesperson for sponsoring children through Compassion International. Smith finished work on a film directed by Steve Taylor entitled The Second Chance which was released on February 17, 2006 in selected theatres. In the movie, he stars as a pastor assigned to work in the inner city. The DVD of the movie was released in July 2006.

Personal life
Smith is married to Deborah "Debbie" Kay Davis (b. 1958) and has five children: Ryan Whitaker, Whitney Katherine Smith-Mooring (married to Jack Mooring (of the band Leeland)), Tyler Michael (keyboard player for the United Tour), Anna Elizabeth and Emily Allison. He resides in the Nashville suburbs and spends time at the Smith family farm.

Alderson-Broaddus College awarded Smith the degree Doctor of Music honoris causa in 1992.

Smith is the founding and visionary pastor of New River Fellowship in Franklin, Tennessee where he was the lead pastor from 2006 to 2008. Currently Smith and his wife remain involved members of the church.

Michael W. Smith. (2011, December 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:41, December 28, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_W._Smith&oldid=465947243

February 01, 2019

Inspired by his Good Morning America-featured live worship album Surrounded, which is nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album–his eleventh GRAMMY nomination, Michael W.

June 16, 2016

Nashville, Tenn.: Once again rekindling their synonymous holiday music magic, multi-platinum GRAMMY® winners Amy Grant and Michael W.

September 01, 2015

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Gospel Music Association (GMA) announces initial list of performers and presenters set to appear at the 46th Annual GMA Dove Awards.

April 23, 2015

Nashville, Tenn. – Michael W. Smith joined President Clinton, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and others in remembering victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing, and celebrating the "Oklahoma Standard" during Sunday’s memorial service marking the 20th anniversary of the attack.

November 14, 2014

Nashville, Tenn. (November 14, 2014) – In the midst of promotion for Michael W. Smith & Friends: The Spirit of Christmas, which quickly hit No. 1 on the Billboard Holiday Albums chart, three-time GRAMMY® winner Michael W. Smith was named Philanthropist of the Year by the Nashville Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).

Created by: siremidor on 26-July-2010 - Last Edited by siremidor on 24-June-2021
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