BarlowGirl is set to perform at Heaven Fest on July 31. Here’s a story that ran in The Denver Post when the sisters were town in support of their album, “How Can We Be Silent.” I found a copy of the CD and if you are the first to send me an e‑mail at lsomers@denverpost.com I’ll send you the CD.
Fighting is a word few Christians embrace, but the sister band BarlowGirl is poised for a knock-down, drag-out on behalf of people who are battered and broken.
On the cover of their new CD, “How Can We Be Silent,” sisters Becca, Alyssa and Lauren Barlow are posed in a boxing ring, dressed in denim and wearing a defiant gaze.
“This whole album is about fighting,” said Becca, at 28 the oldest member of the band. “Fighting through the hard times. The whole idea is that it’s time to fight.”
Becca’s favorite track on the CD, “One More Round,” was written after the sisters heard a former football player compare life to a boxing match.
“No matter how hard life pushes you down, you have to keep getting up,” Becca said.
BarlowGirl’s Million Voices tour was in part a fundraiser for Mercy Ministries.
Mercy Ministries runs homes for girls ages 13–28 who are troubled by eating disorders, self-harm, unplanned pregnancy and drug and alcohol addiction.
“We met the founder, Nancy Alcorn, about 10 years ago,” Becca said. “And we knew from that moment we needed to be connected with this group. There is a waiting list 100 girls long. And girls are dying on this waiting list.
“We want to raise a million dollars on this tour so they can build new homes.”
The sisters’ father, Vincent, got his daughters started in the music industry while he was a youth pastor at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.
“My father was writing music for the children’s group at the church,” Becca said. “It was so successful that other churches throughout the country started hiring him to come and preach and play. So he needed a band, and he hired us.
“Well, not hired,” Becca said with a chuckle. “We were the cheapest band he could find.”
For two years, the sisters traveled and led leadership a nd worship services. “We would write songs on the bus for ourselves or our friends.”
Their father pushed them to perform their own songs and eventually stopped accompanying them. “After a while he said, ‘It’s not cool that your dad is in the band. So you girls are going to have to learn some instruments,’ ” Becca said.
BarlowGirl signed a deal with Fervent Records in 2003. In 2006, their song, “I Need You to Love Me,” set a record as the No. 1 single for 13 weeks on the Christian Radio Weekly chart.
The sister act will release a Christmas album, “Home for Christmas,” on Sept. 23. The album has 10 classic Christmas songs plus an original song, “Hallelujah (Light Has Come),” all produced with a full orchestral sound.
“It’s totally different from anything that we have done in the past,” she said. “We spent a month just on vocals, and that’s unusual for us.”
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