When Cindy Morgan releases a new album, people listen.

Ever since she arrived on the Christian music scene just a few years ago, with her Word recording debut, radio listeners have been all ears--her first single, "Real Life", made chart history with a perfect 100 points at number one, and was followed by an unprecedented pair of number ones also scoring a perfect 100 points. All in all, radio listeners embraced Cindy's music to the tune of eight number one songs from three best-selling Word albums: Real Life, A Reason To Live and Under The Waterfall. In 1993, the Gospel Music Association liked what they heard in Cindy's artistry--enough to give her the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year, and since then, her work has consistently been recognized in a flock of Dove nominations and awards.

Audiences have listened, on Cindy's successful tours, solo as well as with Steven Curtis Chapman and Petra, and during her tenure with the prestigious Young Messiah Tour where she performed alongside other Christian music luminaries like Carman, Sandi Patty, Kathy Troccoli and Wayne Watson. Her fellow artists have listened with abiding respect--in appreciating her artistry as well as her song writing talent (her songs have been recorded by Dove Award winners Sandi Patty, Michael English, and BeBe Winans).

Yet for all of Cindy's remarkable success so early in her career, it is her latest Word release, Listen, that will likely astonish her audience. What you'll hear, if you really listen, is the delicate sound of skilled hands gently touching piano keys, creating artful, arresting melodies that match articulate lyrics, sung by an artist who not only wrote the words, but pulls them out note by note, from the depths of her soul.

What you'll hear is an artist "finding her true voice," taking risks, singing live in the studio, with live musicians. You'll hear a live string section, adding a classical touch to songs written by an artist who counts Mozart and Beethoven among her musical influences. You'll hear pure, unfettered joy--the lightheartedness of someone who's been given musical wings--in the infectious "They Say It's Love", and echoes of the daily dramas of real life, written into incisive lyrics and floated over melodic lines in songs like "Need" and "God Is Love."

What you won't hear is any hesitation from Cindy Morgan, as she ventures outside predictable boundaries with a genuine artistic expression. For the first time, Cindy has written or co-written every song on the project. Also for the first time, she plays the piano on every cut on the record except for one--a move that not only weaves a musical thread throughout the entire project, but firmly places her once and for all in the category of "singer-songwriter-performer". In short, Listen is the launch vehicle for what one is tempted to call "another side" of Cindy Morgan, although her concert audiences are well aware that Cindy has always been most comfortable sitting at the piano, singing the songs she writes from the heart.

Though Cindy's earlier albums met success featuring a youthful dance-pop sound, it was her last project, Under The Waterfall, that hinted at a new direction for this sensitive, passionate songwriter. Like most true artists, the process of finding one's true "place" requires a journey of discovery, of listening carefully to the whispers of one's heart and soul, a journey familiar to Cindy Morgan the artist and the person.

"When I first came to Nashville from east Tennessee, I didn't know exactly who I was as an artist. I was more than willing to listen to suggestions and take direction, and the dance-pop direction we took was an honest attempt to reach kids. It wasn't anything anyone forced me to do... it was a process of peeling back the layers, of personal growth as an artist and as a believer."

The process of change wasn't difficult, but a natural evolution. "I've always been writing on the piano, and for the last year or so, I've been traveling with a combination of piano, acoustic guitar and percussion, for the more intimate sound that I love."

Listen, according to Cindy, is the fruition of her recent artistic journey. "I've been moving in this direction for a while, and the timing of it all came together, with a lot of new beginnings and changes for me in the past few years."

Those changes included new producer, Brent Bourgeois, whose work as an artist and producer have won raves for years in both Christian and mainstream circles. "Brent came into the picture just as Mark Hammond [her former producer] had made some changes in his own career, so the timing was perfect for a new season for both of us."

The whole of the Morgan and Bourgeois team has proved greater than the sum of the parts, as their artistic visions coalesced to create a work that some might say resembles the Beatles' Abbey Road or Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark. Says Bourgeois, "We wanted to create a total experience, that one could listen to as a whole, as well as make it appealing enough to be played on radio." To do that, he enlisted the help of the gifted arranger and composer Tom Howard to do the orchestrations, while the sonic details were handled by engineer Craig Hansen, himself a capable musician. Add the live string sections, live recorded tracks by studio veterans like Jerry McPherson and Mark Douthit and the result is a cohesive, organic, virtually seamless work that not only holds up after repeated hearings, but surprises and delights the listener at every turn with imaginative and sometimes whimsical touches (including a four-string banjo, a clarinet, even a kazoo-alongside majestic string arrangements complementing Cindy's own tasteful piano work and impassioned vocals).

"This is the real thing," says Bourgeois. "It reflects Cindy's musicianship and real artistry as a performer... I've never heard anybody come in and do great vocals in one or two takes like she did. We recorded most of this in three days--one day for Cindy's piano and vocals, one day for tracks, then another for strings. All of it live--there isn't any programming on this record. Just real music."

Morgan feels great appreciation for artistic freedom to listen to her own soul. "I'm so thankful... they just said 'do what you want', and we did. Nobody stood over our shoulders and said 'you can't do that'. So I poured my heart out, we had fun, and I think you can hear it."

Cindy's own father will hear something familiar in the title track. Years ago, as an aspiring young songwriter, he wrote a gentle ballad called "Listen". Secretly, Cindy resurrected the song from memory, giving it a completely different art-rock feel, while preserving the lyrics virtually intact, and recorded it as the centerpiece of her signature artistic statement. "I'm keeping it a surprise from Dad until the release of the album. He made the ultimate sacrifice of his own artistic desires, turning down opportunities to try songwriting for the good of his family. This song is a way to say, 'Thanks, Dad--now we've done this together...God's made your dream come true.'"

Any listener with an artistic bent will have an appreciative ear for what has been accomplished on Listen; but you don't have to be a writer, poet, dancer, or musician to love this landmark recording by one of Christian music's premiere and favorite artists. There is a passionate presence in Listen--the presence of a creative team that cared deeply about the recording, the presence of an artist given the freedom to express herself from the core of her being, with lyrics that are sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes tender, always searingly honest. In every phrase, in every song, there is ultimately the presence of authentic faith, faith in a God who speaks to us every day, in every moment of our lives.

All we have to do is listen.