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Worship. It's more than singing songs or dancing to great praise music. It's more than a Sunday morning routine or the experience felt during a church service. True heart-felt worship is purely the act of laying one's life before the Father in complete surrender, even when the mistakes are many. To truly live a life for God - that is true worship.

New Vertical Music artist Kara has learned this act of surrender in so many ways throughout her young life -from battling panic attacks and a life-threatening eating disorder to laying down dreams and desires of pursuing a secular pop deal- simply because her hearts longing was to show others the amazing power of worship that changed her life.

"My passion is for lost people," Kara says. "I've never really felt a huge calling to just sing in the Church. I've always wanted to go out into the world wherever God wants me to go. The only way I felt I could do that was to go after a pop deal."

After beginning her pursuit for the secular deal, God began to speak to Kara's heart. While listening to a worship album that she uncovered while cleaning her apartment, Kara got so immersed in worshiping God that in that moment He revealed to her that a secular pop deal wasn't the platform He intended for her life. "The Lord said, 'This is what I want you to do for such a time as this. I want you to surrender this passion that you have to me and allow me to bring you to that place My way and not the way that you think you're going to get there.'"

"In response to God's calling, my husband and I prayed that He would open the doors for us," she adds. "And, immediately, they began opening. I knew without a doubt that God had been preparing my heart for that moment my whole life."

Worship is not a new frontier for Kara. Starting at age 4 until age 16, she traveled across the country with her family, "The Williamsons" and led worship and performed concerts in hundreds of churches, Praise Gathering and many special events. By the age of 18 she began leading worship for her church youth group.

In addition to doing background vocals for the likes of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, in 1999 Kara traveled with 40Records' worship group "Three Strand" made up of herself, older brother and sister.

"I know that my passion is for worship," Kara says. "The desire of my heart is to show people that it is not just a Sunday morning thing. I feel like worshiping God is the most intimate thing that we can experience with Him."

"Worship is not just when you sing to God," she adds, " worship is anytime that you are talking to the Lord. God wants to hear what your heart has to say. He wants to hear your joy. He wants to hear your fears and your regrets. God wants so desperately to hear the deepest cry of your heart, whatever it may be."

"Throughout my life every point of breakthrough or revelation has been brought by God when I was worshiping Him," Kara explains. "I believe that when we worship, God is completing in us the very purpose for which He created us... to truly worship Him. And in that intimate moment, when we offer up the praise of our hearts He comes in and changes our lives completely."

"I'm excited to see what God has in store for us and how we're going to get there. But I'll go wherever He wants me to go."

With her debut album on Vertical, Kara seeks to expose the glory of God through her music. "I want people to know the glory of God that shines through the lyrics of every song. That's the message that God really wants people to hear-that He is worthy of glory and honor. Truthfully glorifying God and joyfully giving thanks in every circumstance brings honor to God and life to us. When we're honest with Him, truth comes in and God's forgiveness and grace covers everything we are, everything we've done and everything that's been done to us. The end result... our lives will forever worship Him."

This awe of worship that Kara possesses permeates songs like "We'll All Bow Down," a simple, but majestic song written by Dove nominated Lenny LeBlanc.

"When we get to Heaven, kings will surrender their crowns," Kara says, referring to the lyrics. "We will all worship no matter where we've been in life. So it's a song of declaration to the Lord."

Revealing her heart, Kara's debut includes "Here I Am," a song of confession before the Lord and "I Love You" a song of restoration and love. Both are anthems of the love and grace Kara has experienced throughout her own journey.

The song "Glorify You" focuses on Kara's overlying theme of glorifying God. "[It says], I will use my life to glorify You," Kara says. "Everything that I am, every talent that You've given me, every pathway that You have given me, I will use those things to glorify You, and I won't use those things to glorify myself."

"Falling On Me Now" is a song Kara affectionately refers to as Chinese rock because of its unique sound. "It's about having the joy of the Lord," she says. "It's this really happy song about rejoicing and that ability to feel the Lord's presence at any time and in any situation."

I can feel Your presence all around me/ I can sing with angels right here from the ground/ And I know that it's Your glory falling on me now.

With the amount of life and musical experience that Kara has, her life could have gone in any number of directions-be it as a secular pop singer or as a speaker to teenage girls dealing with eating disorders. However, with this passion for worship fused inside her heart, Kara's deep desire is to show her audience what it's like to embrace the atmosphere of worship-an atmosphere that can be as corporate as a church service or a concert, or as personal as being alone with God in your bedroom or singing along to worship CDs in your car.

Through the songs she sings, Kara hopes to show a new generation the art of surrender and the practice of living a life of worship. She knows that the heart of worship is not contained solely in a song or music-the heart of worship is contained within the life of the worshiper and even when the mistakes are many, God sees past all our faults and straight into the depths of our hearts.

Kara and her husband, Charlie, reside in Franklin, Tennessee.

ANOTHER BIOGRAPHY FOR THIS ALBUM:

She's traveled across the country since the age of three, singing with her family in churches of all traditions. She's been writing her own songs since she was eight, a skill she's been developing ever since. Barely out of high school, she shared the stage as a background vocalist for Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, CeCe Winans and Point of Grace. Very few debut artists have the musical gift and background this 23-year-old does.

And yet, her way with a lyric and her vocal experience are only a glimpse of an amazing talent and a passionate heart.

As a wide-eyed 8-year-old, Kara wrote her first love song to God with all the confidence of childlike faith. But by age 16, like so many teenage girls trying to conform to society's definition of beauty, Kara was caught in an intense struggle between self-discovery and perfection. Fear and self-doubt amplified the typical teenage angst of "Who am I?" taking a toll on Kara, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Through the patience and loving discipleship of her parents, Kara began to learn her true worth. She discovered by reading Scripture and expressing her feelings to God that worship-responding to the grace and goodness of God-calmed her. Focusing on God relieved her from that internal war. As she became more aware of how God created and deeply loved her, He led her to a place of surrender. He led her from fear to freedom.

Kara's self-titled solo debut on Vertical Music reveals her worshipful response to the joy and freedom that God has lavished upon her since her formative years. Produced by Pete Kipley (MercyMe, PlusOne, Rachael Lampa), Kara is a fusion of danceable pop, electronica and exuberant worship-lyrics that point to God as the creator and sustainer of life, the never failing love of our lives.

"Kara's album draws from an assortment of sounds reflecting styles popularized by artists such as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Pink and Dido," says Vertical Music's A&R manager Jeff Quimby, "but the content is filled with an obvious and passionate heart for worship."

You pour Your life into me
And You give each breath that I breathe
And all that I know and believe
Gives me every reason to praise You
From "Glorify You" by Kara and Margaret Becker

From the first single, "Glorify You" (co-written with Margaret Becker), to "Sunshine," a song about the freedom of forgiveness, to the intimate adoration of "We All Bow Down," Kara is evidence enough that when God changes one's focus from self to Himself, worship is as natural and essential as breathing.

Although she'd been singing her whole life, and had even recorded an album in 1999 with her brother and sister as a group called Three Strand, Kara wasn't convinced that music was her calling. She had even been considering a mainstream pop offer, before her experience on the Amy Grant Christmas Tour, but God had yet to reveal the chosen path.

"One night on the Amy Grant Christmas Tour, I could sense God saying this kind of ministry was what He'd been preparing me for... and one day it just all made sense. Every breakthrough I've ever had in my life has come through a time of personal or corporate worship.... I was pursuing a mainstream thing for awhile, but my passion for worship grew as I began to realize the power it had had in my life."

For Kara, worship was and is something intensely personal. But she hopes the honesty in her songs, the truth about her own struggles in tandem with the freedom of a worshipful life will impact all who hear it. That is the reason she sings, the reason she moves and has her being. That is what sets her a part from the pop singers of her day.

Christian music veteran Margaret Becker agrees. "Kara is a welcome change in CCM music," she says, "a fresh perspective, a fresh voice."

"More than anything else," Kara says, "I hope this record totally encourages people who perhaps have struggled like I have to keep seeking that deeper place with God.' My heart grieves when I hear people say they feel like God isn't listening to them because of what they have done... These songs are my way saying what God has been saying all along, "Come as you are."

Return to me, my weary one
And come rest in my healing arms
From "I Love You" by Kara and Jan Williamson

The album's closing song, "I Love You," written for a friend who had abandoned her faith, encapsulates the message from God's heart to His children, Kara says.

"It's all about the fact that at the end of the day, no matter what you've done, no matter what you've been through, no matter if you've been overcome by fear or feel horribly guilty, God loves you, and He wants you to return to Him. If you ever realize that He loves you regardless, it's a revolutionary thing."