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Official Website: Jonathan
Nelson & Purpose
One of six children born in Baltimore, Maryland, Nelson grew
up in church. "Everybody in my family works in ministry,"
he says. "My father, James Nelson, was pastor of Greater Bethlehem
Temple Church for over thirty years and my mom served as First
Lady." Nelson's family was also musical. "My grandmother played
piano," he continues. "I had two uncles who were musicians.
We just grew up playing and singing in church."
Nelson's musical abilities were further cultivated while
he was a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts and
Morgan State University where he studied under the esteemed
choir director Dr. Nathan Carter. Nelson was soon traveling
the globe and conducting choirs his self and working in the
music department at his father's church. About fifteen of
his friends and he would also get together and sing at church.
When Karen Clark-Sheard was coming to perform at his church,
she needed some backing singers and his friends stepped in.
"It wasn't a formal group," he recalls. "It was just something
we did and after we did that service with Karen, we really
enjoyed working together and that's when we became Purpose."
At the same time, Nelson had found a lucrative and comfortable
income as an executive with a computer software company. Then,
something happened to fuel Nelson's writing abilities. "Around
2001 when all of the dotcoms went down I was unemployed and
that's when my passion for writing came alive," he says. "I
began to write all these songs because I was living off of
unemployment. That process took me through a whole thing because
of my experience. The song `Healed' definitely came out of
that."
Purpose had recorded the song "Healed" on their own self-financed
CD in 2002. Nelson had met Grammy-nominated choir leader,
Donald Lawrence, at a Washington, D.C. workshop in 2000. "When
Donald heard `Healed' he said, `I'm gonna record that song.'
He felt that message was what God was saying to the church
at the time." Lawrence's words proved prophetic and his rousing
rendition of "Healed" became a Top Ten gospel smash in 2005.
The icing on the cake was that the song won Nelson the Stellar
Award as Songwriter of the Year in 2006. He was presented
with the award by the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. "I was
so shocked that I won," Nelson laughs. "That I didn't even
realize that it was Aretha who gave me the award."
Perhaps, the greatest award is that Nelson's songs were now
in demand. "I met Troy Sneed at a Gospel Music Workshop of
America convention. He said that he had heard a song Purpose
recorded called `The Right Place' and that he wanted to record
it." Sneed produced the song on Pastor Rudolph McKissick and
it became a Top 5 Billboard gospel hit.
It was through Sneed that Nelson would enjoy his biggest
song yet. "Troy called one day and said that he was coming
to Baltimore to record a group of youth," Nelson recalls.
"He called me on a Tuesday and I didn't have a song that night.
I wrote `The Struggle is Over' in about ten minutes. The scripture
for it comes from Deuteronomy 1: 6-8 in the NIV version. In
that scripture, the Lord spoke to Moses to tell the children
of Israel they could now come out of the wilderness and possess
the land that God promised them in Canaan. So, for them, the
struggle was over. So, during the recording that night, the
kids were crying and Troy said, `This will be the single.'"
Indeed, it was the single. Released in the winter of 2006,
the congregational ballad became the surprise hit of the summer
when it spent 12 weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Hot Gospel
Songs chart. "I never thought it was single worthy," says
Nelson. "It didn't sound commercial to me but I apologize
for that because obviously the song has resonated with many,
many people and touched them."
It was that spirit of touching hearts and minds that permeated
Nelson's self-financed concert recording in December 2006.
"I undertook that whole project without even knowing if any
recording label was going to release it," Nelson confesses.
"I took a risk."
Then, Troy Sneed's publicist introduced Nelson to Integrity
Music consultant Stacy Merida, who then brought Nelson to
the attention of executives at Integrity Music and helped
fashion his recording agreement. Now, that live recording
which features cameos by William Murphy, Nikki Ross and Sheri
Jones-Moffett is finally making its brilliant debut. "My whole
concept is dealing with success, victory and triumph," says
Nelson. "I expect supernatural success. This CD was in response
to the success of `The Struggle is Over' in 2006. The theme
of songs like `My Name is Victory' and `Champions' are all
in response to the success that God has given us."
"Most songs I get from sermons," Nelson explains. "It comes
from divine inspiration. The speaker might say one word but
that one word goes into a whole thing. The song `Capacity'
came during a service. My father was preaching and while he
was preaching, I started writing that song." There was another
time when Todd Hall was prophesying in a church service and
"he said to turn to your neighbor and say `my praise causes
things to look bettah' and instantly every word of that song
`Bettah' was written right there in the service."
The only song that Nelson and his frequent songwriting collaborator,
Justin Savage, didn't write is Chris Tomlin's "How Great is
Our God." Nelson says, "I heard it at a worship service and
it spoke to me. It's an intoxicating song. A whole church
no matter what race, creed or color can sing along to it.
It became an anthem at my church."
An anthem for Nelson's personal life is the title song, "Right
Now Praise." He says, "I wrote that during a difficult time
in my life back in 2003. I was on the verge of losing my home
and my car. I was working as a substitute teacher. I was in
a very low place. My car is my mediation place. I was crying
down the road and started singing a melody to the Lord and
that's when `Right Now Praise' came to me. I had to rush into
school and get to my tape recorder and put it down before
I forgot it. Everything with this project is timing. I feel
like its time for whatever God has for me to do right now.
This is my God ordained time for my life.
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