Joe Pace

       Mobile, Alabama (March 1, 2001) - Gospel producer and artist Joe Pace has begun work with Integrity Music on the creation of a new series of Urban Praise albums tailored to meet the needs of the local church.

       The series, "Joe Pace Presents" includes the recently released Joe Pace Presents - Let There Be Praise. This album and future titles in the series, feature Pace's production work, arrangements and songwriting.

       Pace sees Let There Be Praise, as well as the entire line, as a vehicle with which to supply new praise and worship music to the urban church. "The music generated through this series is for the church praise team or choir," he explains. "The songs are sing-able and musician friendly with simple hooks and choruses, but with that urban flavor. There are songs on the project that you can teach your praise team fairly quickly and then come out on Sunday morning and sing them."

       Pace personally auditioned the worship team and choir members for Let There Be Praise, which was recorded at Nazaree Full Gospel Church in Mobile, Alabama. All of the vocalists are from the Mobile area with the exception of Integrity guest artist Alvin Slaughter and jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum (Warner Bros.).

       Pace says the band is made up of some of the best musicians in the business: Jonathon DuBose, Marcus Dawson, Kevin Graves, Terry & Simeon Baker. "Although this project is 'praise team friendly'," adds Pace, "We still wanted to make sure to create a project that was technically excellent and of a quality that the listener has come to expect from the industry. This caliber of band certainly helps to insure that!"

       Pace continues, "The focal point of this project and the series itself is not on the artist, but on the worship...out of the 11 cuts on this first project, only 4 of them even have lead vocals."

       In addition to producing the album, Pace wrote the majority of the songs and created new arrangements for standards such as "Jesus, I'll Never Forget" and contemporary favorites like "I Worship You, Almighty God," which features Kirk Whalum.

       This dive into praise and worship music is nothing new to Pace. "I've been doing praise and worship for quite some time, it's a lifestyle," he explains.