Rebecca St. James

    Rebecca St. James

    Nashville, Tennessee11 reviews across 8 releases

    alternative rockccmdance poppop rock
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    Rebecca St. James is an Australian-born Christian pop-rock singer who moved with her family to Nashville in 1991 and began recording as a teenager. Her early ForeFront work presented a youthful pop sound, but God in 1996 recast it through alterna-pop, modern rock and ballads, with driving guitars, acoustic passages and impassioned vocals. The Christmas album extended that approach to traditional carols through dark orchestration and pounding choruses. Pray in 1998 added European influences, strings and a stronger sense of devotional intimacy, while retaining rock and dance elements. By Transform in 2000, the production had shifted toward polished pop, techno and R&B, with hooks that sometimes approached mainstream radio. Her writing remained directly God-centered, whether addressing prayer, sin, forgiveness or sexual purity.

    In 2002, she released Worship God, a studio worship project built largely from familiar songs rather than new material. Its safer arrangements marked a change from the experimentation of her earlier records, and the contemporary reviews disagreed about whether the approach suited her. The 2000 Grammy for Pray had already established her as a major Christian recording artist. After a hiatus from recording and touring, she married Cubbie Fink and started a family, then developed parallel work as an author and actress, including the 2009 film Sarah's Choice. She returned to the stage in 2018 with her brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, who perform as For KING & COUNTRY, and recorded Kingdom Come in 2022.

    8 releases reviewed