Selah: Victory in the Valley

“We’ve never done THIS before!” What could a well-established, veteran group that has sold over 4 million records (including 2 Gold Albums), won 11 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and has over 900 million streams across all digital music platforms do for their next project to keep things interesting for themselves and their listeners? This was the question that Todd Smith, Amy Perry, and Allan Hall pondered as they began work on their 22nd album. Allan eventually hit upon an interesting idea that the group realized they had never done in their 27-year career: for this album, EVERY song would be written, co-written, or spoken into by at least one group member! The three had certainly written songs for Selah albums before, but those original compositions were always accompanied on their album projects by covers of classic Gospel and CCM songs, original songs by other songwriters, and Selah’s own arrangements of powerful hymns of the Christian faith. The fresh concept resonated strongly with Todd and Amy and the timing was good, especially since the two previous albums had covered Selah’s more “traditional” side. In 2022, Selah released a long-awaited new Christmas album, “At This Table.” It had been 20 years since the release of their first Christmas album, “Rose of Bethlehem,” back in 2002, and fans were excited to have new Christmas music. That same year, Selah celebrated their 25th anniversary as a group. To commemorate the occasion, the trio recorded a simple hymns project very much in the style of their debut album from 1997, “Be Still My Soul.” They felt the new hymns album, simply titled “Greatest Hymns, Vol. 3” would be a nice “bookend” with the first album and a fitting tribute to their first 25 years in the music industry. With the two “traditional” albums completed and released in 2022, attention turned to the next project and what could be done to differentiate it from the previous albums. The group decided to head in a more contemporary directio