Gospel music lovers are waiting with eager-ears for Stellar Award winner Troy Sneed’s highly-anticipated seventh solo CD, “All Is Well” (Emtro Gospel), to hit stores on August 7. Throughout the winter and spring months, the Emtro label has been teasing fans of Sneed’s radio smash “All is Well” by not making the song available as a digital download until the CD drops. Now, Sneed has another radio hit, “Lay It Down,” that also won’t be available until the CD is released.
“I am so proud of this record,” Sneed says in a news release. “I put everything into it. I didn’t want people to just hear the radio singles. I wanted my fans to be nudged into listening to the whole album because I really worked to make every song a statement and I stretched myself vocally and in terms of the style of the music. I think a lot of people will be surprised.”
No one was more surprised than Sneed that the new single “Lay it Down” hit the Billboard Top 30 within the same week that the MP3 was emailed to radio.
“Troy Sneed has made it happen once again with a powerful inspirational message that’s simple and to the point in this season of life,” says Connye Bryant at WHLW in Montgomery, AL.
The new CD features urban-flavored songs of praise and worship ranging from the jazzy “Song for You” to “I Know You Hear Me” that recalls R. Kelly’s “U Saved Me.” The `70s soul groove “All is Well” peaked at No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart, but “Lay it Down” is destined to go all the way to the Top 10 like Sneed’s past hits “My Heart Says Yes”, “Work It Out”, “Hallelujah” and “The Struggle Is Over” which spent several weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart.
“Lay it Down” combines an inspiring message of “laying down” life’s problems and a steady Caribbean drum pattern with Sneed’s spine-tingling high notes for an infectious sing-a-long track that’s perfect for the warm summer months.
“Troy Sneed’s latest record ‘Lay It Down’ has people calling and asking where they can get it,” says Reggie Baker, program director at WPZZ in Richmond. “It is a great follow-up to ‘My Heart Says Yes’ and will be sung on Sunday mornings [at churches everywhere].”
Mike Gamble, program director of the The Light: Sheridan Gospel Network adds that, “”Troy has become the inspirational music stylist that delivers powerful words of encouragement in every song.”
A special pre-order $7.99 price tag is available for fans that pre-order “All Is Well” on iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/
