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lead voice. I’m a huge fan of 70’s music that has great big background vocals.
  "I thought this music lent itself, so Mac and I did most of that and it was fun.”
  The album’s title track, and first radio single, was inspired by a conversation the band had with a couple in New Jersey after a concert. “Their son was in a really depressed place in life. He drove way into the woods and was going to commit suicide,” Powell recounts. “But he turned on the radio and he heard ‘Cry Out To Jesus.’ It literally changed his heart and gave him encouragement to keep going.”
  Powell took the essence of that story and penned the song “I Need a Miracle.”
   The album is filled with music that rocks both body and soul. “Kicking and Screaming” is among the many standouts. It boasts a catchy melody, passionate lead vocal from Mac and ingratiating background vocals that immediately make the listener want to sing along. “It’s a song that says ‘I’m going to stand my ground and fight for the things that I care about,’” Anderson says of the empowering lyric.
  “Hit Me Like a Bomb” is an edgy rocker with snarling guitars and explosive snares, and Powell’s signature from-the-gut vocal style highlight the compelling lyric about transformation. “That song is about your life drastically being changed, just a totally 180 turned around,” Powell says. “In the chorus I say ‘And I saw it coming.’ It’s like you know there’s got to be a change or you’re going to end up in a bad place. You see it coming and you know there’s this anticipation that it’s going to happen. It’s got to happen, but it’s almost like you’re fighting it. Then boom! All of a sudden it happens from out of nowhere.”
  The songs on Miracle cover a rich musical and emotional landscape. “You Are My Everything” is a gorgeous mid tempo love song that spotlights the warmth in Powell’s vocals. “Your Love is Like a River” is a stirring worship anthem that is one of the band’s favorite new songs.
  Another highlight on the album is Third Day’s beautiful cover of “Morning Has Broken.” A vintage Methodist hymn that was a pop hit in the ‘70s for Cat Stevens, the song gets a stunning new treatment here, anchored in Lee, Anderson and Carr’s skilled musicianship and Powell’s earthy vocals. Scotty Wilbanks, a longtime member of Third Day’s road band, provides the eloquent keyboard intro.
  “The Victory” is a bluesy Southern anthem with a potent lyric. “It’s about pressing on and making a commitment,” says Powell who was inspired by a documentary he saw on evangelist Billy Graham.
   “He and his best friend went to theology school together and his friend is an atheist now because when he started going to school it was like, ‘Okay I’m learning all these other things I never knew before. I grew up in a little town and now I’m learning these other ways of seeing the world. I realized that wasn’t for me. I’m going to expand my mind.’ When Billy Graham saw himself going there, he went to a place that had this big boulder and prayed. He said, ‘This is what I believe and I’m standing on this truth and I’m not going to allow myself to think otherwise!’ That’s a strong faith right there to say, ‘This is what I believe and I’m not changing from it.’”
  “That song is about making a commitment,” says guitarist Mark Lee. “It’s about saying you’re going to see it through ‘til the end and I think that’s a big theme on this record.”
  The members of Third Day have been given a platform and it’s a responsibility they take seriously. Of course, the band loves to perform and entertain, but most importantly they want to offer hope and encouragement. “If there is any over arching theme on the record, it’s about pressing on and holding onto faith in the midst of doubt,” says David Carr.
  Music can spark a miracle. Listen and believe.

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