Left to right: Nicol Smith, Todd Smith, and Allan Hall

With a heavy touring schedule, a new Christmas album, three solo projects, and the recent birth of Todd's twin girls, the three members of the Dove Award-winning group Selah have stayed busy this year. Brother and sister Todd and Nicol Smith and their fellow member Allan Hall discussed their projects with Michael Herman from the ChristianityToday.com Music Channel.

Christmas Album

Your Christmas album, Rose of Bethelem, was recorded in your infrequent down times, and features strong original songs as well as beautiful arrangements of well-known Christmas carols. What stands out about the project now that it's complete?

Todd: Two things stand out to me. The first is "Mystery," a song I wrote while in college (my wife Angie helped me with the bridge). I was inspired to write the song after a conversation with one of my professors about the things in this life that seem so unfair – hungry and dying people, hell, terrorism, etc. My professor said that if we really want to take a good look at what's unfair we need to look further back to the fact that God didn't even need to make us, and he sent his only Son as a sacrifice, the sacrifice, who would ultimately redeem us. That hit me in a new way and began the process of writing this song that seems to be appropriate on this Christmas project. I'm really happy with how the song turned out.

The second thing that stands out to me is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." We can't speak as a group for the original writers of this song, but we sang it with the understanding that it's talking about Israel and its people. I don't believe in "replacement theology." I believe there are promises that are for all believers, but there are also promises specifically for the chosen people of Israel since their return to becoming a nation again. The point we wanted to make was that true peace isn't going to come until Christ comes back.

Nicol had the idea of including the Jewish National Anthem in the song. The violin part weaves the anthem throughout the song between the verses. It was our way of praying for the peace of Israel but also to let the Christian world know the seriousness of the condemnation that would come to a nation that would turn its back on Israel (Joel 3). So, there's a lot more to that song on our album than just being a traditional one.

(You can read more about this issue in the Rose of Bethlehem CD booklet.)

Did you feel added freedom to try things on Rose of Bethlehem that you might not try on a regular Selah album?

Nicol: You know, we've always had freedom from Curb Records to try things and to create albums the way we want them created. If anything, I probably felt a little less freedom on this one because we were so rushed. For example, we didn't have time to put the strings we wanted on the song "Joy." We recorded this album a day here and a day there, instead of having a solid month set aside to concentrate on it.

Is there anything else that stands out to you about this album?

Nicol: Our family lived in the Congo where there aren't many Christmas songs because the dictator was threatened by Christmas. So Todd wrote a song for this album in Kituba-the Congolese language we both speak. And because my parents still have a mission organization called Laban Ministries International (www.LabanMinistries.org) that serves those people, I'm sure they'll get it back to them to hear in the Congo. That's a very special blessing for us.

Allan, one of your dreams came true in the recording process of this album. Tell us about that?

Allan: Yeah, we got to work with Dolly Parton, and that was definitely a dream come true for me! I loved her as a kid, and she's been a part of American culture for so long. She was so kind in the studio, and never once did she make the truth be known that she's world famous. Instead, she made the effort to put everybody at ease from the start by introducing herself to every person there, telling jokes, and naturally making everything relaxed from that point on.

I had to laugh, because instead of having a huge list of extravagant items that needed to be there before she arrived, all she wanted was two bottles of Evian water. That's it. We all just fell in love with her. And as I was walking her out to the parking garage, she told me that if she hadn't given us what we wanted or if we wanted to try some other ideas to call her and she'd be back to help in any way she could. She sure didn't have to offer that, and we were more than happy with all she gave us. No callback was needed.

One of the songs on our album is "Once Upon a Christmas," a song Dolly recorded in 1984 with Kenny Rogers. She even told me that she loved how I'd arranged her song. She said, "You know what? I like this better than mine and Kenny's." I started laughing and probably blushing a lot, and she said, "Honey I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it." Working with her was everything I'd ever dreamed and more.

What makes Rose of Bethlehem unique?

Nicol: The album is more somber. It's not a "jingle bells" type of album – that's probably one of the most noticeable differences. Todd mentioned the song "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." That song took on new relevance for us because we heard about a suicide bombing in Israel the very day we recorded the song. It seemed as though we needed Emmanuel more than ever as we sang those words.

Solo Projects

The three musicians have diverse backgrounds and interests in rock/pop, R&B, and southern/mountain music, yet they come together and create the unique inspirational/adult contemporary sound of Selah. But their solo projects bring out their diversity. To get a better understanding of their influences and favorite styles of music we asked them about their upcoming solo projects and what we can expect to hear.

Todd, what are you working on currently?

Todd: I'm working on a rock/pop album – nothing like Selah. I'm co-producing it with a friend from church, Jimmy Collins (Plumb). Hopefully it'll be coming out in September 2003.

Nicol and I always say the music of Selah projects the way we wish we were, and our solo stuff is more of who we really are. So I'm excited about a song called "Turn to You." It talks about how, as I grow older and have less and less confidence, become weaker, and go astray, that no matter where I'm at I can turn to God. Another song called "Sad Song" is a slower song that reflects the sadness and even disgust I've felt by seeing evangelists on TV selling "holy water" and things like that. It also shows my own self-righteousness and how I need to turn the pointing finger back toward me.

What about your sophomore solo album, Nicol?

Nicol: It'll have an R&B/Annie Lennox/European pop sound. We want it to be worshipful music, but it probably won't be the kind of worship music that's accepted in most church formats. Compared to my first solo album [Different Light] I think there's more consistency to the music. The first one went from a James Taylor-sounding song to more of a driving rock song. European pop has a lot of elements that allow for creativity while maintaining musical consistency.

Writing and recording for this album has been one of the best musical experiences of my life. The first album took five years, and every step was a fight for me. So much time was spent waiting for the next thing to happen or for schedules to open up. This time I've been working with Mark Heimerman, and he's been so helpful from the producing, songwriting, and song-finding ends. I feel very fortunate to work with him. This whole process has been like a resurrection of a personal dream for me. It's very exciting.

What can we expect from your solo release, Allan?

Allan: My album is pretty much in the O Brother, Where Art Thou vein. It's rootsy, but at the same time it's so hard to peg. That may give the marketing department fits. Several tracks will have the same feel of the "In My Life/If We Never Meet Again" song from the Press On project – a lot of keyboard, a little ethereal. I do my own harmonies throughout the songs. Other songs aren't quite as bluegrass sounding, but still have rootsy instrumentation. I always say it's like Nickel Creek but a little more keyboard-oriented.

There's a song called "Prayer in Open D" by Emmylou Harris that I totally love. There's also a familiar track from the O Brother soundtrack called "Down to the River to Pray" that I just recorded for fun, but it'll make the album and may even be the first single. My arrangement is pretty different because I had a vision of people marching down to the river. So I had this percussionist come in and do sort of an old Revolutionary War snare sound for the song to blend behind the vocals. Even Jason Kyle, who co-produced our other Selah albums, did some really cool background vocals with his brother. It really turned out great. That's an idea, at least, of what to expect from it.

I'd like to ask one more question. As I listen to Selah's music I can't help but wonder why I don't hear it played on adult contemporary radio stations. Can you give me your thoughts about that?

Todd: That's a great question. I think because we're a group that does a lot of hymns we've been stereotyped as a group that's just inspirational, or "inspo," as the industry calls it. Also, because our first album was basically piano/vocal without drum tracks, that helped peg us as inspo as well, even though the style Nicol and I sing is more rock/pop or R&B. We've heard a great response from the few adult contemporary stations that did play the song, "One Thing I Know," but the opportunity just wasn't widespread enough to influence others to try it.

I had a problem with AC stations not playing us more in the past but not so much any more. It used to crack me up – and still does to a degree – that many of the songs adult contemporary stations were playing during the time we were being introduced to them contained songs Nicol and I were singing back-up on during our session work. I think I can understand why people might think of us as only an inspo group, but we definitely have songs that would fit right in with the other songs the stations play. It hasn't hurt our listenership, and we feel we've done what we could do to create songs that are accessible to that part of our audience.

Click here to learn more about Selah at our music channel artist page for him. You can also read up on Nicol on her artist page. Also check out our music reviews of Press On and Rose of Bethlehem. Visit Musicforce.com to purchase your own copy of Rose of Bethlehem today!

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