Life is complicated. Ask any woman who has tried to walk the delicate balance beam of being a wife & mother, minister & entrepreneur, artist & businessperson. Coping with that kind of complexity often requires creative individuals to compartmentalize their lives, to build a wall between the spiritual and the intellectual, the temporal and the eternal. But it is that tension between the hereafter and the here-and-now that dresses Lindsay Huggins' faith in flesh. Her music, her ministry and her calling are so intertwined it is impossible to determine where one stops and where the other starts. It is that connection between the intangible spirit and the corporeal expectations of this workaday world that infuses her music with a sweet transparency that crosses boundaries, cuts through bonds and nestles gently in the hearts of those who hear her sing.
“God used a song to speak to me,” Lindsay explains. “It was music that drew me to my own personal salvation experience. I want to use my music to minister to hearts and souls, to encourage believers, and to reach non-believers with the message of the Cross. I am persuaded that there is nothing He can't redeem.”
Lindsay's music mirrors her personality. It is vivacious, joyful and relentlessly enthusiastic while maintaining an uncanny ability to speak with honesty and vulnerability about life as it is. And about life as it should be. “As a wife and mother I know life can get crazy at times. But even simple experiences with my two-year old son can jolt me back to the realization of how much God loves me. In His eyes, we are all like little children. Not only has that made me thankful for even the smallest of blessings, but it compels me to focus on the nature of redemption. I want to sing to those wounded hearts that wonder where God has gone, who feel like their time is past, or may feel like they have blown it and God cannot use them. I want to tell them, 'It's not over. It's never over.' Regardless of your situation, there is nothing that is beyond His redemption.”
Born into a loving, nurturing Christian home, Lindsay knew the stability of a family that sang and ministered the Gospel together. Music has been a touchstone in her life for as long as she can remember. “My dad has been a musician all his life and my mom, who is a gifted singer in her own right, was my first vocal coach,” Lindsay recalls. “She encouraged me to not just sing the words, but to communicate what I was singing. She used to tell me, 'Say your words clearly. If people can't understand what you are saying, it doesn't matter how pretty you sound.'”
By the time Lindsay graduated from high school there was no doubt in her mind about her future calling. She packed her bags and headed for Nashville - where she earned a degree in business with an emphasis on music industry from Trevecca Nazarene University. Lindsay had plenty of opportunity to see both the music industry and the music ministry from both sides of the microphone. She toured regularly as part of a contemporary Christian vocal ensemble with the university, then later interned and worked for country music superstar Reba McEntire.
“I had the unique opportunity to study Reba's process as she selected songs, her fashion line, her home décor line. Talk about someone who has done it all,” Lindsay says. “It was an amazing experience and a dream come true for someone who wanted to be involved with the music industry.”
Lindsay left McEntire's organization when she felt called to launch her own ministry, a move she says Reba supported. Lindsay even had the opportunity to record a song Reba passed on. “God Whispers” became Lindsay's debut radio single, generating enthusiastic responses from radio and charting on the Singing News' prestigious Top 80 chart.
Her time working for Reba McEntire also provided Lindsay with the opportunity to meet and develop relationships with some of the finest musicians, songwriters and producers in Nashville, including Jerry Salley, SESAC's 2003 Country Music Songwriter of the Year. “I knew Jerry was an amazing songwriter and performer, but I didn't realize he was also an incredible producer,” Lindsay confesses. “I found out quite by accident after talking to another artist whose music I really liked. When she told me Jerry was her producer, I reached out to him to see if he would be interested in producing my new project.”
Lindsay credits Salley with helping her craft her most personal album to date. “He helped me find the right songs and guided the whole process,” she says. “The overarching message of the project is God's redemption - of our lives and of the things in our lives. Stylistically, it skews country, but it stretches the genre. Some songs incorporate big church choirs while others have a soulful black Gospel feel, but I think there is something for everybody.”
Lindsay captures the inherent tension of each song on the project, wrapping her rich vocals around each, injecting them with warmth and charm. A self-described 'song interpreter,' she also has her first songwriting credit on her new album. Lindsay teamed up with long time family friend and Gospel music legend, Marcia Henry, to write “Nothing He Can't Redeem,” a Gospel-tinged barnburner that speaks directly to the album's theme of God's redemption, not just of our souls, but of the situations in our lives. “Recording a song that I have written has been a big goal, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.”
Lindsay Huggins is a multi-talented artist who expresses her musical ideas in her own inimitable style. But ministry is more than a hit record for her. It is a calling, and a way of life. “Even with my family background, I didn't feel confident in my own salvation,” she confesses. “I accepted Christ as my personal Savior in the living room of my home after listening to a song on my CD player. It is my prayer that my music can have that same impact on someone else who is in need of God's love and redemption.”
