Song:Always Have, Always Will
Album:20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Avalon
Avalon is a very successful CCM group with a long string of number one Christian hits. In 1995, Norman Miller of Proper Management in Nashville took the idea of forming a CCM vocal group to Sparrow Records A&R head Grant Cunningham. The idea was to have two male and two female singers who could all sing lead. After listening to many demos, Cunningham found what he was looking for when he saw Michael Passons at a showcase. Janna Long of Truth heard about this and joined. And she was followed by another Truth member Jody McBrayer. The fourth original member was Nikki Hassman Anders. After two Avalon albums, she left to go solo and was replaced by Cherie Paliotta Adams. Always Have, Always Will is from the 1999 album In A Different Light. It's one of four singles to top the CCM charts. Passons sings lead. The album was certified Gold. The album was produced by veteran CCM producer Brown Bannister. Always Have, Always Will was written by Cunningham, Nic Gonzales of the popular CCM group Salvador and popular rapper Toby "Tobymac" McKeehan. Cunningham died in 2002 after suffering a fatal head injury while playing soccer. Cherie left to go solo in 2002 and was replaced by Melissa Greene of Truth. And the big one was when Passons left in 2003. He was replaced by Janna's husband Greg Long who recorded solo in the 90s. They continued to have success in the CCM market. Jody left in 2007 for health reasons and Jeremi Richardson replaced him. Janna, Melissa and Jeremi all attended the same college. Melissa left in 2009 and was replaced by Richardson's wife Ami. This comp is a good intro to Avalon's music. They last recorded in 2009. But they have a new album coming in 2020 on Red Street Records owned by Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. The Richardsons left last year and Jody McBrayer returned and the fourth member of Avalon is now Dani Rocca. We'll see if they can pick up where they left off. Here's Avalon performing Always Have, Always Will.
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