Heath McNease’s new album The Weight of Glory: Songs Inspired by the Works of CS Lewis is available now for download.
It’s a “name your price” style download and there are several different premium packages available that include CDs, T-shirts, Live Performances and even an exclusive song about you.
He never disappoints with his releases and if you’ve enjoyed his past works, give this one a listen. It’s already climbed to the #2 spot on Bandcamp.
Purchase and support at HeathMcNease.Bandcamp.com
The Weight of Glory track list:
1. The Great Divorce
2. A Grief Observed
3. Mere Christianity
4. The Problem of Pain
5. The Four Loves
6. Screwtape Letters
7. Edmund
8. Perelandra
9. Till We Have Faces
10. Surprised By Joy
11. The World’s Last Night
12. Weight of Glory
After generating an incredible groundswell of critical praise and appreciation from listeners with the painfully honest Thrift Store Jesus, Heath McNease is back just 6 months later with The Weight of Glory. All 12 songs on this indie/folk collection are inspired by the works of CS Lewis, one of Christianity’s foremost writers and apologists as well as one of Heath’s greatest influences.
“I can’t think of a writer who could ever come close to impacting my life the way that Lewis has,” says McNease. “I remember the first time I read “The Screwtape Letters”. Everything changed for me. I was so young, and I had just never read a more insightful and spiritually stirring book. He changed the way I process my faith and prayer life with that book. And every work of his I read after that just filled in these gaps in my heart and mind where so many questions had festered. He was a brilliant man with a heart for God that was heartbreakingly honest and often times quite hilarious. To put it simply…He changed my life.”
Interpreting the works of a man who informed so much of Heath’s faith would seem like a daunting task, but McNease says it was easier than even he originally would’ve thought. “Honestly I had no intentions of doing another record so soon after TSJ, but I was listening to an old recording of Lewis reading “The 4 Loves”, and I decided I wanted to write a song about that concept where I just talked about how the 4 loves had affected my own life. I wrote that song in about an hour. And once I did…I knew I was going to make this album. It was just important for me not to try to summarize his life’s work, but to share how that work inspired the songs that I created. The spirit of his books is the reason the songs exist, but the songs aren’t merely retellings. They are their own creation using his words and the mood he created as the backbone.”
McNease hopes that the record will connect with his core following of fans as well as with a broad new spectrum of listeners. “It’s always tough, because I love rap so much. And I know that so many of my fans are rap fans first and foremost. But that’s never been all I’m about. In fact, doing records like this only makes me appreciate rap even more. But this was extremely important to me. It was something I had to do, and I never said it wasn’t going to be a rap record. I just told myself whatever came out would be what I rolled with. This album leans far more in the direction of folk/rock than it does acoustic/singer songwriter, and I was more than happy to let organically happen in the studio. It would seem like a similar “traditionally non rap” album from me, but it’s actually quite different. It mixes elements of a lot of the Brit rock that I grew up listening to. I’m just so stoked to share it with everyone.”
McNease closed by saying, “Please go out and support the project if you feel it’s worth your time, word of mouth, and/or money. I really believe God had his hand in every facet of this project, and I couldn’t be more humbled and excited to share it with everyone now.”