South Africa's John Ellis Releases New Album 'Growing Silent'
Known as the frontman for the internationally renowned, GMA Dove Award-winning South African rock band Tree63, John Ellis released his fourth solo album, Growing Silent, Oct. 20 through Africa-based Christian Art Media. An ASCAP Vanguard Award-winning songwriter, this is the first time Ellis has released an album of specifically all worship songs.
Available now at iTunes, Amazon.com, Spotify, Bandcamp and everywhere great digital music is heard, Ellis harvested from over a decade’s worth of original songs for this new, 10-song recording. Each of the tracks are entwined with vulnerable, confessional moments.
“Silence is almost the antithesis of modern life; we are the most over-stimulated generation in the vast history of humanity,” shares Ellis, revealing the impetus behind Growing Silent. “When we stop our endless torrents of words and noise that we throw at God all day, every day, we are able to stand silently before God and only then really get to know Him.
“We are repeatedly encouraged in the Bible to be still and silent, things which seem more difficult to do now than ever before,” continues Ellis. “Silence of the heart, silence of the mind, even silence of the tongue, these are the foundations of a contemplative way of life, which is where the deep things of God truly reside.”
Featured on Growing Silent are three songs written in 2005 with multiple Grammy Award-winning Matt Redman: “Hope Springs Eternal,” “Rose Again” and “Anywhere and Everywhere.” It also includes the Ellis-penned “If God,” first featured on Tree63’s 2015 reunion album, Land.
Additional tracks include the first single and lyric video from the album, “Mercy,” as well as “Believe,” “Be Still” and the title track that Ellis wrote more than ten years ago while on tour in the US with Tree63. “It was an experiment in a certain style of writing, but it has my favorite line in it: ‘a speechless man is sometimes worth a million preachers sounding forth’.”
