Jonathan Cain, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Journey band member, will release his solo studio album, Arise, on May 27 via Identity Records with The Fuel Music distribution. The song, which is resonating with joy and a profound sense of God’s power and grace, is a wake-up call to the Church and is this famous artist’s sixth faith-inspired, full-length production since 2016.
Arise is a cry for the Church’s collective voices to be heard, mixing brand new songs with tunes from his renowned Oh Lord Lead Us EP, including the American Songwriter, The 700 Club-featured title track that became his biggest solo hit to date.
“The melody of Arise moves to the spirit of regeneration, much like faith in action.” God’s presence is being felt here on earth, and it’s up to us to wake up, feel it, sense the revival, and just dig in,” says Cain, who leads worship at City Of Destiny Church in Apopka, FL, where his wife, Paula White-Cain, is the pastor.“I hope that this music stirs up and awakens people in a way that they can become a part of what God is doing.”
Arise’s anthemic lead single, “Roar,” encourages this engagement. “Raise the roar in your honor. Call out His name as you let go of the sound. Use your voice, let it out. “Silence the adversary, shout it loud,” Cain sings over an upbeat chorus of voices.
“We must yell in our praise.” “We ought to stand up for our religion,” Cain says. “As Christians, we cannot stand by and say, ‘Well, politics and religion don’t matter.'” They certainly do. There are many people who simply accept the status quo, and I am not one of them… The enemy is just at our front door, attempting to destroy this church. We are troops. We are wearing God’s armor, therefore let us be triumphant. Stand in the gap with the Holy Spirit and band together.”
Cain wrote “Upper Room” for the new album in response to the feast of Pentecost, which is celebrated by Christians on June 5 this year and commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus and described in Acts 2.
“I believe it’s such a significant feast,” Cain says, adding that “for the apostles to win 3,000 souls to Jesus that day while nations from all over the known world were in Jerusalem, it’s almost as amazing as the resurrection.” So I thought, ‘This is incredibly important for our beliefs.’ That is a fundamental principle.’ I make an effort to write about the cornerstones. “On what do we base our faith?”
Come meet our God in the upper room
Come feel a sound like the driving wind
Tongues of fire fill the upper room
Holy Spirit fill our hearts within
(From “Upper Room” chorus)
Cain, a Chicago native, has spent decades performing in front of large crowds, but when not touring, he can be found serving his home church and has never been more satisfied than as worship leader.
“‘What do you have for me?’ is what worship is.” “God is interested in what you’re bringing,” he says. “A lot of folks come to worship expecting to gain something out of it when, in reality, they get the exact opposite. You must offer it to God at the altar. That is what worship entails.
Produced by Cain, mixed by David Kalmusky (Justin Bieber, The Fray, Keith Urban), mastered by GRAMMY Award-winning Adam Ayan (Paul McCartney, Carrie Underwood, Foo Fighters), Arise was recorded at Cain’s state-of-the-art Addiction Sound Studios in Nashville with select parts done remotely.
A beautifully crafted, musical invitation to prayer, renewal, commitment and revival, the full Arise track listing follows:
01) Roar
02) Beautiful Thunder
03) Arise
04) Oh Lord Lead Us
05) Upper Room
06) Something Greater
07) No One But You Jesus
08) Pour Myself Out
09) Worship Our Way
10) Pray To The Father
11) Freedom In Your Grace
Along with his solo music, Cain wrote and recorded new music with his band Journey, which will release Freedom July 8. The band’s first album of all new songs in over a decade, Journey’s Cain has a long line of hits that bear this artist’s signature. He has written or co-written such massive radio hits as the best-selling catalog rock song in iTunes’ history, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and “Who’s Crying Now,” “Open Arms,” “Faithfully” and many more.
All the latest news about Cain, his solo albums, book, touring, speaking engagements, philanthropy and more can be found at https://jonathancain.org/, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and TikToc.