Thomas Rhett is again hinting at a foray into the Contemporary Christian Music space with his next era, with the country hitmaker revealing he’s been writing with Brandon Lake.
The Georgia native has shared a series of photographs of him working with Lake, one of the most prominent figures in the CCM world, “No clue if the songs me and @brandonlake wrote will ever come out but we sure had a good time. Love ya brother”.
Lake has taken to the comments to underline that he wants to make sure the fruits of their session come to light soon, “MY BROTHER. Love you! We gotta release em they’re too good. All 4 or 5 of em I can’t even remember hahaha. What a day!”
Arguably the only CCM artist that can rival Lake in terms of streaming might and social media presence, Forrest Frank, is another good friend of Rhett’s. After collaborating as part of Frank’s duo with Colin Padalecki, Surfaces, on the joyful ‘C’est La Vie’, TR teamed up with Frank for the soulful ‘NOTHING ELSE’ earlier this year.
Then, Frank shared that, following this spiritually minded collaboration, Rhett had started writing more songs with a Gospel-leaning message and sending them to Frank.
With Rhett now hitting the writing room with Lake, it certainly feels like the ‘Look What God Gave Her’ singer-songwriter is considering venturing further into the CCM arena.
The duo have joined forces in the past, with Rhett and Lake releasing a live duet version of the latter’s ‘Talking to Jesus’, recorded at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2023.
What’s more, if Rhett starts making CCM music, it would feel like a natural transition rather than a jarring pivot, with the ‘Life Changes’ crooner having often delved into his faith in his discography, most notably on the likes of ‘Ya Heard’, ‘Country Again’, ’Death Row’, ‘Heaven Right Now’, ‘Blessed’ and ‘Beer with Jesus’.
While Rhett considers a move towards CCM, it seems Lake is toying with the prospect of veering the other way. He’s already linked up with Jelly Roll, Gabby Barrett and now Cody Johnson, with Lake sharing that Rhett’s writing session was part of a broader retreat last week that sought to combine country and Christian music.
Lake has written, “Home resting from maybe the craziest most incredible musically inspiring week of my life…I had a dream of hosting a country music writing camp (25+ came thru) and we wrote 43+ songs in 5 days!…idk what’s ahead but I’m excited”.
On the subsequent slide, the ‘Gratitude’ chart-topper has uploaded a photo of him alongside Lainey Wilson, Dan + Shay, Tyler Hubbard and more. Ashley Gorley can also be seen on Lake’s Stories. Lake had previously written with Wilson, with the CCM trailblazer teasing a snippet of a heart-rending new song, ‘The Jesus I Know’.
Could a full-blown CCM x Country collaborations album be en route from Lake, in a similar mould to Chris Tomlin’s genre-bending project 2020 record, which featured the likes of Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, Chris Lane, Brett Young, RaeLynn and Lady A?
It certainly seems that way, with the lines between Contemporary Christian Music and Country continuing to blur, as more artists draw on their spirituality as a muse.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Josiah Queen joined in on all the fun, too, after he collaborated with Avery Anna on a striking remix of his viral anthem, ‘Dusty Bibles’, in October…
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source holler.country ’
