The Josh Blakesley Band has acknowledged a simple calling: To make music that moves people into prayer and action. 

Their latest album, EVEN IN THIS (2015), has done just that. After a very successful Kickstarter campaign, raising more than $38,000, the band recorded the 10-song album with producer and songwriter, Michael Farren (Let it Rain, Come as You Are). The album features songs co-written with Farren, Mia Fieldes (Hillsong), Dove Award winner Marc Byrd (God of Wonders) and Grammy Award nominated, Sarah Hart (Better than a Hallelujah). 

The title track from the album, EVEN IN THIS, is a song about finding hope in the darkest valleys of life. It was born out of tragedy after the band's guitar player, Grae McCullough, lost his one-month-old daughter to a chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18. "The peace I had the day Lizzie's short life ended could have only been God. There was an underlying sense of peace in the devastation and the song really encapsulates the situation we were in," says McCoullough. 

He's in the valley of your pain
He's in the shattered broken things
Even in this, Even in this
He's in the hurt you cannot hide
He's in the fear you cannot fight
Even in this, Even in this

The album's first single - "Grateful" - as well as "Sing Hallelujah" - have both shown great popularity at events as well as with worship leaders. Blakesley (lead vocal), McCullough (electric guitar), Christian Gaudet (bass) and Blake Powell (drums), all hail from the central Louisiana area and they take great pride in their heritage. Two of the tracks on the album - "Revive Us" and "Brighter Days" - highlight the southern culture and flair that is the band's roots. 

In 2003, Blakesley released his award-winning debut album, Immersed (SpiritandSong/OCP), featuring "Our God is Good" and "The Lord is My Shepherd" - his popular setting of the 23rd Psalm. He then released two more albums with OCP - Waiting (2006) and Free (2010). The next project, You Are the Light (2012), was produced by Ed Cash (Chris Tomlin, Kari Jobe) and Robbie Seay (Song of Hope, Slow Me Down), peaked at #16 on the iTunes Christian and Gospel charts and #4 on the Christian Radio weekly chart.

Blakesley and the band have been featured on Sirius XM, EWTN's Life on the Rock, and have performed with artists like Kutless, The City Harmonic, Jars of Clay and the Newsboys; on tour with Matt Maher and Audrey Assad; as well as International Papal events such as the 1993 Denver and 2011 Madrid World Youth Days and the 2012 World Meeting of Families in Milan, Italy.

The band continues to tour domestically and internationally with dates booked all over the US, Canada and Poland in 2015-16. The band partners with the Franciscan University of Steubenville for their youth and young adult conferences, Life Teen International, Catholic Heart Work Camps, Adore Ministries, as well as many churches, camps and conferences of all sizes in an effort to live out their calling and to "make disciples of all nations." (Matthew 28:18)

Josh and the band currently live in Alexandria, Louisiana with their families. EVEN IN THIS is available now. For more information, visit www.joshblakesleyband.com.