Lethbridge Christian Radio station CKVN is using the power of music to not only help support southern Alberta Christian musicians, but also Lethbridge’s less fortunate.

The station is getting excited about the Nov. 27 CD release party for Segue: Songs for Change— a compilation CD of southern Alberta Christian musicians, for which all proceeds will be donated to Streets Alive.

 The new CD, which has been in the works for the past eight months, is a sequel to the station’s first compilation “Rays of Hope,” which was released in 2009 and  helped raise money for the Water School— a church based program designed to help give African villages clean water through the innovative use of plastic  water bottles, and a simple steel frame, which utilizes natural sun and heat to purify local drinking water.

“ We’re part of Golden West radio group and we wanted to do our part to do something that would focus on local musicians, so we decided to hold a songwriting contest,” related CKVN Station Manager Mike LeBlanc and project manager for the CD program.

 The first year they received overwhelming response from the Southern Alberta Christian music community, receiving approximately 66 songs from 30 some artists.

They whittled those down to the winners including classical/ flamenco style guitarist and songwriter Joshua Reuben Fritz, singer/ songwriter Sarah Folden and Gerrit Hofsink, who all appear on the five track EP. The winners have even been added to CKVN’s playlist.

 The winners from last time chose this year’s winners Dave Siverns, Tina Alexander and Paul La Belle, out of  submissions from approximately 30 different songwriters. Submissions covered an array of different genres from standard gospel to pop and rock music.

“Most of them are tied to local ministries and church worship bands,” he observed.
Kevin Wittke of Clarity sound recorded the artists for both CDs.
The newest CD has been sent to Vancouver for final mastering and final printing. It is expected to be back, Nov. 23, just in time for  the CD release party.

“If it comes back  with Ozzy Osbourne, it’s not our fault,” he laughed.
Because they looked outside the country for the charity to support with the last CD, they decided to look closer to home this time. Streets Alive was an obvious choice as they hold an annual 12 hour telethon each year to help the organization out. They raised $153,000 for the organization last year. This year the telethon is Dec. 1, so the CD release party is nicely timed.

“It’s their twentieth anniversary, so we wanted to do something big for them this year,” LeBlanc said.
“They do some extremely important work in the community,” he continued.

 They are already planning the next CD, though they won’t be producing them every year as there is a lot of work involved. Each CD  also includes a five minute DVD about the program they are helping out.

“ We’d like  to do them every second year, though 2012 is our fifth anniversary here, so we’d like to do something. But they are a lot of work.  Everybody involved does a lot of work and hold down full time jobs, especially Kevin. We’d like to thank all of the volunteers,” he said.

The CD release concert takes place at the Park Meadows Baptist Church at 7 p.m.
“We have all of the artists on the CD except for Sarah Folden who is studying in Toronto,” he said.
Other performers include Paul LaBelle, Meagan Romanchuk, Charles Scriotino, the Lethbridge Women’s Choir, Dave Siverns and many others.

There is no charge  to attend the special concert, Nov. 27 at the Park Meadow’s Baptist Church though  a free will offering  will be taken.