Source: Tennessean.com
You've been hearing about this deal for more than a year, but now the big announcement is coming: Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell has officially signed with a Christian music label.
Brian will be on Williamson County-based Reunion Records/Provident Music Group, home to Michael W. Smith, Casting Crowns and others. The big announcement happens Wednesday at a double-secret location where a Christian handshake will be necessary to get in.
Brian will do a song for the next WOW! Christian compilation CD, coming out early next year, and that song will be sent to Christian radio.
But then, Brian will devote his energies to the Backstreet Boys, who are trying to restart their careers as a band next year.
Then Brian � a Kentucky native who now lives in Atlanta with his wife and child � will release his Christian album in the fall of next year.
Meanwhile, Brian's Nashville-based lawyer, Jordan Keller, who also reps the Backstreet Boys, says Brian is thrilled about making a Christian album. ''Ever since Brian became a member of the Backstreet Boys over 10 years ago, his desire was to one day record and release a Christian album, since his musical roots are in and around religious music,'' Jordan writes. ''He is thrilled to have finally reached that chapter in his career and has already begun gathering material for his first project.''
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Backstreet's Littrell Signs To Christian Label
Source: Billboard.com
Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell will soon be recording for the Sony/BMG-owned Provident Music Group label Reunion Records. His signing is expected to be officially announced Wednesday (Dec. 8) at Paragon Studio, near Provident's Franklin, Tenn., headquarters.
Littrell has long been rumored to be working on a solo release for the Christian market. Details on the album were not available at deadline.
As previously reported, the Backstreet Boys have been working on a new album due in the first quarter of 2005. The five-piece vocal group staged a brief tour earlier this fall, consisting of mostly international dates.
To date, only group member Nick Carter has released a solo album, issuing "Now or Never" in 2002 through Jive, also home to the Backstreet Boys. The group's last studio release was 2001's "Black and Blue," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 5.4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
-- Deborah Evans Price, Nashville
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Cleanest Cut Backstreet Boy To Release Christian Album
Source: Chart Attack.com
Monday December 06, 2004 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
Backstreet Boys fans (who are probably now all pushing 30 at this point) are a patient lot. The '90s boy band, who haven't released an album since 2001, have been promising a comeback for ages now, but have yet to deliver. According to Billboard.com, the Backstreet loyal will be awarded for their patience in 2005, when there will be not one, but two Backstreet-y albums in stores.
First up, the original five Backstreet Boys are still reportedly working hard on the long-awaited follow-up to their 2001 album, Black And Blue. The boys, who are all surely men by now (especially that Nick Carter, who fell into the evil clutches of Paris Hilton), teased fans earlier this year with a short tour, proving that they still exist as an entity. A concrete date hasn't been set for Backstreet's mighty return, but the album is expected in the first quarter of 2005.
Just because the band are still active, it doesn't mean that the individual boys don't have time to venture out on solo projects, though. Brian Littrell, the most morally upstanding of the boys (at a Rolling Stone photo shoot he was the only member of the group who refused to pose with a pack of naked ladies) has just snagged himself a new solo deal. According to Billboard, Littrell has signed with Christian label Reunion Records, which is part of the Sony BMG family. For now, not much is known about the album, except that Littrell has apparently been working on a spiritual album for some time.
Littrell is the second Backstreet Boy to try it on his own. In 2002, Nick Carter released his album, Now Or Never, which failed to achieve Justin Timberlake-level success.
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Backstreet Boy joins Christian label
Source: Canadian Press
Friday, December 10, 2004
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) -- Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell has signed a deal with Christian label Provident Music Group's Reunion Records.
"This has been a dream of mine ever since I was a little boy, singing in church in Kentucky," Littrell said Wednesday. Littrell, 29, said that singing with the Backstreet Boys was a "12-year stepping stone" to making his decision, and he hoped fans will realize through his music "that standing up for what you believe in is what's important."
He will release the single In Christ Alone on an upcoming WOW Christian Music compilation album next year. That will be followed with the debut of his solo album on the Franklin-based label.
Littrell also plans to tour with the Backstreet Boys, who are scheduled to end a three-year hiatus with a new project in March.
Their manager, Johnny Wright, said the group wasn't breaking up -- just taking the opportunity to do solo projects.
Nick Carter is the only member to release a solo album, 2002's Now or Never.
A.J. McLean also has expressed an interest in singing Christian music, Wright said. The other members, Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough, are leaning more toward film and TV.