Austins Bridge is an American Christian country band originally formed in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. The band consists of Justin Rivers and Jason Baird.

Band history

The band was formed around 2007 by Rivers and Baird, along with Mike Kofahl. After signing a record contract with Daywind Records, their eponymous debut album was released in 2007, produced by

Bubba Smith Charles Aaron Smith (February 28, 1945 – August 3, 2011), commonly known as Bubba Smith, was an American football defensive end and actor. He first came into prominence at Michigan State University, where he twice earned All-American hon ...

. The album received critical praise and the band received several

Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

nominations during the

39th GMA Dove Awards The 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 23, 2008 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2007. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Nominations were announced on February 14, ...

, winning "Best Bluegrass Recorded Song". In 2008, the band participated at the Franklin Graham Crusade, and they've appeared at

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for the past three years. After the departure of Kofahl, Toby Hitchcock, who had been friends with Lead singer Justin Rivers for many years, was asked to come and join the group. The band continued to tour. They recorded a live album called '' Live at Oak Tree'', which was released on CD/DVD in 2009. The album received four

nominations at the

41st GMA Dove Awards The 41st Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 21, 2010 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2009. The show was held at The Opry Entertainment Complex in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Bart Millard. Nomin ...

, including "Country Album of the Year" and "Long Form Video of the Year". In November 2009, the band performed at the opening of

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' new locations in

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. In February 2010 they also joined other artists in recording "Come Together Now", a single in support of victims from the

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. Their second studio album, '' Times Like These'', was released in May 2010 and was produced by

Jay DeMarcus Jay DeMarcus (born Stanley Wayne DeMarcus Jr.; on April 26, 1971) is an American bassist, vocalist, pianist, record producer and songwriter. From 1999 to 2021, he was a member of the country pop group Rascal Flatts. Early life DeMarcus was born ...

Rascal Flatts Rascal Flatts is an American country music band founded in 1999. The band members were Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background vocals). DeMarcus is LeVox's second cousi ...

.Austins Bridge Bio
at ChristianMusic.com The album received rave reviews and was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. The group was not able to sustain itself financially throughout 2010 and though it hurt Justin, Jason & Toby very deeply, the boys decided to take a break from touring. The group remains on hiatus as of February 2012, and has no plans to get back together. In April 2013, Justin Rivers competed in the blind auditions for a spot on NBC's ''

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'': season four, and was selected to be a member of the team mentored by country singer

Blake Shelton Blake Tollison Shelton (born June 18, 1976) is an American country music singer and television personality. In 2001, he made his debut with the single " Austin". The lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" spent five weeks at ...

Discography

* ''

Austins Bridge Austins Bridge is an American Christian country band originally formed in Austin, Texas. The band consists of Justin Rivers and Jason Baird. Band history The band was formed around 2007 by Rivers and Baird, along with Mike Kofahl. After signing ...

'' (2007) * '' Live at Oak Tree'' (2009) * '' Times Like These'' (2010)

Awards and nominations

Austins Bridge has received several

nominations in their career. In 2008, they were nominated for Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year at the

. In 2010, they received Dove Award nominations for Country Album of the Year and Long Form Music Video for '' Live at Oak Tree''. The songs "Dry Bones" and "Hold on To Jesus" also received nominations for Country Recorded Song of the Year and Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year respectively. {, class="wikitable sortable" ! Year ! Association ! Nominated work ! Category ! Result , - , rowspan=2 , 2008 , , rowspan=2 ,

GMA Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

, , , , New Artist of the Year , , , - , , "He's In Control" , , Bluegrass Recorded Song of the Year , , , - , rowspan=4 , 2010 , , rowspan=4 ,

, , rowspan=2 , '' Live at Oak Tree'' , , Country Album of the Year , , , - , , Long Form Video of the Year , , , - , , "Hold on to Jesus" , , Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year , , , - , , "Dry Bones" , , Country Recorded Song of the Year , , , - , rowspan=2 , 2011 , ,

, , '' Times Like These'' , , Country Album of the Year , , , - , ,

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

, , '' Times Like These'' , , Best Southern, Country, Or Bluegrass Gospel Album , , {{nom

References

External links

Official website
Country music groups from Texas Musical groups from Austin, Texas Musical groups established in 2007 2007 establishments in Texas