Contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

''Michael W. Smith 2'' is the second album by Christian recording artist

Michael W. Smith Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when " Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the '' ...

. Released in February 1984, "I Am Sure" and "Hosanna" were released to Christian radio. Among the musicians who contributed to the recording,

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Co ...

and Mike Brignardello went on to form the band

Giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

. Huff was also a founding member of the CCM band

White Heart White Heart, also listed as Whiteheart, was an American contemporary Christian music and pop-rock band which formed in 1982. White Heart's discography includes thirteen albums, the most recent of which was released in 1997. Original members Bill ...

. The album would win him his first

Grammy Award 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 ...

for Best Gospel Performance, Male in 1985.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from AllMusic credits: *

– lead vocals, synthesizers, electric piano (1, 7, 8), backing vocals (2-5, 7, 8),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(3, 4, 7, 9), acoustic piano (4) *

Shane Keister Shane Keister is an American musician. He is known for his work as a studio musician, writer, arranger and producer. He plays synthesizer, piano, Hammond B3, Synclavier, Fairlight CMI, Fender Rhodes, and others. History Keister was born in Hunti ...

– additional synthesizers (5, 8, 9) *

– guitars (1-4, 6-10) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...

– bass (1, 6) *

Mike Brignardello Giant is an American melodic rock band that was formed in 1987. The band originally consisted of founding members Dann Huff (lead vocals and guitar) and Alan Pasqua (keyboard), and had Dann's brother David Huff on drums and Mike Brignardello on ...

– bass (2, 3, 4, 7-10),

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

(7) * Mark Hammond –

Roland TR-909 The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI functionality, allowing it to sy ...

drum machine (1),

Simmons drums Simmons is an electronic drum brand, which originally was a pioneering British manufacturer of electronic drums. Founded in 1978 by Dave Simmons, it supplied electronic kits from 1980 to 1994. The drums' distinctive, electronic sound can be foun ...

(1, 6) *

Paul Leim Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

– drums (2, 3, 4, 7-10),

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, also referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Its high-quality samples, flexibility and affordability made the LinnDrum popular; it sold far mo ...

(2, 7, 9) *

Lenny Castro Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''L ...

– percussion (1-4, 6-9) * Gary Chapman – backing vocals (1, 8) * Ron Downey – backing vocals (2, 3, 5, 10) * David Durham – backing vocals (2, 5, 10) * Chris Harris – backing vocals (3, 10) * Gary Pigg – backing vocals (3, 10) *

Amy Grant Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She began in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christia ...

– backing vocals (7, 8) * Jackie Cusic – backing vocals (10) * Teresa Ellis – backing vocals (10) * Bridgett Evans – backing vocals (10) * Jan Harris – backing vocals (10) * Kim Smith – backing vocals (10) * Dave Thornton – backing vocals (10)

Production

* Michael W. Smith – producer *

Brown Bannister Elliott Brown Bannister III (born August 15, 1951) is an contemporary Christian music (CCM) producer and songwriter. Bannister released one album of his own, ''Talk to One Another'', in 1981 on NewPax Records. It was reissued on the Reunion Recor ...

– vocal production * Michael Blanton – executive producer * Dan Harrell – executive producer *

Jack Joseph Puig Jack Joseph Puig is an American audio engineer, A&R executive, and record producer. He has worked with Tonic, Hole, Jellyfish, The Black Crowes, John Mayer, Weezer, Fiona Apple, Roger Hodgson, Taxiride, Green Day, Counting Crows, No Doubt, Klaxo ...

– engineer, mixing * Jim Baird – additional engineering * Don Cobb – additional engineering * Steven Ford – additional engineering * Stephen McAlister – additional engineering * Mike Psanos – additional engineering *

The Bennett House The Bennett House is a recording studio located on 4th Avenue North in Franklin, Tennessee. Built in 1875, the two-story building has served as a residence, a clothing store and, starting in 1980, a recording studio used by many popular music ar ...

(Franklin, Tennessee) – recording location * Tree International Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) – recording location * Bullet Recording (Nashville, Tennessee) – recording location *

Mama Jo's Recording Studio Dave's Room, previously known as Mama Jo's Recording Studio, is a recording studio in North Hollywood, California. History Dave's Room was built in the late 1960s by producer, and engineer Freddie Piro. Originally called Mama Jo's, the studio wa ...

(North Hollywood, California) – recording location *

Doug Sax Doug Lionel Sax (April 26, 1936 – April 2, 2015) was an American mastering engineer from Los Angeles, California. He mastered three of The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six of Pink Floyd's albums, including ''The Wall''; Ray Charles ...

– mastering * The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, California) – mastering location * Kent Hunter – artwork, design * Mark Tucker – photography

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control Michael W. Smith albums 1984 albums Reunion Records albums