Matt Maher

Christian singer and songwriter Matt Maher entered the world in Newfoundland, Canada, yet a family shift carried him to Arizona’s arid landscapes, where he discovered his vocation and launched a path that soon included writing songs for Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin while issuing his own records and performing throughout the Southwest before reaching international stages. After emerging in the early 2000s, this Dove Award recipient and multiple Grammy nominee reached the top of the CCM charts with tracks such as “Lord, I Need You” and “Because He Lives (Amen).” Standout releases included 2015’s Saints and Sinners, 2017’s Echoes, 2020’s Alive & Breathing, and 2022’s The Stories I Tell Myself.

Invited to serve as youth pastor and music director at his local church, Maher—who earned a scholarship to study jazz piano at Arizona State University—sharpened his craft rapidly, forging a collaboration with songwriter Tom Booth after relocating to Mesa. In 2001 he issued the first of three independent projects, The End and the Beginning, followed by 2003’s Welcome to Life and 2006’s Overflow. A subsequent publishing agreement with EMI broadened his visibility and secured a recording contract with the Essential label, which enabled the April 2008 release of his first official album, Empty and Beautiful. Peaking at number two on the gospel charts, the project expanded his touring reach well beyond Arizona, with scheduled dates in Europe and Australia that same year. His second Essential outing, Alive Again, arrived in September 2009 and outperformed its predecessor, initiating a pattern in which each later album advanced further on both Christian and pop rankings. After the Southern rock-inflected 2011 set The Love in Between, he delivered the 2013 collection All the People Said Amen, a blend of concert recordings and fresh material that contained the platinum-certified single “Lord, I Need You” and coincided with his appearance beside Pope Francis before a crowd of nearly four million at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. Saints & Sinners, issued in 2015, landed at number two on Billboard’s Christian Albums chart and featured contributions from Needtobreathe’s Bo and Bear Rinehart as well as Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman, ultimately earning four Grammy nominations and a Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year.

Echoes, released in 2017, brought Maher his ninth career Grammy nomination and rose to number five on the Christian Albums chart, while 2018’s The Advent of Christmas marked his first collection of seasonal music. The title track from 2020’s Alive & Breathing climbed high on Christian rankings and appeared on several mainstream year-end lists. The Stories I Tell Myself, his 2022 release, combined newly written pieces, live versions, and previously unheard tracks, with appearances by Lizzie Morgan, Ellie Holcomb, Nate Moore, and Brian Elmquist, among others.