JASON BARE'S LATEST SINGLE, 'HAVE YOU HEARD,' SCALES MULTIPLE CHARTS

Independent Artist Hits CMW Top 5, Billboard Top 20

Nashville, Tenn. (Jan. 10, 2012) - Popular singer/songwriter and worship leader Jason Bare has topped the Christian Music Weekly (CMW) Inspirational chart at No. 5 with his 2011 Christmas single, "Have You Heard." The song, from Bare's Christmas EP of the same name, also peaked at No. 16 on Billboard's Soft AC/Inspirational National Airplay chart.

Bare and "Have You Heard" shared CMW Top 5 billing with Matthew West's "The Heart of Christmas," FFH's "One Silent Night," Francesca Battistelli's "Be Born In Me" and Keith & Kristyn Getty's "Jesus — Joy Of The Highest Heaven."

"Have You Heard" was co-written with American Idol's Felicia Barton. The song's video debuted on TBN during Christmas and can be viewed at jasonbare.com.

The Have You Heard EP also features Bare's popular Christmas tune, "For The First Time," which hit the No. 1 spot on the CMW Worship chart and made it into the Top 30 on Billboard's Soft AC/Inspirational chart during December 2010.

"I wrote my first Christmas song almost 20 years ago," Bare says, "and since that time it has been a vision of mine to release a Christmas project. The birth of Christ is, to me, the most beautiful story ever told and I want the music in this project to convey that. We have spent hours upon hours of time writing and creating a record that will bring the mystery and the beauty of Christmas to life to everyone that hears it."

Bare's evocative, emotion-laden vocals imbue each song on the project with a unique sense of familiarity, like meeting old friends in unexpected places. He employs a haunting minor key piano line to ask the age-old question, "What Child Is This," before segueing into joyful orchestration to underscore the answer — "This is the child of hope and wonder, the Savior of the world!"

Few things are as beautiful as Christmas through the eyes of a child, and Bare tells the story with childlike awe in "Have You Heard," accompanied by a lilting children's choir. The sounds of acoustic piano and chiming bells unite in anticipation of the foretold miracle in "The Night When Hope Was Born." The soaring praise aria, "For The First Time," reverberates with the incredulous amazement of that first Christmas morning as seen through the eyes of creation looking down on a young mother and father holding their firstborn son.

The Have You Heard EP is available at www.jasonbare.com and iTunes.