Selah - Unbreakable (2017)

Two-thirds of the CCM vocal trio Selah grew up in Africa, and that influence made itself felt immediately on the group's distinctive 1999 debut album, Be Still My Soul. Formed by siblings Todd and Nicol Smith plus Allan Hall, the group's musical style was specialized thanks to the Smiths' childhood as missionary children in Africa. Signed to Curb Records, Selah found success with their debut, Be Still My Soul, which earned critical praise as well as a Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year. They repeated the feat with 2001's Press On, and released the Christmas album Rose of Bethlehem in 2002. Nicol, married and having pursued a concurrent solo career since 2000, left the group soon after; she was replaced first by Melodie Crittenden, then permanently by Amy Perry. (The baton was passed back and forth in 2006, when both Crittenden and Perry appeared on separate tracks of a Selah duets album, Bless the Broken Road, which also won the Dove Award for Inspirational Album of the Year.) The trio of Todd Smith, Allan Hall, and Amy Perry solidified their presence on the CCM landscape with 2009's You Deliver Me and 2011's Hope of the Broken World. Their ninth album for Curb, the critically acclaimed You Amaze Us, was released in 2014. In 2016 the group issued a new EP, O the Blood, as well as a second volume of Greatest Hymns. ~ Steve Huey.