Come To Jesus

Album: One Moment More (2004)
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Songfacts®:

  • In her debut single, Mindy Smith finds a simple answer in the midst of a personal crisis: "come to Jesus." The Long Island native was struggling to make it in Nashville, living in a bad neighborhood, where she got mugged, and failing to move her music career forward. Out of desperation, she imagined what God would tell her, and a song about keeping the faith emerged.

    She recalled in a Songfacts interview: "All these things started closing in and I didn't know what I was going to do. I had to really find my faith, not only in something bigger than myself, but in what I was doing. That song, the nature of that song, came from that struggle.

    Not only that, but a lot of times I find myself struggling spiritually, like am I even doing this life right? I question myself a lot. There were some other things that were distracting me from being my best self in my personal life as well. To find that balance, my approach is to write a song."
  • The year before she released her debut album, Smith garnered attention for her haunting cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" for the 2003 tribute album Just Because I'm A Woman. Several big record labels came calling for the folk-pop singer, but she ultimately signed with the smaller, New York City-based Vanguard Records, home to Chely Wright and the Indigo Girls, in order to protect her songs from the over-produced style that the major labels were churning out. Vanguard also didn't try to pigeonhole her as a Christian act despite her Jesus-themed first single, which was a relief to Smith, a preacher's daughter.  

    "I didn't want it to define me. I do write a lot of spiritual songs about trying to find my way but I also write about life and love," she said. "My songs are about my spiritual journey. They're vague enough but they're also very personal, and I think I get around it by being very inclusive lyrically."
  • This peaked at #32 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart.
  • One Moment More was produced by Steve Buckingham, who also produced several albums for Dolly Parton, including her Grammy Award-winning bluegrass album The Grass Is Blue, and the Just Because I'm A Woman tribute album that featured Smith's rendition of "Jolene."
  • The Americana Music Association named Smith Best New/Emerging Artist of the Year in 2004.
  • A version by the Gaither Vocal Band was nominated for Bluegrass Song of the Year at the 2013 Dove Awards.
  • Faith Hill covered "Come To Jesus " for her 2016 compilation album, Deep Tracks, in honor of her recently deceased mother.

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