Born into a musical family, gospel singer/songwriter Montrel Darrett began singing as a child, accompanied by his mother on piano and his five singing siblings. Darrett wrote his first song when he was four, and formed his first group, the True Notes, with his four sisters and brother. Darrett also worked with other local bands in Nashville and recorded a few singles as a teenager. Though he had been raised in a religious family and grew up loving gospel music, Darrett truly realized the importance of God in his life when he served in the Navy and was ministered to by another shipmate, and became an ordained minister himself by age 24. After Darrett returned home from the Persian Gulf War, he felt so directionless that he attempted suicide, but then realized his calling in life was to spread God's word through music. Darrett joined gospel greats John P. Kee and Bobby Jones in the group Commissioned, with whom he performed and recorded for a number of years. In order to express his own version of gospel music, Darrett left the group and released his solo debut, Chronicles of the Soul, in 1999. His other projects include writing and producing songs for other gospel acts including Virtue, Sharon Riley, and Faith Chorale. ~ Heather Phares