A highly respected songwriter in the Christian music community, Andrew Peterson's career began in the mid-'90s with his first independent release, an eight-song EP called Walk. While touring the country with wife Jamie, Peterson caught his first break when popular CCM band Caedmon's Call invited him on their 1998 tour. This increased exposure led to his signing with Watershed/Essential Records and the 2000 release of his first proper album, Carried Along. A pastor's son, the Illinois-born, Florida-bred Peterson imbued his rootsy, folk-rock style with a strong Christian message, taking influence from veteran singer/songwriter Rich Mullins. In the coming years, he would establish himself with strong albums like 2003's Love & Thunder, 2005's The Far Country, and 2008's Resurrection Letters, Vol. 2, the latter of which was released on the Centricity label and reached number nine on Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart. Along the way, Peterson's many collaborations with musicians in and outside the Christian community bolstered his image as a creative and versatile artist. In 2006, he and a number of other like-minded singer/songwriters formed a musical collective called the Square Peg Alliance. A year later, he made his debut as an author with his first children's book, The Ballad of Matthew's Begats. In tandem with his increasingly successful musical career, Peterson furthered his writing career, publishing the first novel of his four-part fantasy/adventure series The Wingfeather Saga in 2008. By 2012, his albums were consistently charting in the Top Ten of Billboard's Christian chart and often broke into the pop chart as well. He launched the publishing company and creative writing blog The Rabbit Room and published two more novels in his Wingfeather series. A 2014 anthology called After All These Years: A Collection was released by Centricity to celebrate his impressive back catalog, and in late 2015 his 11th studio album, The Burning Edge of Dawn, reached number three on the Billboard Christian chart, becoming his most successful release to date. In 2018, Peterson returned to a project he'd begun a decade earlier. Having made the unusual decision to title his 2008 release, Resurrection Letters, Vol. 2, he decided to finally record what he considered its prequel. Beginning first with an EP titled Resurrection Letters: Prologue, he completed the cycle with Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1 a few months later. The full-length Vol. 1 landed at number 12 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart and was followed in 2019 by a re-release of Peterson's 2004 Christmas-themed album Behold the Lamb of God. ~ Timothy Monger