Anne Wilson's 'Rebel' delivers Christian, country as 'come-as-you-are,' faith-based truth

A fresh-faced, 22-year-old country music ingenue sings about Jesus Christ with folk-aimed soul and countrified pop passion akin to the shouting required to knock down the Walls of Jericho in the Old Testament's Book of Joshua.

Insert any era of country music's history, save the past three decades, and it's a surefire formula for success.

Sitting with 22-year-old and fresh-faced Lexington, Kentucky, native Anne Wilson at Universal Music Group's Nashville offices, the way she speaks about her recently released debut country album, "Rebel," rekindles a familiar fire not witnessed since that achieved by Amy Grant as a crossover artist appreciated in the Christian, country and pop musical lanes.

"There's a clear need for talking about faith in a world where we're bashing each other more than promoting love," Wilson tells The Tennessean. She believes in the timeless potential of "country music with faith at the forefront."

It's not at the forefront of a genre where, for the past 25 years, almost 90% of the time, a man with a song about alcohol, a bar, a woman, or drinking alcohol with a woman at a bar is an intrinsic part of their catalog of hits.

That said, the passion for the notion has remained high. Grant sold 20 million albums and had 25 Top 10 singles between 1990 and 2010.

In recent times, Anne Wilson has achieved three releases and four Top 10 singles in a mainstream career that is only three years old.

'My Jesus'

Unlike Grant, who waited 13 years before crossing over, the Grammy-nominated and multiple Christian music chart-topping success of Wilson's 2021-released debut "My Jesus" has hastened her musical journey.

It's easy to argue that a song about God hasn't felt so good since Maren Morris "fell down from grace" and needed a "hallelujah" and "Amen" at a church revival in 2016's "My Church."

Wilson's "My Jesus" is a Christian power ballad whose connective power, like Morris' hit, is driven by country's story-song tradition.

In June 2017, Wilson's older brother, Jacob, whom she described as her best friend and someone she "looked up to in every way," was killed in a car accident at the age of 23.

Wilson, a pianist since the age of 6, redoubled her faith and performed at his funeral, recalling their shared love for singing songs like John Anderson's "Seminole Wind."

That performance quickly evolved into a career that saw her release a Grammy-nominated song and an almost perpetual-seeming touring schedule inspired by a song about how her faith and trust in Jesus had evolved in the past half-decade.

'Rebel'

On "Rebel," Wilson's faith-based passion is shown to have already achieved resonance with Christian and country music's most beloved present-day stars, including album collaborators Jordan Davis and Lainey Wilson, the Country Music Association's 2023 Entertainer of the Year.

It's also a faith-based recording that, like most mainstream country records at present, features a dozen co-writers. To some, that would appear to be overkill. However, it also expresses the appeal of engaging with a tradition extending back nine decades to the era of Ernest Tubb's song "Saturday Satan, Sunday Saint" in country music's history.

Wilson recalls Lainey Wilson's amazement and excitement at appearing on the album track "Praying Woman" and her role in a "faith song." For Davis, "Country Gold" allows him to dive deeper into his faith than "(throwing) a little money in the plate at church" on the 2022 CMA Song of the Year, "Buy Dirt."

"Right now, in country music's mainstream, we're talking about every topic except God first," Anne Wilson says. That's funny because God has always been a core part of some of country music's best moments and songs. (Admittedly), I was afraid of bringing God back to the genre's forefront. However, when I signed with Universal Nashville, Cindy Mabe (Universal Nashville CEO and chair) told me she wanted me to be authentically who I was."

Mabe's faith in faith-based music is working so far. At present, Wilson's "Strong" is a chart-topping single on Christian radio or digital platforms.

“Anne Wilson is a boundary-pushing artist who belongs in both Christian and Country music formats and cultures,” stated Mabe upon Wilson's June 2023 signing to Universal Nashville. “She's here to take her story and the power of her music to new audiences while continuing to be an ambassador of faith in youth culture and beyond within the Christian music audience. She's unique and dynamic in sound, purpose and spirit."

Religion and equality

For the album, digging back into the story that bore her 'My Jesus' and will forever define her art and purpose yielded country radio-ready and "subtly faith-inspired" — but not "faith in your face" — single "Rain in the Rearview."

Her reflections on the loss of her brother with her frequent co-writer and contemporary Christian music icon Matthew West, plus country songwriters Jaren Johnston and Zach Kale, developed into a personal song awash in the notion that "joy comes in the morning" and "the sun can shine on a hope-filled future."

She describes her best material as "an inspirational, open invitation" that exists between how album collaborator and contemporary Christian music legend Chris Tomlin has succeeded at universalizing a message driven by a belief in God's goodness and mercy with how she hopes her message of maintaining unwavering faith provides an unshakeable resolve.

Thus, songs like "3:16" are not inspired by just "three chords and the truth," but also as an almost benign statement of box-checked facts related to country authenticity. Instead, because the track name drops a New Testament chapter and verse, it's a statement bound to three chords associated with the biblical truth that belief in Jesus Christ assures someone eternal life.

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About releasing an album that runs the gamut from being "subtly faith-inspired" to successfully linking country music's fundamental tenets with the Bible, Wilson offers that because faith in God is not a monolithic notion, she's able to appeal broadly to people who "resented church and fell asleep during services," or experienced both "toxic churches filled with broken people" and "good worship environments."

"Faith is a challenging journey that requires constantly being inspired by the potential not to be judged (for your religiosity or lack thereof) but instead to always feel welcomed into — if you listen to 'Rebel' or any of my music — a community of listeners who are unified by equality and hope," Wilson says.

She laughs uproariously when told that to some, she may appear to embody all of the traditional virtues of a perfect "preacher's daughter" type. Yes, her mother, Lynn Wilson, is the founder and head of school at Wilson's alma mater, Lexington's Veritas Christian Academy, but Anne Wilson is "far from perfect."

"I'm just a bold believer who wants to play a small part in allowing faith to impact as many people as possible," she says. "My career will be a come-as-you-are, take-it-or-leave-it invitation to believe in both my conviction in my truth and to Jesus as the way, the truth and the light."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Anne Wilson releases debut country album 'Rebel'