Passion Worship Band

Like the chicken and the egg, it's hard to say exactly which came first: alternative bands recording standard Sunday morning praise and worship songs, or praise and worship bands picking up the alternative sound and injecting new life into the church music scene. Either way, Passion Worship Band have done both, inadvertently becoming one of a small but vastly influential group of forefathers in the modern worship movement -- so much so that for a while it was called "The Passion Movement," inspired by their Passion album series. Suddenly, worshipers were crying "turn it up"; the acoustic guitar made friends with driving, wired guitar riffs; drum sets on church platforms grew Plexiglas soundboards; and church worship leaders became the new hot charting artists and Dove nominees (like Matt Redman, Mark Schultz and the epic Darlene Zschech). The David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin and Charlie Hall were partners in the movement and on its tour, which drew hundreds of thousands of college-age people looking to marry their love of the music and their love of the Lord. And a musical era was born.