Bethany Dillon (born September 22, 1988), known since 2008 by her married name, Bethany Barnard, is a Contemporary Christian music artist. Her self-titled 2004 debut album was the highest selling female solo debut for that year, and attracted Gospel Music Association nominations for both Female Vocalist and New Artist of the Year. Her album Waking Up (2007) included production assistance of the GMA's 2005 Producer of the Year, Ed Cash, as well Will Hunt and John Alagia. Her sixth and seventh albums were Stop & Listen (2009) and A Better Word (2017).
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Bethany Barnard was born Bethany Joy Adelsberger[citation needed] on September 22, 1988, in Bellefontaine, Ohio.[1] She has said that she started playing guitar at age 10, with Jennifer Knapp serving as an early influence.[2]
Dillon's musical career began at age 13, ca. 2001, with the recording an independent album, Vulnerable, that ended up in the hands of EMI executive Brad O'Donnell.[citation needed] Reporting from the time says that audiences connected with her first record almost immediately, and result being several hit singles, and multiple Dove nomination.[citation needed] As well, the album received critical acclaim,[citation needed] and "an exponentially increasing grassroots fan base that propelled her career forward in great leaps".[This quote needs a citation] Her self-titled debut album, released in 2004, was the highest selling female solo debut album for the year, and attracted GMA nominations for both Female Vocalist and New Artist of the Year.[citation needed] The radio single All I Need reached the number one position on the U.S. charts.[3]
GMA's 2005 Producer of the Year, Ed Cash,[6] teamed up with Dillon to co-produce an eleven-track album, all of which were written or co-written by Dillon; the result was her 2007 album, Waking Up released on April 3.[citation needed] As described by Dillon,
Waking Up is the most joyful record I’ve made... even though it revolves around themes of brokenness and this feeling of being really, really small in the presence of God. When the Lord is growing something in me, it feels like a lot of things are dying—because they really are. And when the Lord is making things soft and vulnerable in me, it's really painful. But even so, I think this is the freest sounding project I’ve created.[6][7]
Influenced for years by penetrating and poetic writers like Rich Mullins, Keith Green, and Sara Groves, Bethany has tended to gravitate toward themes that require a measure of courage and open-heartedness to explore... Waking Up embraces big questions of suffering, barrenness, vulnerability, romance, and faithfulness. Like the writers Bethany has modeled herself after, she proves herself willing to live and create in that place of ambivalent tension that inevitably comes from refusing to settle for easy, feel-good answers. And yet, like the psalmist, Bethany has a penchant for finding the redemption in the midst of the pain.[6]
On March 29, 2008, Dillon wed Shane Barnard of Shane & Shane in Xenia, Ohio.[9] In 2016, Dillon and Barnard released the song "Covenant", alongside a fundraising campaign to support a new, independent studio effort and recording to appear in 2017 under her new stage name, Bethany Barnard.[citation needed][10] On February 10, 2017, she independently released A Better Word.[11][12]
^"[Artist Channel] Bethany Dillon". Rhapsody.com. February 27, 2008. Archived from the original(artist tracklist) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2022. [Annotation] The cover of the August 2005 issue of CCM magazine called Dillon 'the future of Christian music.' Before that, she was dubbed 'the next Amy Grant' based on her soft folk debut...
^ abcd"Adult Contemporary / Bethany Dillon / Sparrow Records [Artist Profile]". CBN.com. Virginia Beach, Va.: The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022. 'Waking Up is the most joyful record I've made,' Bethany explains, 'even though it revolves around themes of brokenness and this feeling of being really, really small in the presence of God. When the Lord is growing something in me, it feels like a lot of things are dying—because they really are. And when the Lord is making things soft and vulnerable in me, it's really painful. But even so, I think this is the freest sounding project I've created.' / Influenced for years by penetrating and poetic writers like Rich Mullins, Keith Green, and Sara Groves, Bethany has tended to gravitate toward themes that require a measure of courage and open-heartedness to explore. Co-produced by GMA's 2005 Producer of the Year Ed Cash, as well as Will Hunt and John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band), Waking Up embraces big questions of suffering, barrenness, vulnerability, romance, and faithfulness. Like the writers Bethany has modeled herself after, she proves herself willing to live and create in that place of ambivalent tension that inevitably comes from refusing to settle for easy, feel-good answers. And yet, like the psalmist, Bethany has a penchant for finding the redemption in the midst of the pain.
