From derekwebb.com

For Performing Songwriter’s 15th Anniversary Collectors’ Edition they have published, with Derek’s inclusion in the special feature, the Top 100 Indie Artists of the last 15 years. A highly respected industry magazine, Performing Songwriter caters to the true music fan, featuring the stories, artists, instrumentation and craft behind those who both write and perform their music.

Their quoted as saying:
“Performing Songwriter is just a humble and heartfelt attempt at creating a place for songwriters to come together in a safe community where they’re understood and supported and heard by those who love music.”

As you can imagine, this is a huge honor and we wanted to share this information with you. Please check out the site and more importantly please support Performing Songwriter in this issue and in the future.

He made it into the “visionaries” category with none other than Radiohead. Check out the issue to see what that have to say about Derek. Congrats DW!

Now, y’all know that we love Derek and like to post positive things about him. That said, this thing I’m about to post, it’s terribly negative … but it’s so bad, it’s almost funny. Back a couple weeks ago, Derek and Sandra played down in Birmingham, and I went to the show. We found the following review in a copy of Birmingham’s City PaperBlack & White. Warning—it’s brutal:

On her own, Sandra McCracken is a quirky pop songstress with tons of personality. On his own, Derek Webb looks like a refugee from “Prison Break” without the charisma or reasonable sense of outrage. Together, they’re a lovely folk duo with one strong voice and another that’s nicely muted. Webb might also be distracted from his usual bizarre Christian content, where the Bible is a mere sliding scale with less historical weight than yesterday’s horoscope. Judge for yourself if the moments of beauty and weirdness are worth the duo’s slumming in Americana territory.

I’ve read that four or five times now, and I still have no words.

Additionally: A friend from the area wrote in to let me know the reviewer’s name [which I'll decline to mention] and to correct me on the name of the paper. Apparently, writing interviews like this is the reviewer’s schtick, to get notice.

On Feb. 18th (Yeah i know I’m behind lol…) One of the songs from Derek and Sandra’s new Ep, The Ampersand EP was mentioned in the “Listen Up” section of USA Today’s website.

“When the Summer’s Gone, Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken: If the couple in Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me were celebrating their 10-year anniversary now, they might be singing this song.”

Kudos to Derek and Sandra! We here at dw.net hope the good press continues.

From YMX All Access

Caedmon’s Call’s lyrically compelling song about redemption, “Ten Thousand Angels” will receive a rare and lengthy place in this season’s biggest episode of the ABC hit drama series “Grey’s Anatomy” on January 3rd. Featuring vocals by Derek Webb, the song will play for five consecutive minutes during an emotionally charged final scene. The episode will re-air on January 4th.

In order for the song to fit the length of the scene, an extra minute was even edited in, and with lyrics including ‘so lift up your heart now, to this unfolding, all that has been broken will be restored, here runs deep waters for all who are thirsty, love has come, love has come for you’, its use on one of television’s biggest shows is especially uncommon.

“It’s an honor to be asked to help carry some of the emotional weight of a powerhouse show like Grey’s,” says Webb. “ I think the spiritual significance of a song like “Ten Thousand Angels” will have some really special chemistry with what is bound to be an important episode in the season.”

“Ten Thousand Angels” is a bonus track on the group’s current release, Overdressed, which was in the top 5 (no. 5) of ITunes Editorial list of 2007 for overall “Best Christian Albums”.

For three days only, catch a sneak peek listen to “Ten Thousand Angels” at this link: http://www.inorecords.com/caedmonscall/tenthousandangels.mp3.

Article Link

Derek and Mike did a two-part interview. I’ll copy from the email he sent me to describe it, because I’m lazy:

There are 3 parts to this interview (only 2 are up). The first part is general info (noisetrade, new albums…etc) while the other two have to do with questions that were submitted by .com board users. I have no problem with folks listening to those but they may not be as interesting to them. You can download them and upload elsewhere if you prefer, it’s whatever you want. At 32 minutes the first part is a bit long but there is a lot of good info in there. I hope this is OK.

And because it’s funny … Can You Spot Derek Webb? It’s “Where’s Waldo?” but with a short, bald man.

Mornin’, everyone … coffee’s over there.

1. In case you missed it, “Name” showed up right at the open of last night’s Grey’s Anatomy, right after the previously-on stuff. True to Derek’s prediction that he’s been making in shows, there was a couple depicted as … post-coitus. Sexy-sounding song for a sexy show, I guess.
2. Friday morning’s are my morning to check out Derek’s tour dates page for updates, and I came across this note for tonight’s planned show at VCU: “Due to unfortunate circumstances on the campus of VCU we are forced to cancel the show with Derek and Sandra schedule for: Friday, November 9, 2007 Pace Student Center Virginia Commonwealth University Please accept our apologies, we will be sure to make it up to you when it’s possible for them to put on the event.” We hope all is well at VCU.

More news later today.

Derek was on TN Mornings. Not only did he perform, but he did an interview:

Many thanks to Michael Terry for letting me know about this. For this and many other reasons, we’re adding him to the dw.net staff.

We have it on good authority that “Name” off of The Ringing Bell will be on Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday, November 8th. When we know more about what scene, etc., we’ll post about it.

Sean pointed us to Christianity Today’s interview with Derek about The Ringing Bell, his career, etc. Two questions really struck me, so I’ll quote them:

Aside from growth in size, have you noticed other changes in your audience since giving away your album?

Webb: It felt like a dramatic turning point, especially at live events. There were venues where we’d normally play for a couple hundred people, and we were up to six or seven hundred, sometimes sellout crowds. They definitely seem more engaged than usual too, especially with songs from Mockingbird. I feel a serious kind of camaraderie. Before, people sat and listened to the songs and took it in. Now people are more responsive, singing and reacting to the songs.

Obviously some aren’t too keen about the subjects you’ve tackled. Have you taken flak from audiences for the political and ethical issues you raised with Mockingbird?

Webb: It’s interesting. I think little by little, as you find your audience and start to figure out who is most supportive, you start to develop deeper relationships with them. And, in the process, you start communicating less with the other side because the songs aren’t resonating with them.

So while there was some fallout, I’ve not heard a lot about it. The majority of people I hear from talk to me after the shows or write on my site’s message boards. But they are the ones who are with you, support you, and want to hang out. The ones who don’t agree have either stopped buying records and coming to shows, or else are leaving and not sticking around. They don’t care enough to tell you about it.

Also, I’m not big enough to make much of a splash. People would be more upset about it all if I sold a bunch of albums. But I don’t, and so they probably don’t think I’m much of a threat. Which is fine, because I don’t want to be a threat to anybody!

Give the whole thing a read, if you would. [It's Friday afternoon. Surely you're not working. ;)]