Janet Blair

Janet Blair builds a bridge between her classical roots and pop-influenced songwriting with Songs for the Waiting, her debut album as a singer-songwriter.

An orchestral oboist, Blair's career changed course after the death of a friend's infant sent her into a period of grief and depression. Struggling to come to terms with the tragedy on a sleepless night, Blair remembers, "I was laying awake at 2 AM when God put a song in my head. So I sat down at my piano and I wrote it out - my first song. I think I needed to process the emotion, so the song was a gift to me."

Over the following year, Blair sat down at the piano again and again, capturing moments of inspiration. These songwriting sessions produced music that explores darkness and light, tragedy and triumph, from the mundane to the eternal. The sound is a blend of modern piano-pop — inspired by the bright melodies and optimistic uplift of songwriters like Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson — and classical training, with arrangements that nod to the symphonic sweep of Beethoven and Brahms. Gluing everything together is Blair's belief in God's plan, which heavily shapes songs like "Eternity Grows" and "Remember Hope."

Blair found support for her songwriting in other musicians, including Jars of Clay member Matthew Odmark. Willing to take a chance on her music and her message, Odmark produced Songs for the Waiting, reaching out to several of his friends — including genre-jumping string arranger Avery Bright, instrumentalists Paul Eckberg and Matt Nelson, Jars of Clay bandmates Charlie Lowell and Stephen Mason, and others — to collaborate in the studio. Songs for the Waiting's 10 tracks were recorded over a three-week period at Nashville's Gray Matters Studio. Blair played upright piano, adding her clear and unaffected vocals while Odmark lightly layered the songs with cello, guitar, brass and percussion. The result is a moving, melodic album about finding peace in the tension of life while waiting for God's redemption.

Songs for the Waiting will be released April 7, 2017.