Former Petra front man John Schlitt will releast "The Christmas Project", the Grammy and Dove Award winner's first recorded collection of Christmas music, on October 29.

"When we started working on this CD, we kept calling it The Christmas Project, because we didn't have a name for it yet," Schlitt says in a recent press release. "As the months went by, the name just kind of stuck. I like things that are what they say they are, and in the end, I decided that The Christmas Project was the perfect title."

Schlitt, who had never previously recorded any Christmas music, neither during his 20-year stint as the lead singer with Petra nor as a solo artist, says he felt "a very strong tug" to make this seasonal record.

The majority of the CD consists of traditional Christmas songs with one new original, all done "John Schlitt style."

Schlitt utilized the popular crowd funding platform Kickstarter to raise financial support for the new album.

For more than three decades, John Schlitt has enjoyed a stellar musical career as a solo artist, as the lead singer for Grammy Award-winning Christian band Petra, one of the most successful Christian rock bands of all time.

He is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He became a member as the lead singer of Petra during the years when the band won 10 Dove Awards and four Grammy Awards.

Schlitt was named the best rock singer in Christian music history by GospelMusicChannel.com. According to their website, Schlitt "remains one of the most distinctive and impactful men to ever stand behind a microphone." Schlitt was also named Male Vocalist of the Year in About.com's 2011 Readers' Poll in a category that included Chris Tomlin, Jeremy Camp, Brandon Heath and Bebo Norman.


For more information on Schlitt and The Christmas Project, visit www.johnwschlitt.com or follow him on Twitter (@johnwschlitt) or Facebook (facebook.com/johnwschlitt).