Music recommendations for a new year

Happy New Year! I am still working on a post with my goals for this year--hopefully I'll get that up by at least the end of this week--but in the meantime I was thinking about music and wanted to share a few recommendations. I've finally started up exercising again and I like to listen to music to help the time pass faster. Obviously everyone has their own preferences/standards for music--some like more bouncy tunes for exercising (and sometimes I do, too), but this week I've been listening to sacred selections to help focus my mind on Christ. These are some of my current favorites on my iPod:

"So High the Price" by the Pettit Evangelistic Team

I received this from my brother-in-law for Christmas a few years back, and it is one of my all-time favorites! Well, I like anything by the Pettits, but this CD is probably my favorite one by them. It focuses on Jesus' sacrifice for us.

"Consider Him" by the Galkin Evangelistic Team

I don't actually own this whole CD yet. I've been downloading a song or two at a time from Amazon when I can get free MP3 credits. So far I have 8 songs and they are all beautiful. A few favorites: "Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer, " "Consider Him," "Crown of Life," "Sweet Rivers of Mercy," "He Looked Beyond My Fault." These songs contain a theme of God's grace for salvation and the Christian journey.

Recently my sister told me about this site, Watchsong, where you can download several free songs all written by one man. I've downloaded two so far and have really enjoyed them: "Chosen As His Children," and "Stewards of His Grace."

And for Christmas, Joanna gave me something I'd really been wanting--this little hymnal called "Hymns: Modern and Ancient." It includes many of the songs from the CDs listed above, as well as many more that I wasn't familiar with. I've been having fun playing through them!

And one more CD to recommend, this time a children's one:

"A New Commandment" by the Harrow family

This came with our Sonlight curriculum this year, and it took me a long time to actually try it because I didn't expect to like it. Most Christian children's CDs (except for Patch the Pirate ;)) have too much beat for my taste (yes, I am picky). I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to listening to this. The songs are all Scripture verses set to music, and the music is really pretty! A lot of it has a bit of a Hebrew sound/feel to it. Best of all, the kids love this CD too, and have learned a lot of Scripture from listening to it! I look forward to getting more of the Harrow family CDs in the future.

As with everything, my musical tastes may not be the same as mine, so I'd definitely suggest that you listen to samples from any of the CDs listed before buying them. :) Just wanted to share some music that has been blessing my heart lately!