When David Nevue released Whisperings, his first “Best of” collection in 2001, his music was still relatively unknown. Ten years later, the same can no longer be said. David has become one of the most recognized names in the contemporary solo piano music genre. While the Whisperings collection of 2001 encapsulated the most popular works from David’s early years (1985-2000), this collection, Awakenings, features highlights from albums released between 2001 and 2010. These albums include: Postcards from Germany, O Come Emmanuel, Sweet Dreams & Starlight, Overcome, Adoration: Solo Piano Hymns, and Revelation: Solo Piano for Prayer & Worship.

The upbeat Postcards from Germany, released in 2001, was inspired by David’s travels with his wife to Germany and Austria in 1998. Each song represents a musical “postcard” of an event, place or adventure, making the album a musical scrapbook of sorts. Postcards marked the start of a new era for David’s music: it was the first album for which he was able to financially invest in a global radio campaign. Over 200 stations worldwide picked up David’s music, as did music subscription services such as Music Choice, Muzak and DMX. Postcards from Germany went all the way to #2 on the Zone Music Reporter radio charts, a reporting system that measures radio play for the Classical/Acoustic/Ambient/New Age music programs in which David’s music is frequently included. Four tracks from Postcards from Germany have been selected for this collection, including “Big Snow in Salzburg,” one of David’s most popular songs to date. Also featured are “The Kindness of Strangers,” “In God’s Hands,” and “Wonderland”.

Late 2003 saw the release of David’s Christmas album, O Come Emmanuel. While we opted not to use any of David’s Christmas arrangements for this collection, Emmanuel’s track list included an original song, “The Gift,” which became a fan favorite and thus, is featured here. O Come Emmanuel rose to #2 on the charts and stayed there for the duration of the 2003 holiday season.

The birth of his two children in 2000 and 2003 brought much inspiration to David’s music. During these years, he composed many sweet songs, melodies and lullabies, most of which ended up on his 2004 album Sweet Dreams & Starlight. Also included on Sweet Dreams were “leftover” songs from earlier recording sessions that didn’t make it onto previous albums for one reason or another. One of those musical remnants, an arrangement of “Greensleeves” (left off the Christmas album as David considered it too secular), was finally released on Sweet Dreams and it, along with the title track, “Eden Again” and “The Gift” (re-released after its first appearance on O Come Emmanuel) became the most popular songs on the album. Sweet Dreams & Starlight topped the Zone Music Reporter radio charts at #5.

In October, 2003, David lost his father, a Christian evangelist and missionary, to cancer. Many of the songs David composed during this time reflected his coming to grips with this loss. In 2005, David released Overcome, a tribute to his father’s unwavering faith, and a musical testimony to relying on God’s sovereignty during difficult times. Overcome went to #2 on the charts, and was nominated for – and won – “Best Instrumental Piano Album of 2005” at the Lifestyle Music Awards. Of all of David’s albums released this decade, Overcome generated the most breakthrough songs. Included in this collection is the powerful title track “Overcome,” as well as David’s arrangement of “As the Deer,” a popular praise chorus based on Psalm 42. Also featured are the standout tracks “Treasure Falls,” “Broken,” “Winter Walk,” and David’s heartfelt arrangement of the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.”

The process of composing music for Overcome, an album that included five hymn/praise song arrangements, brought David into a period of musical transition…from writing primarily original material to creating arrangements of popular hymns and contemporary worship melodies. This transition led to David’s 2007 release, Adoration: Solo Piano Hymns. Adoration quickly rose to the top of the Zone Music Reporter charts, becoming David’s first #1 album. David’s arrangements of “Amazing Grace” and “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” from Adoration are both included in this collection.

While in the studio recording Adoration, David took frequent breaks to improvise on contemporary praise and worship melodies. This was done on a whim, but by the end of the Adoration sessions, David had recorded nine extra songs, all improvisations. Amazed and surprised by the result, David wanted to continue on this new, improvisational path. He returned to the studio several months later to record more improvisations as well as new arrangements of a few more hymns. The result was David’s eleventh album, Revelation: Solo Piano for Prayer & Worship, released in 2009. Included here is David’s improvisation on the classic praise song “Here I Am to Worship,” as well as an original song from the album (and one of David’s personal favorites), “The Lion and the Lamb.”

Heading into the next decade, David’s music is more widespread than ever. People are discovering his music via Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio, Pandora, Sirius XM, YouTube, Last.FM, Spotify, Jango and virtually anywhere that music can be streamed, enjoyed and purchased. As new fans discover David’s music, they are sharing it with others. Many fans create music videos featuring David’s music and then post them to YouTube. Creative writers, thinkers and commentators include David’s music on their blog postings. Even piano teachers are catching on, adding sheet music of David’s songs to the instruction they are giving their piano students (or, in many cases, piano students bring David’s music to their teachers as they want to learn it!) The promotion and distribution of David’s music has taken on a life of its own, thanks in great part to the energy and enthusiasm of his fans.

You can be sure of one thing. So long as David has breath, he’ll keep writing and playing. He’s already at work on his next two albums, and very much looking forward to the blessings that another decade of music will bring.