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New John Mandeville CD Gets Major Boost
from Mainstream Partner
 
(Nashville, TN) -I.P.O. Records has partnered with Thompkins Media Group to distribute award-winning singer/songwriter John Mandeville's solo debut We Belong To Heaven to the mainstream market.  The new CD has just been released via Sony Music's RED division to stores such as Target, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble as well as online retailers Wal-Mart Music Downloads, Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Buy.com, among others.   RED - An Artist Development Company (formerly Relativity Entertainment Distribution) is a Sony Music Entertainment-owned sales and marketing division that handles releases for 50+ independent record labels. Successful RED acts include Andrew Bird, Nine Inch Nails, Dwight Yoakam, Switchfoot, Mandy Moore, Third Eye Blind, among many others.

Thompkins Media Group was founded by T.C. Thompkins whose resume includes top executive positions at Stax Records, Capitol Records, ABC Records and CBS/Epic Records.  Thompkins helped develop artists such as Sade, Luther Vandross and Michael Jackson (including his "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" projects, the latter of which still holds the title of the largest selling album in music history.)

In addition to mainstream alliances, the Salem Radio Network will be featuring several cuts from the We Belong to Heaven project this month on the Today's Christian Music Radio Network that airs on over 100 radio affiliates as well as the SkyAngel Network. Mandeville's first radio single, "Glorify," is already garnering adds with Inspirational and Soft A/C radio reporters.   Through various social networks, Mandeville has already given away over 1200 free downloads of We Belong To Heaven and the current single "Glorify."

Mandeville is one of Christian music's most acclaimed songwriters, penning tracks for artists such as Avalon, 4HIM, Point of Grace, and Tammy Trent, among others.   He earned eleven top 10 hits, several #1 songs and three Dove Award nominations for Song of the Year.  Mandeville dropped out of the Christian music world after a major label record deal fizzled due to corporate restructuring, sending the artist's life into a tailspin of financial difficulties and what he describes as "ugly manifestations" that led to addiction and marital problems.

"This new CD project really wrote itself as a result of what I was living through, it was meant to be a monument of change for my family, sort of like David wrote the Psalms," Mandeville says."This was the turning point, the line in the sand, to see all the drama come to a close. It was my chance to find my heart and return to a place of hope, while also returning to the heart of who I am as an artist."

Though We Belong To Heaven may have originally started as a private lament, it soon caught the ears of the veteran Thompkins, who was so moved by what he heard that he reached out to Mandeville via MySpace, struck up an immediate friendship and eventually offered his professional support of the project.

"I was immediately attracted to his music for the sake of the art and message, even though my background wasn't in Christian music," Thompkins confirms. "But I know artistry when I see it, and between the style of his arrangements and the message, I was hooked."

"It's interesting timing in the sense that the times we are living in are forcing people back to a different understanding of what prosperity and personal peace really mean," notices Mandeville. "This record is a message of total surrender to whatever God has in store for your life, as opposed to building all your treasures around material wealth."

Mandeville is also currently serving as worship pastor for a church near Washington, D.C., and his role in leadership allows him the flexibility to do concerts and events around the world. The church and its leaders are fully supportive of any opportunity for John's music and message to reach a wider audience.

"It's been a process of walking step by step to put my marriage back together, coming out of an addictive life, and giving my family vision and purpose," he adds. "I didn't really intend to get back into the music business. But after a long detox from the industry, I picked up my guitar, or found myself at the keyboard, writing and singing about 35 songs that came down to these, while pulling a few from a catalog I had written previously. For the most part, the songs on this project were all written in response to impossible circumstances in my life, but God showed up for me and I have no doubt He will for listeners as well."

For more information, visit www.lifestyleofworship.com.
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