As a worship leader planted firmly in his home church every Sunday, Eric Maher is committed to writing and performing compelling material that simultaneously offers praise to the Lord and pleases the artistic palette. As a recording artist, the singer/songwriter also channels a vertical frame of mind with an ambitious sonic spectrum, equally appropriate for the congregational or personal setting.

And though the Missouri-based artist is elated to have scored a deal with Kikstart Records (which also includes rapper Lyrycyst), the commitment to his small town flock is just as faithful as it's ever been. "A lot of artists get signed to a deal and get stars in their eyes to be the next big thing," observes a humble Maher, who's based in Lake of the Ozarks to be exact. "My heart is to be committed to my church and go out to raise others up, not to just get out there and tour incessantly. My idea of hitting the road goes beyond giving a worship concert, but to offer training and help equip worship teams with ideas of commitment to church and what it means to serve the church."

Though Maher's convictions may appear unconventional even within the generally positive intentions of the Christian music sphere, his rock solid roots date back to a small and simple request made by a fellow parishioner during his late teen years. While he'd always been a drummer growing up and dabbled in a variety of performance formats, guitar ran a distant second until after high school. However, he was soon forced to speed up the learning curve with those six strings when asked to provide music for a small group.

"I said 'yeah,' but was really sweating bullets," he admits of the initial public performance inquiry. "I did it and thought it was awful, but realized it wasn't about being super talented. It was someone asking me to serve and me preparing for it the best I could, which was the beginning of my future path."

He might not have realized it at the time, but Maher's somewhat reserved presentation that particular evening was the catalyst for him to come out of his sonic shell. And pretty soon he was interning at Christ's Church (under the New Frontiers body) moving up to the main worship team almost by accident (or divine intervention as he'd later discover).

"I was still very underdeveloped, but I working on my singing, led a song here and there and grew into rotating on music team every other week," he unveils. "I got to the point where I was put in charge of all the worship, which took awhile at first just to figure out how to run that! But then I took a training course called 'The Trilogy,' and in the midst of that, started writing my own material. I was a little dissatisfied with the worship songs out there at the time because they didn't seem to be all that congregationally adaptable, so I basically sought out to write contemporary songs that would suite that purpose."

That pattern continued throughout the early 2000s, though as cutting edge worship artists like Matt Redman and Paul Oakley rose in popularity (not to mention Chris Tomlin and the David Crowder Band), Maher became even more encouraged with his craft. And that refinement and inspiring direction was not only recognized by his congregation, but also record executive Paul Anders of Kikstart (who had moved from Los Angeles to the Cardinal State after successful ties with the mainstream market). At first Anders and Maher just hit it off as friends, though as time developed, they realized both business and ministry partnerships were plausible.

"It probably took a little longer to get started because Paul thought I was really much younger than I was and couldn't believe it when I told him my age," the now 28-year-old Maher says of his ongoing baby faced looks. "But because we forged a friendship first, joining the Kikstart family seemed like the next natural step, plus I knew Paul would fully support my decision to stick close to my home church, but also help get the music out to a wider audience."

With that, the troubadour set to writing his official debut disc, which has resulted in ten key cuts that incorporate the aforementioned influences, along with percussive guitar playing perhaps most reminiscent to Dave Matthews. From a message perspective, Maher sticks straight to the gospel, exploring a variety of ways to venerate the Lord while keeping a no nonsense approach to maintaining a true heart of worship (free of any flowery words or bumper sticker catchphrases that sometimes permeate the genre).

One of the first songs he wrote for the collecting is simply called "The Thundering," which looks to the book of Revelation to cite a scene in heaven John saw through a vision. Aside from literally providing a glimpse of the perfect afterlife, the track offers honor to the Lord poised high upon His glorious throne. "Your Wonderful" has a strong church appeal but is also incredibly radio friendly, tracing David's words throughout Psalm 139, in turn covering all the details of God's greatness and wondrous overall scope.

Then there's the epic storyline throughout "Masterpiece of Love," which traces a timeline of God's creation to Christ's redemption to the Holy Spirit's completion of the entire plot by dwelling in and guiding believers on a daily basis. "The Great Romance" is the most tangible example of Maher's straight forward lyrical approach, offering a bona-fide love song to the Lord (void of any vague language that could be interpreted as a boyfriend singing to a girlfriend). Yet the project's most powerful imagery comes during "Savior of the World," which was inspired in part by Mel Gibson's now classic The Passion of the Christ and paints the Savior as 100% human but also 100% Lord, complete with all His supernatural (and superhero-like) powers.

"It truly is amazing how God works," notices Maher, tying back into his personal tale. "There's this small town guy from the Midwest who meets this guy from L.A. that helps get the ball in motion on the music industry end. It all started out as 'can you play a little guitar for us at a small group meeting?' and from there He's used me for purposes I couldn't have even imagined. Though I'm never going to squelch whatever direction God is moving me in, my main commitment is to Christ and my church, which means I won't be touring every single day. I don't know exactly what the future will hold, but I'll continue to be accountable to leadership and simply be lead by the Spirit."