{{short description|American musician}} {{confuse|Chris Rice (sport shooter)|Christopher Rice}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=February 2014}} {{more footnotes|date=February 2014}} }} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Chris Rice | image = | caption = | image_size = | alias = | origin = Clinton, Maryland, U.S. | genre = CCM, folk | years_active = 80's–2007, 2019–2020 | instruments = Vocals, piano, guitar | label = Rocketown, Eb+Flo, Clumsy Fly | website = {{URL|http://chrisrice.com}} | current_members = | past_members = }}
'''Chris Rice''' is a former American singer and songwriter who worked in the contemporary Christian music, contemporary folk, adult contemporary and adult album alternative genres. He became a recording artist in 1996 after signing a contract with Rocketown Records and releasing his debut album, ''Deep Enough to Dream''. He released six albums between 1996 and 2007, before entering a 12-year hiatus.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title= Chris Rice on Walking Away From the Spotlight — And His Sneak Return|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/chris-rice-ultimate-hymn-interview-8512050/ |access-date=February 4, 2023 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> In 2019, he ended his hiatus and released a joint album with Andrew Ripp.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Geil |first=Mark |date=January 17, 2019 |title=Andrew Ripp Discusses His New Project with Chris Rice |url=https://www.ccmmagazine.com/features/andrew-ripp-discusses-his-new-project-with-chris-rice/ |access-date=September 12, 2019 |website=CCM Magazine}}</ref>
In 2020, Rice was accused of sexually assaulting a minor between 1995 and 2003 while leading worship at youth camp retreats for a church. In 2022, an investigation from an independent establishment determined the allegations to be credible. He has not released a statement regarding the allegations and has not been active in music since then.
==Early life and education==
Chris Rice, a native of Clinton, Maryland, grew up as the second of four sons born to bookstore owners. His parents, and other adult mentors, influenced Rice's Christian faith and his early work with youth and college students.
Having taken only three years of piano lessons as a child, Rice did not aspire to a career in either music or student work. But frequent invitations to speak and lead music at his church's youth group events led to more such invitations throughout his college years at the University of Maryland, Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, and Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Communication.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BIO |url=https://chrisrice.com/bio/ |access-date=December 15, 2018 |website=CHRISRICE.COM}}</ref> While leading music and coaching high school soccer teams he began writing songs. What began as weekend and summer work with youth and college students soon turned into a full-time career during his twenties and thirties, and prompted Rice to write and perform mainly on the guitar.
For those two decades, Rice spent his time as an itinerant speaker and songwriter/musician, playing for high school and college conferences and camps nationwide. This schedule prepared Chris for his career as a signed recording artist, touring the country with a full band.
== Career ==
===As a songwriter=== Rice's songwriting career began in the mid-1980s, after moving from his Washington, D.C., home to Nashville, Tenn. During that period several of Rice's songs were recorded by other artists, including Kathy Troccoli and Terri Gibbs. Rice's "Welcome to Our World", an original Christmas song since recorded by Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and John Tesh, moved Smith to urge his new label, Rocketown Records, to sign Rice as its first artist in 1996.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
===Solo artist=== With the help of Monroe Jones' production skills, Chris Rice recorded ''Deep Enough to Dream'' for a September 1997 release. ''Past the Edges'' followed a year later. Rice's third album, ''Smell the Color 9'', was issued in late 2000.
In 2001, Rice released two piano-only, instrumental releases, ''The Living Room Sessions'' and ''The Living Room Sessions: Christmas'', recorded on Rice's own living room grand piano.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
His sixth album, ''Run the Earth... Watch the Sky'', released in March 2003, Chris again joined the production talents of his longtime friend and collaborator Monroe Jones.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} The album's first single was "The Other Side of the Radio".{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
These four studio releases (plus the two instrumental releases) fulfilled Rice's contractual commitment to Rocketown{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} and they issued several compilation albums, ''Short Term Memories'' and ''Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites'', following his departure in June 2004 and February 2005 respectively.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
===New record label===
Rice signed with independent label Eb+Flo Records, and made a marketing and distribution agreement with INO Records who had distribution through Sony/Columbia removed the limitation of catering his music to Christian radio formats.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
His fifth studio album, ''Amusing'', released in August 2005.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} For the first time in his career, Rice released radio singles to AC and Light Rock stations around the country, the first single being a light romantic song entitled "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me?)" which reached No. 8 on the Pop AC radio format and enjoyed Top Ten status throughout the middle of 2006.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} A second AC hit, "Lemonade", began climbing the AC chart in 2007.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
With his success on the AC radio format, Rice released a side project hearkening back to his roots, a vocal hymns album, ''Peace Like a River: The Hymns Project'', in November 2006.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
Rice released ''What a Heart Is Beating For'' in July 2007, further positioning him as a pop artist. Only 2 of its 13 songs contained overt faith themes.{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}}
=== Other ===
Since 2007, Rice has branched out in the visual arts, including photography and painting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ART ORIGINALS |url=https://chrisrice.com/art-shop/ |access-date=December 15, 2018 |website=CHRISRICE.COM |archive-date=April 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402223048/https://chrisrice.com/art-shop/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=May 17, 2019 |title=Chris Rice on Walking Away From the Spotlight -- And His Sneak Return |url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8512050/chris-rice-ultimate-hymn-interview |access-date=April 4, 2020 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> In 2016, he self-published ''Widen'', a book of poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rice |first=Chris |title=Widen: A Collection of Poems |date=March 2, 2016 |publisher=Chris Rice Books |isbn=978-0997323108 |page=164}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rice |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJiMjwEACAAJ |title=Widen: A Collection of Poems by Chris Rice |date=March 1, 2016 |work=GoodReads |publisher=Chris Rice Books |isbn=9780997323108 |access-date=September 12, 2019}}</ref>
In December 2018, Rice and Andrew Ripp pre-released an album, ''Songs We Wrote on Tuesdays'', as Ripp+Rice as well as a single "This Ain't No Love Song" from that album.<ref>{{Cite web |title=RIPP+RICE |url=https://chrisrice.com/ripprice/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216031941/https://chrisrice.com/ripprice/ |archive-date=December 16, 2018 |access-date=December 15, 2018 |website=CHRISRICE.COM}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=December 2018}} The album, a mix of adult contemporary and country music and was officially released on January 4, 2019.
== Sexual assault allegations ==
On October 15, 2020, ''Relevant'' reported that a young man had made allegations of sexual assault against Rice.
=== Tates Creek Presbyterian Church ===
The complainant claimed that the offences had occurred several times between 1995 and 2003 when Rice led worship at retreats for the youth and college students of Tates Creek Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. The church's statement stated that the church elders had voted unanimously to initiate an independent investigation with an outside organization, GRACE, "that investigates allegations of abuse in Christian institutions."<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 15, 2020 |title=An Investigation Has Been Launched to Allegations Against CCM Artist Chris Rice |url=https://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/music/an-investigation-has-been-launched-to-allegations-against-ccm-artist-chris-rice/ |access-date=October 15, 2020}}</ref> The church pastor said that although Rice was never an employee of the church, they felt responsible for investigating the matter because “if this individual had not been involved in our youth ministry, he would not have been exposed to Mr. Rice.”
In June 2022, Tates Creek Presbyterian Church released GRACE's report, which found the allegations to be credible.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Shellnutt |first1=Kate |last2=Fowler |first2=Megan |title=Report Backs Abuse Allegations Against Chris Rice |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/june/chris-rice-abuse-investigation-grace-tates-creek.html |access-date=2022-06-29 |website=News & Reporting |date=June 23, 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A Public Statement about the Chris Rice Report |url=https://tcpca.org/rice-report |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Tates Creek Presbyterian Church |language=en-US}}</ref> Rice has not released a statement regarding the allegations to date.
==Discography== ===Studio albums=== {|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2" width="33"| Year !rowspan="2" width="215"| Album details !colspan="2"| Peak chart positions |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US<br /><ref name="Billboard200">{{Cite magazine |title=Chris Rice Chart history: Top 200 Albums |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/chris-rice/chart-history/ill/ |access-date=December 12, 2018 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US<br> Christ<br /><ref name="ChristianAlbums">{{Cite magazine |title=Chris Rice Chart history: Top Christian Albums |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/chris-rice/chart-history/ill/ |access-date=December 12, 2018 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> |- | 1994 | ''Live By Faith'' * Released: 1994 * Label: none * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | — |- | 1997 | ''Deep Enough to Dream'' * Released: September 2, 1997 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | 7 |- | 1998 | ''Past the Edges'' * Released: September 15, 1998 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 167 | align="center" | 4 |- | 2000 | ''Smell the Color 9'' * Released: January 19, 2000 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | 20 |- | 2003 | ''Run the Earth... Watch the Sky'' * Released: March 4, 2003 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 161 | align="center" | 12 |- | 2005 | ''Amusing'' * Released: August 23, 2005 * Label: Eb+Flo * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | 10 |- | 2006 | ''Peace Like a River: The Hymns Project'' * Released: January 1, 2006 * Label: Eb+Flo * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | — |- | 2007 | ''What a Heart Is Beating For'' * Released: July 17, 2007 * Label: Eb+Flo * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | 9 |- |rowspan="2"| 2019 | ''Songs We Wrote on Tuesdays''<br>{{small|(as Ripp+Rice, with Andrew Ripp}}) * Released: January 4, 2019 * Label: none * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | — |- | ''Untitled Hymn: A Collection of Hymns'' * Released: May 17, 2019 * Label: Fair Trade/Columbia * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — | align="center" | — |}
===EPs and other releases=== {|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2" width="33"| Year !rowspan="2" width="215"| Album details !colspan="1"| Peak chart positions |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US<br> Christ<br /><ref name="ChristianAlbums" /> |- | rowspan="2"| 2001 | ''The Living Room Sessions'' * Released: April 5, 2001 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 23 |- | ''The Living Room Sessions: Christmas'' * Released: October 2, 2001 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 26 |- | 2004 | ''Short Term Memories'' * Released: June 8, 2004 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 10 |- | rowspan="3"| 2005 | ''Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites'' * Released: February 8, 2005 * Label: Rocketown * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | 48 |- | ''When Did You Fall'' * Released: August 23, 2005 * Label: Eb+Flo * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — |- | ''Merry Chris Rice'' * Released: November 15, 2005 * Label: Eb+Flo * Format: CD, DI | align="center" | — |}
===Singles=== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:1em;"| Year ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:22em;"| Title ! scope="col" colspan="3"| Peak positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US<br> AC<br /><ref name="Billboard AC">{{Cite magazine |title=Chris Rice – Chart history (Adult Contemporary) |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/chris-rice/chart-history/asi/ |access-date=December 12, 2018 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US Christ.<br /><ref name="Billboard Hot Christian">{{Cite magazine |title=Chris Rice – Chart history (Hot Christian Songs) |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/chris-rice/chart-history/ico/ |access-date=December 12, 2018 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US Christ<br> AC<br /><ref name="Billboard Christian AC">{{Cite magazine |title=Chris Rice – Chart history (Christian AC) |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/chris-rice/chart-history/ica/ |access-date=December 12, 2018 |magazine=Billboard}}</ref> |- | rowspan="1" | 1997 | "Deep Enough To Dream" | — | — | — | rowspan="1" |''Deep Enough to Dream'' |- | rowspan="2" | 2002 | "Christmas Party" | — | — | — | rowspan="1" |''The Living Room Sessions: Christmas'' |- | "The Other Side of the Radio" | — | — | 36 | rowspan="3" |''Run the Earth... Watch the Sky'' |- | rowspan="2" | 2003 | "Smile (Just Want To Be With You)" | — | 2 | 2 |- | "Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus)" | — | 38 | 37 |- | rowspan="2" | 2004 | "Go Light Your World" | — | 23 | 21 | rowspan="2" |''Short Term Memories'' |- | "Cartoons" | — | 39 | 35 |- | rowspan="1" | 2005 | "Love Like Crazy" | — | — | 38 | rowspan="2" |''Amusing'' |- | rowspan="2" | 2006 | "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me)" | 9 | 18 | 17 |- | "The Christmas Song (Chesnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" | — | 34 | 31 | rowspan="1" |''Merry Chris Rice'' |- | rowspan="2" | 2007 | "Lemonade" | 22 | — | — | rowspan="2" |''What a Heart Is Beating For'' |- | "Sad Song" | — | — | — |}
==Awards== * 1998 – Nominated for six Dove Awards, including New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 13, 2013 |title=About.com Gospel Biography |url=http://christianmusic.about.com/od/mzprofiles/p/prchrisrice.htm |access-date=July 31, 2013 |publisher=Christianmusic.about.com |archive-date=July 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707075344/http://christianmusic.about.com/od/mzprofiles/p/prchrisrice.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> * 1999 – Dove Award winner for Male Vocalist of the Year and for participation in Special Event Album of the Year – ''Exodus'' * 2000 – Dove Award nominee for Recorded Music Packaging * 2002 – Dove Award nominee for Instrumental Album of the Year – ''Living Room Sessions: Hymns''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Official website|1=http://www.chrisrice.com}} * {{IMDb name|nm16125283}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061104195219/http://music.thoughtquotient.com/rice_webb_zschech/chrisrice_derekwebb_darlenezschech.htm Thought Quotient – Interview with Chris Rice] * [http://www.ccmmagazine.com/search/11534871/ CCMagazine.com's Live Chat Transcript with Chris] * {{Cite web |date=March 24, 2006 |title=Chris Rice Hits Mainstream Top 20 |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/chris-rice-hits-mainstream-top-20-5896/ |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119070038/http://www.christianpost.com/article/20060324/5896_Chris_Rice_Hits_Mainstream_Top_20.htm |archive-date=January 19, 2013 |website=The Christian Post}} * {{Cite web |date=August 20, 2005 |title=Chris Rice Seeks Broader Audience With 'Amusing' |url=http://www.christianpost.com/news/chris-rice-seeks-broader-audience-with-amusing-5708/ |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119044654/http://www.christianpost.com/article/20050820/5708_Chris_Rice_Seeks_Broader_Audience_With_'Amusing'.htm |archive-date=January 19, 2013 |website=The Christian Post}} * [http://www.growthtrac.com/artman/publish/chris-rice-straight-from-the-heart-584.php Growthtrac Music article titled, "Chris Rice: Straight from the Heart"] * [http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2005/chrisrice-0605.html Christianity Today's June 2005 Interview with Chris] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071112130802/http://www.livingthesolution.com/chrisrice.htm Living the Solutions Music Review of Run the Earth...Watch the Sky]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Chris}} Category:20th-century births Category:Living people Category:People from Clinton, Maryland Category:American children's musicians Category:American performers of Christian music Category:Singers from Maryland Category:Union University alumni Category:20th-century American singers Category:21st-century American singers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)