Michael Card Biography

Michael Card is an American, Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host from Franklin, Tennessee. He is best known for his contributions in contemporary Christian music, which combine folk-style melodies and instrumentation with an in-depth study of the Bible. Since his first appearance in 1981, he has sold more than 4 million albums and has written 19 No. 1 singles. He has also authored several books, including the Gold Medallion Book Award winner, A Sacred Sorrow.

Michael Card Age

Michael Card was born in Madison, Tennessee on April 11, 1957. He is 62 years as of 2019.

Michael Card Family

Card was born in Madison, Tennessee. He is the son of a doctor and the grandson of a Baptist minister. He attended and received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biblical studies from Western Kentucky University. In 1997, he was awarded university’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Michael Card Wife

He has been married to Susan Card since 1983

Michael Card Career

His studies in physics and astronomy led to a job at a planetarium, allowing Card to fund his education. In 2005, Card worked on a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Classical Literature.

His start as a professional musician began when his professor and mentor, William L. Lane, asked him to write some music to accompany weekly sermons at their church. Card’s friend and fellow musician, Randy Scruggs, then requested that he record a demo tape to help Scruggs get a job as a producer.

The record label agreed to hire Scruggs as long as his first project featured Card. Since then, Card has released thirty-two original albums and six compilation albums. His project, Starkindler, is composed of Card’s interpretations of traditional Celtic hymns. The compilations often include one or two new songs along with previously released material. Card writes a vast majority of the music he records with the exception of Starkindler.

He has structured many of his albums around a unifying theme. The songs from The Beginning are all based on the Pentateuch. The individual songs have subjects such as Genesis, Leviticus, Abraham, Isaac, and Moses. Additionally, he is particularly adept at relating difficult or obscure concepts from the Old Testament to more understandable themes from the New Testament.

El Shaddai is his most famous, which was also recorded by Amy Grant. Grant’s recording was named No. 326 on the RIAA’s list of 365 Songs of the Century in 2001. Other popular Card songs include Immanuel, Joy in the Journey, and Heal Our Land. Heal Our Land was commissioned as the 1993 National Day of Prayer’s theme song.

Despite his success in music, he has always maintained that his music career is secondary to his calling as a Bible teacher. He has distanced himself from the CCM industry by criticizing the promotion of personalities over musical content and the shifting emphasis away from God in order to sell more albums.

One current music project is his writing and mentoring of musicians under the ByFor.org Project.

As An Author

Michael Card has authored or co-authored twenty-two books. He originally started writing as a way to share the knowledge he accumulated while researching his songs. He found his studies were too in-depth to condense everything he had learned into one short piece. The books that resulted from album research bear the same titles as the albums.

He then branched out to other subjects not specifically based on his music, such as the Gospel of John, homeschooling, and Christian discipleship and mentoring. In 2014, Card completed the Biblical Imagination Series, a four-volume set which takes a deeper look at each of the gospels and the voice of the writers behind them.

Radio host

Besides touring and writing, Card also hosted a weekly radio program, In the Studio with Michael Card. It was carried by stations in 48 states, Canada, and the Caribbean. It was also available through Internet streaming audio and as a podcast. The show was an amalgam of talk, musical performances, and Bible study. The show ceased production in March 2009 but was then revived on June 18, 2018, with a mix of completely new and classic material.

Michael Card Net Worth

An American, Christian singer-songwriter, musician, author, and radio host, whose primary source of income is from his musical career. However, his estimated net worth is still under review.