Published: May 07, 2008 10:40 pm            

Friends & Neighbors: Nicol Sponberg

Two years ago, Nicol Sponberg was dealing with tremendous change. Not only was she a brand new mom, she was also a newcomer to Whitfield County. Then she got a call from an employee of Curb Records in Nashville.

“Crazy In Love,” the third single from her solo album “Resurrection,” was on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and predicted to reach the Top 20. Sponberg, already a multi-Dove Award winner as a former member of the worship trio Selah, was suddenly staring at something completely unexpected.

Crossover success.

“I was like, ‘What?’ I hadn’t toured or done any promo. It went up the charts on its own,” said Sponberg.

The song peaked at No. 13 and was one of the Top 30 most played adult contemporary songs of 2006, according to www.christianmusicplanet.com. Sponberg, 37, can understand the song’s appeal.

“It captures that overwhelming feeling of being in love, when you can’t eat or can’t sleep,” she said. “I think everyone can relate to it. It’s just one of those songs where you roll your window down in the summer and blast it.”

When she recorded “Crazy In Love,” Sponberg had just married her husband, Greg, following an intense nine-and-a-half week courtship. The couple met at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago in February 2003, when a lovestruck Greg approached Sponberg following a performance by Selah.

“I expected his little wife to come around the corner anytime, but one never did,” she said. “I had never met anyone like him before. I didn’t have any feelings of ‘No, this isn’t the right person.’”

The couple settled into an apartment in downtown Chicago so Greg could complete his studies at Moody. There he met and struck up a strong friendship with fellow student Tyson Griffin of Tunnel Hill. When Greg was finally done with school, the couple couldn’t afford to stay in Chicago any longer and had to move somewhere. But where?

“We were ready to get out of the city life,” said Sponberg, a native of Detroit. “I had lived in Nashville and wanted to get back to the South. We had visited the Griffins here a few times and liked the area. It helped that we knew people here already.”

Curb Records re-released the “Resurrection” CD in April 2007 on the heels of the success of “Crazy In Love.” As a result, the title track began to get steady airplay on contemporary Christian radio. To date, the CD has sold approximately 40,000 copies along with an unknown number of downloads, according to Sponberg. However, she continued to do very little promotion for the album, preferring instead to focus her energies on being a mom and building a team ministry with her husband.

“Greg’s a dynamic speaker, very intelligent with a lot to say, but he’s modest to a fault,” she said. “I’m trying to get him to speak at more of my appearances.”

Currently Sponberg is recuperating from a C-section following the March birth of the couple’s second child, Luke. Their daughter Summer is 2. Her next appearance is scheduled for May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Wink Theatre at a concert presented by Tunnel Hill First Baptist Church. The event will also feature her brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Molly Smith; youth from Tunnel Hill First Baptist; and the Rock Bridge Community Church worship team. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased in advance by calling (706) 673-2085.

After that, the couple plan to resume their ministry full time, traveling around the country. Sponberg’s third album, this one of worship songs, is awaiting release on Curb Records. In the meantime, she and Greg are enjoying being in Northwest Georgia.

“The Griffins are wonderful, hospitable people,” she said. “And it’s wonderful to see green and mountains after living in Illinois with the flatlands. We may not stay here long-term, but we definitely don’t regret coming here.”

        

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