Costa Mesa, CA

A record company founded out of a Costa Mesa, California chapel in 1971 by Chuck Smith, Jr. to promote the praise & worship singers and songwriters who were just beginning to emerge outside of the traditional church music circle, Maranatha! Music grew into a publishing and recording label giant in the CCM arena. The label also started several ongoing praise song album series, including the popular Praise Band series, which featured guitar-driven worship music. The first seven albums in the series, issued between 1989 and 1996, were produced by musician Tommy Coomes and attributed to the Maranatha Praise Band. Coomes left to form his own praise group, the Tommy Coomes Band, in 1996, but since Maranatha owned the rights to both the original name and the series, both continued without Coomes or the original musicians. ~ Steve Leggett