Arden, North Carolina (March 7, 2025) — In his first new music for Sonlite Records since the release of last year’s Home, Southern Gospel master Mark Bishop delivers a charmingly crafted single devoted to the special gift of “Grandkids.”
“Before we had our first grandchild,” Bishop remembers, “everyone kept telling me that there was no love like it. I kept hearing that. Finally I asked someone, ‘wait… I love my wife and my daughters as much as I could love anyone… so it’s like that right?’ They said, ‘no… it’s a whole new love.’ I immediately dismissed it, thinking, ‘yeah, right.’ But it turns out that they were right.”
After an opening piano figure that serves to mark each section of the song, Bishopoffers his chorus and first verse over little more than finger-picked guitar:
God’s had a lot of great ideas, but the one I think I love the most,
Has to be grandkids.
There’s another chamber of your heart that opens up,
With a brand new love you didn’t know exists.
Chasing butterflies without a hope of catching one.
They don’t seem to worry, they’re just having fun.
Holding onto little hands, wading in the creek.
Sitting on the front porch swing… falling fast asleep.
With each additional verse and chorus, instrumentation and harmonies grow more prominent, though never so much as to overshadow Bishop’s intimate delivery in a memorable tribute to the unique joys of grandparenting. From start to finish, “Grandkids” is a song that’s sure to bring a smile to anyone who has — or anticipates having — grandchildren.
“It really is a whole new love,” Bishop says. “And that ‘new’ love… that’s what this song is about.”
Listen to “Grandkids” HERE.
About Mark Bishop
Mark Bishop is a Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning Christian music artist who resides in east-central Kentucky with his wife Carolyn. In 2024, Mark celebrates a forty-year career in Gospel Music as a recording artist and songwriter.
A music reviewer once said, “Mark Bishop’s music gives us the glasses to see the bigness of God in everyday happenstance.” Linda, an Amazon reviewer said simply, “You just need Mark Bishop’s music in your life.”
In 1984, along with his father and brother, The Bishops began a recording and touring career that would span seventeen years, reaching millions for Christ. The family enjoyed appearances on popular TV programs such as TNN’s Nashville Now, Crooke and Chase, The Grand Ole Opry, The World Today with John Hagee, The Bill Gaither Homecoming video series and many more. They were blessed with twenty-seven Top 40 songs, numerous #1 songs, along with countless awards and industry recognitions.
Many of the group’s most popular songs were penned by Mark. He continues to be a prolific songwriter today, writing music for his own recordings, and other artists such as Brian Free and Assurance, The Kingdom Heirs, The Kingsmen, Legacy Five, Allison Durham Speer, and many others.
Mark’s solo career began after the family group retired in 2001, with that yielding more chart-topping and #1 songs. Mark was voted “Soloist of the Year” in 2005 at the Singing News Fan Awards. In 2020, Mark’s “Beautiful Day” album was a Top-5 GRAMMY nominee for “Best Roots Gospel Album.” In 2022 he was the recipient of the “J.D. Sumner Living Legend Award” from the readers of SGN Scoops Magazine.