Tenth Avenue North Bid Farewell

It’s a day none of us ever saw coming but, unfortunately, the day Tenth Avenue North bid farewell to the Christian music scene is upon us. Teasing big news this morning fans expectedly got excited and now those same fans are mourning the loss of one of Christian music’s stalwarts. While firmly apart of the CCM/AC radio sphere, Tenth Avenue North weren’t afraid to step out and stretch those borders from time to time; perhaps most notably with their The Things We’ve Been Afraid To Say EP where they breached topics their peers never would, or perhaps when they teamed up with Derek Minor & KB to speak for those slaves who can’t speak.

The band’s heartfelt penned farewell letter can be read in full on their Instagram post below.

View this post on Instagram

Dear friends, Words fail when it comes to “farewell” Even the best goodbyes are bittersweet. Maybe we’re made for eternity after all. 20 years ago, Tenth Avenue North was nothing but three friends goofing around in a PBA dorm room. We never dreamt it would take us around the globe, not in a million years. But here we are, two decades later, shaking our heads, grateful, in awe. We’re grateful for all the stories, all the tears, for all all the memories we’ve made. Did we mention the music? If you count independent releases, Tenth Avenue North has birthed 15 original music projects. Fifteen. It’s been a glorious, hard-fought, and oftentimes, breathtaking journey. We feel like we’ve seen it all. The Fights. The Victories. Forgiveness. Mercy. Oh yeah. Truck loads of mercy. And now it seems a season is coming to a close. One by one, band members have been moving on. We don’t think this is a sign of unhealth, but quite the opposite. After twenty years, we are all dreaming new dreams, and it’s time to encourage one another to go. Go and do all that is in our hearts to do. That said, tomorrow we will begin the “Finally Living Tour.” Or maybe we’ll now call it, “The Final Farewell Tour,” because that’s what this, a farewell. It is with a great deal of joy and sorrow all mixed up together, we want you to know this will be our last tour as Tenth Avenue North. There will be some summer shows and festivals sprinkled through the rest of this year, and maybe a bit more music as well, but as far as we can tell, this will be the last tour we ever do. We don’t exactly know what the future holds, but we believe this; when the way isn’t clear before us, we do well to pay attention to what doors are being closed behind us. Leaning into this guidance, we are going to lean forward into the unknown. We love you all. It has been an incredible journey. May the God who gave us the grace to continue, give us the grace to end well. Here’s to one last tour together. Hope to see you out there. Cheers, Tenth Avenue North

A post shared by TENTH AVENUE NORTH | #NoShame (@tenthavenuenorth) on Feb 26, 2020 at 1:33pm PST

I’m sure we’ll do a full tribute to Tenth Avenue North at some point, and maybe even count down our favorite ten TAN songs, but for now we join you all in mourning the loss of one of the best bands to ever grace the Christian world and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their two decades of awesome ministry and life changing music.

As they mention in the post, you can catch them on their Finally Living Tour with Micah Tyler starting tomorrow in Gadsden, AL and various festivals in the summer. You can find their tour dates here. Please go out and support them if you can. Oh and give them a high five from us!

If you’re feeling really low after this news, know this, their music will forever be by your side to comfort you…