We continue sharing more picks from our UTR Critics of the best albums & songs of 2016 so far -- including Gungor, Griffin House, The Gray Havens, Brettan Cox, & more.

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Producer Notes:

This episode was NOT supposed to happen (true).  Our summer hiatus was going to be 8 weeks long and begin this week.  But as we scoured and sampled all the great picks from the UTR Critics, we decided to make it a 2-part episode, and shrink our summer break by one week. These episodes are so fun to produce, and it's always great getting input from our Music Panelist friends.  It always results in some new discoveries for us too.  In fact, this week will be the UTR debut of three artists: Clay Kirchenbauer, Anchor & Braille, and Dogs of Peace. I'm excited that we feature some UTR favorites (The Gray Havens, Gungor, Griffin House), two veteran artists making comebacks (Out of the Grey, Dogs of Peace), and a couple of stellar female vocalists that we are falling in love with (Brettan Cox, Holly Ann).  Over the next 7 weeks during our hiatus, we'll be picking out some true episode gems from our archives, beginning with the re-airing of our highly acclaimed 3-part tribute special to Rich Mullins (originally from 2012).