West wrote most of his first songs in the sanctuary of his father's church while he was at home during college breaks. In October 1997, he went on a three-city tour to support the release of
September Sun.
Happy (2003–2004) 's Winter Wonder Slam tour in December 2005 After signing with
Universal South Records on August 23, 2002, The album's producers Kenny Greenberg and Jason Houser co-wrote the song "
More" with West. The track was his first and most successful radio single to date, staying at No. 1 on
R&R's Christian Adult Contemporary chart for a record-breaking nine weeks. It was the most played Christian AC song of 2004 Two additional songs, "The End" and "You Know Where to Find Me", were also released as singles off the album. Beginning in late September 2004, West joined
Avalon and
Mark Schultz on a 40-city fall tour, which concluded at the end of November. In 2005, he was nominated for five
Dove Awards, including "New Artist of the Year" and "Song of the Year". He won the "Recorded Music Packaging of the Year" Dove Award for his debut album
Happy. In early 2005, he was on the WinterJam 2005 tour, hosted by
NewSong, with
tobyMac,
Building 429,
Tait, and
Rachael Lampa.
History and vocal problems (2005–2007) With Kenny Greenberg and Jason Houser once again as producers, Matthew West began recording for his second studio album in early 2005. The first single off the album, "Next Thing You Know", was released June 20, a day before the album's release. The theme of the title track "History" was inspired by a
R&R music news headline "Matthew West Makes History", in reference to his first album,
Happy. "It's not every day you read a headline like that with your name in it that calls you a history maker," he said. Beginning on September 14, 2005, he kicked off the 30-city
History 101 tour, his first headlining tour, which included guest musicians
Shawn McDonald and
Paul Wright. He then joined
tobyMac's Winter Wonder Slam tour, beginning on December 1, 2005, along with
John Reuben,
BarlowGirl,
GRITS, and
DJ Maj. Two additional songs were released off
History as singles: "Only Grace" and the title track "History". His independent album
Sellout was re-released in 2006 on Universal South Records. West said that he began to experience "some vocal fatigue" in April 2007. He said, "I had lost some of my vocal range, staying on higher notes and lower notes. I even began having a hard time speaking." At a vocal check-up in response to the issue, West's doctors at the
Nashville Vanderbilt Voice Center discovered "hemorrhaging caused by some
polyps". Afterward, he was prescribed a two-month period of silence for
vocal rest.
Something to Say (2008–2010) His next single "
You Are Everything" was released in late 2007. The song was available as a free download from West's website. He also recorded a duet ("
Christmas Makes Me Cry") with
American Idol finalist
Mandisa, which was released as a
Christmas radio single in November 2007, from Mandisa's
Christmas Joy EP. It reached No. 8 on
Billboard's Top Christian albums chart, and peaked at No. 159 on the
Billboard 200 chart, making it his first Billboard 200 album . It was produced by
Brown Bannister,
Ed Cash, and Christopher Stevens. West said in an interview that all of the album's songs had already been written and the title "Something to Say" had already been decided "months before I found out that I was going to have nothing to say." The first
radio single released from the album was "
You Are Everything". In March 2008, the song reached No. 1 on
R&R's Christian
AC chart. "Something to Say", the album's title track, was also released to radio, receiving airplay in June 2008. Matthew West guested on
tobyMac's 26-city "Boomin' Beyond Measure" tour along with
Jeremy Camp. The tour ran from February 6 through March 21, 2008. He was featured on the
Billy Graham television special ''America's Dream: Chasing Happiness
, which aired in the U.S. on March 1–9, 2008. The appearance included a world premiere of his music video for "Nothing Else", a song from History. "The Motions" was released as his next single, placing at No. 1 on R&R'''s Christian
AC chart in April 2009. In 2009 he had a song on an album by country artist
Jo Dee Messina, with another under consideration by
American Idol finalist
Danny Gokey. In December 2009, "
The Motions" was Grammy-nominated for Best Gospel Song, West's first Grammy nomination.
Recent years (2010–present) " "My Own Little World", the first single from Matthew West's new album, was released on August 23, 2010. The album,
The Story of Your Life, was released October 5, 2010. According to West it is a response to thousands of life stories his fans shared with him. "The first day, I got 1,000 stories. All of a sudden, I was like, 'Holy cow, something special is about to take place.' I rented a cabin in Tennessee, about 25 minutes from my house, that felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere. And I spent two months in that cabin reading 10,000 stories," the singer/songwriter reported in an interview with CBN.com. West also starred in
The Heart of Christmas. In 2011, he released a Christmas song featuring
Country Music Hall of Fame member
Vince Gill entitled "Leaving Heaven".
Into the Light was released in September 2012. West's Into the Light Tour was in September, October, and November 2013. He released his sixth studio album,
Live Forever, on April 28, 2015. His seventh studio album,
All In, was set to release on September 22, 2017, to be immediately followed by his
All In tour. His single "The Motions" was certified
Platinum by
RIAA. In February 2020, West released
Brand New on his own imprint, Story House Music, under a new deal with Sony's Provident Music Group. A deluxe edition followed in April 2021. On February 17, 2023, West released a 22-song album titled
My Story Your Glory. == Other songwriting ==