One Christian musician has had two number 1 albums in the past year but has gotten almost zero notice in the press and even less play on Christian radio. Their name is Semler, a.k.a. Grace Baldridge, a 30-year-old former pastor’s kid from South Carolina whose folksy songwriting, punk-country guitar riffs, and resonating message of pain and hope took their 2021 EPs — Preacher’s Kid and Late Bloomer — to the top spot on the iTunes Christian charts.
The queer-identifying Baldridge (all pronouns; “I really have no preference”) grew up listening to CCM, or contemporary Christian music, counting bands like Relient K, Thousand Foot Krutch, Stellar Kart, Switchfoot, and Audio Adrenaline among their favorites.
But if you told her she’d one
