Wen Reagan is an independent musician and producer from Durham, NC. Wen splits his time between writing and performing, studying church history at Duke University, and leading worship for Christ Community Church in Chapel Hill, NC. Wen has been writing and performing since 2004 when he released his first solo effort, The Great Facade. In 2007, he released his sophomore effort, Empires. In November of 2011, Wen, his wife Casey, and good friend Stuart Pierce released their Christmas album, Epiphany. Since then, Wen has contributed several songs to different Cardiphonia projects [http://cardiphonia.bandcamp.com/], a national collective of local worship leaders intent on reviving old hymn texts with new musical settings to benefit the church. For more information on Wen and his music, check out www.wenreagan.com. With the lyrical influences of Derek Webb and Andrew Peterson fused with the musical influences of Caedmon's Call, Wilco, and Steven Delopoulos (Burlap to Cashmere), Singer/Songwriter/Producer Wen Reagan provides a provocative inspection of kingdom building in his concept album, Empires. Empires questions the disparity between the consumption-driven, prosperity-based empire building of American Christianity and the humiliating, self-sacrificing kingdom building of Jesus' biblical witness. Songs such as "The Christian Nation" and "The Empire Politik" question the myth of American national righteousness and the marriage between Christianity and American politics, while "The Empire of the Ministry Industry" and "The Kingdom Come" consider the state of the American church in regards to the consumption-driven market economy that surrounds and permeates it. Other songs, such as "The Kingdom of Broken Hearts & Kings" and "The Empire of the Heart" provide a more introspective look into the individual empires we all build on a daily basis; Empires that, in the end, will all turn to dust. At the heart of the album are the songs "Babylon" and "The Rising and Falling", two pieces that both proclaim the transience of the empires of the world while also proclaiming the eternity of the Kingdom of God. Throughout Empires, Wen weaves passionate story-telling and honest conviction with a rich diversity of sonic flair to both encourage and challenge the church to reconsider its history and place in the world as the body of Christ. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.