Mike Donehey, the former lead singer of Tenth Avenue North, has put out his first solo project with an EP called, Work of Art

2020 was started out tough for Donehey as, during the final farewell tour of Tenth Avenue North, the tour was cut short due to COVID shutdowns. 

"This EP is full of songs about the beauty, the difficulty, the work, and the reward of relationships. It's about listening. It's about radical acceptance. It's about embracing the work it takes to accept each other. It's about believing it might not be easy, but it's going to get better. I love these songs so much, and I trust you will too," Donehey posted on Facebook on the day of the release, March 3. 

He not only said goodbye to a band he'd been with for decades, but he also contracted the novel coronavirus. For people who didn't know what that was like, Donehey shared his experience on his social media during that time.

Hello friends. You did it. You blew up my Kickstarter and so today, I get to give everyone who donated $10+ the first...

Posted by Mike Donehey on Tuesday, March 2, 2021

"There’s an intense freedom I’m feeling working on songs on my own. Ironically, I feel like it’s releasing me to be much more eclectic than I was before. I have a very broad appreciation for genre and lyric, and now, on my own, I’m able to explore much more unchartered sonic territory than I have before," he says in an interview with The Christian Beat.

The father of four is also a published author, releasing his first book Finding God's Life for My Will in 2019. 

"The songs are about listening, becoming less defensive, radical ownership and radical acceptance," says Donehey. "My full-length album is due in the fall, and it is about my spiritual journey and the things I’ve been wrestling with lately. From starting over to stepping into the unknown, to forgiving people I don’t want to, to loving my wife and children better."

Donehey decided to run a Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming full-length solo project being released in fall and he was blown away by fans support, reaching his intended goal in only 13 hours. 

Raising more money than needed, more than $100,000, on top of this EP, Donehey is releasing a second EP, A Father and Two Sons, which is "an exploration of a parable from Jesus with three thematic songs each from a different character’s perspective and how we react to the scandal of grace."

The second EP is scheduled to come out mid-March, 2021. 

As the pandemic shut down their final tour, Tenth Avenue North is doing two more shows. The band is planning a two-night epic live event from a large church in Orlando, FL on April 22nd and April 23rd at 7:30pm ET.