Sometimes you just need the words.

Paul Cardall is known for lyrical piano music that speaks to the heart and the soul, but for his latest CD, he says, he needed to say things he couldn't say instrumentally.

It's not surprising that those words are ones of praise and gratitude to the Lord. For one thing, Cardall is in a place in life where he feels extremely thankful. Not only is his music career going well, but he and his wife recently had their first child, a daughter they named Eden.

All the while his wife was expecting, Cardall was so caught up with the idea of fatherhood, so overwhelmed with the changes that were coming, "that I couldn't seem to write. I only wrote one song that whole time." It was an instrumental piece that he titled "Eden." After Eden was born, "I just wanted to shout my love and gratitude. I began writing again, but I found the songs all had lyrics. I found I needed the words to voice the things I needed to say."

That was the genesis for his latest CD, which is called "Songs of Praise." "It represents my love for God and for my family. It expresses my appreciation to the Creator for life." And it does so, he says, in a way that's very different from his usual offerings — not only in words but in sound. It's definitely more like Christian rock, he says.

"I've listened to Christian music since I was young. I've always loved it. And I've always known that if I ever wrote songs with words, that's what I'd want to sing."

He also knew that "I wanted to sing it for the world, for all people of faith. " He hopes the songs will be meaningful to his own LDS community, but "I also want to reach out to any person that has faith." So for the CD, he asked Steele Croswhite, an Evangelical Christian who works with the Rock Church in Salt Lake City, to do the vocals.

Croswhite brings not only a rich sound but also a depth of experience to the task. He was born in Phoenix but grew up in Salt Lake City, where he got into music. "For a time I was in a touring band, and we played with some big-name entertainers," he says. (Among them: Sheryl Crow, Foo Fighters, Cheap Trick, Train, Maroon 5.)

Then, he says, "I found myself back in Salt Lake, and I fell in love with God. I started doing music for him." He met Cardall at a Michael W. Smith concert; they were both there as fans of the Christian singer.

"Then we kept crossing paths," says Cardall. It turned out that they also had a mutual friend in producer Jonathon Shults. "I kept meeting Steele in the studio, and I loved to hear him sing. He became one of my favorite Christian artists. I knew I wanted him on the CD. It felt like I was using one of the big boys."

They asked Shults to work on the project with them, and "it was really fun," says Shults. "They are two of my favorite artists. We wondered if we could bridge the gap between Paul's light piano and Steele's rock guitar, but it came together well."