In April 2013 Nigel released his first solo worship CD 'Sunrise to Sunset' showcasing 12 of his best songs in a variety of musical styles, and including a guest vocal from Joanne Hogg (Iona) on the song 'Creator God', a song which was also featured on Kingsway's 'Heart of Worship (Vol 10)' album.

A stunning debut album from the heart of a gifted worship leader who finds inspiration, not only from Scripture and the simplicity of Psalms, but also from the poetry of hymn-writers and the beauty of his native Irish countryside.

Drawing from gospel, folk, soul and jazz, this album takes you on an uplifting journey of soothing sounds and thoughtful lyrics, all packaged beautifully in digipack with 16 page full-colour booklet.

"Between 2010 and 2012, Northern Ireland-based singer/songwriter and whistle player Nigel Cameron took a career break from the civil service to record a sumptuous album of songs based around various psalms and scriptures that seek to praise the creator God.

Sitting in front of a lush acou stic backdrop, Cameron's pleasingly unfussy but emotive voice delivers each song with warmth and skill with upbeat tracks like the opener "Lord, I Believe" and "Start Spreading The News" - the latter a slant on the song of Moses found in Exodus - showing what the man has to offer in both the singing and writing stakes.

Keeping things varied and interesting, Cameron's brief foray into light jazz territory in "Take Joy My King" is arguably this album's highlight whilst the worshipful "It's So Good" is a competent piece of blue eyed soul.

Elsewhere, Cameron lets his Celtic roots show in the ethereal title track and an utterly gorgeous adaptation of the John Wesley hymn "O Lord, My Love" which, like the stunning instrumental "Winter Peace", showcases the man's talents as an Irish whistle player with all the lilting and heartstring-tugging his instrument of choice brings.

A guest appearance from Iona's Joanne Hogg on the stripped-back "Creator God" says it all in terms of the quality found on this expertly executed offering."  

Cross Rhythms 9/10

Tony: In 2012 you released 'Sunrise To Sunset' - tell me about that:

Nigel: I'd had many things in my journey which drew me to leading worship. I never thought I could be a person who leads a congregation in worship, because I don't play a guitar. Worship leaders strum a guitar, but I don't do that. It was my former pastor at Strandtown Baptist in east Belfast who said, 'Nige, I believe you can lead our congregation in worship. I believe you have the character and the sensitivity. All you need is to align yourself with somebody who plays the guitar, or a piano, and work with them.' In comes my best mate, Phil Hart, who is this finger-style guitar player inspired by Phil Keaggy. He was the drummer in my first band, Soul Response. We started to get creative with worship sets. We went through a phase of having an early service, which the church leaders were trying to make the same as the later service. But it never was the same. I think people appreciate something a bit more reflective at nine in the morning. We would arrange some acoustic guitar and whistles. It was a great training ground for me.

We started doing some men's conferences - various worship teams who liked a Celtic sound - and I ended up being invited to co-ordinate the worship team for FocusFest with Geraldine Latty, which allowed me to arrange music. But in the back of it all I had a longing to be a songwriter. I didn't think I could write songs: I'm not a lyricist. A revelation came to me one day after Geraldine Latty had been to Belfast and we'd had this humungous rehearsal. I was divorced at that time - I had a bad experience way back. Everybody left, back to their families, and this single guy who directed all the music was just giving thanks for what had happened. I turned to Psalm 92 and I started to play the piano. It was a gospely song, "It's So Good To Praise The Lord". It sounds like a basic music thing, but when I started to play the piano I realised that if I play something different on my left hand to the right hand it can sound quite gospely. I had written songs before that, but I'd say that was my first authentic expression of worship coming from my heart. I realised that I don't need to be a good lyricist: it's all in there, in the Bible, in Scripture. That's why I've developed a love for the Psalms.

Wind on a few years. I went to a financial adviser to sort out some finance problems. I was a civil servant. I loved my job, but it had started to define who I was; it was making it impossible for me to be away for longer than a week. I had a desire to be creative: I was into photography, I was trying to develop music, and there just wasn't enough time in the day. I went to him and he said, 'Have you ever thought of taking a career break? This financial stuff, it's peanuts. We can sort that out in no time. We could make that work for you. What about setting up your photography? What about writing those songs? What about recording an album?' He started dreaming with me. I was like, 'I couldn't. How could I do that?' He was like, 'It's really easy. Here's what you could have for a year to live on. Why not?' He spoke over me about, 'Your Heavenly Father is a rich Heavenly Father. He longs for people to express his creativity through the gifts that he has given them.'

I left that job behind in the civil service, took a career break - initially to start a photography business but realised that God had other plans. Number one, my mother had to have an operation - so I had a lot of time just to be there for her. Then I set up my photography business, but I discovered who I was. I discovered that I wasn't this business entrepreneur whose passion for photography was to make money from it. I realised that it was how I loved to worship. I loved to get out into nature, to spend time by the sea. I loved to see the sky when the sun's setting. Because of where I lived when I was on my career break, I used to go for these amazing walks round this island that I called my island. God started to speak to me about the beauty of his creation in really powerful ways for a period of maybe two months, again through the help of somebody giving me some counselling and advice to help me get into a rhythm. He said, 'Email me every day at 9.30 and tell me that you have gone out for your morning walk and you've had this time with the Lord.'

I was starting to slip into lying in bed and thinking, 'What am I doing here?' When I started to go out every morning for this walk, with the encouragement of this great Christian brother who was calling out of me something I didn't realise was in me, I couldn't wait to get up the next morning. All of a sudden I started to write this poem about sunrise to sunset, which became the song which inspired me. In the end I took a second year on career break with another bit of cashing in an endowment. The first year had been focused on my photography; the second year was songwriting. I used to sit in the church. I had a lot of freedom there just to play piano, to record little demos into the piano. I wrote maybe 50 songs in that year, read so many books, one of which I read time and time again, Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. People used to come up to me when I was in a coffee shop reading this book and say, 'What are you doing there, wasting your life reading this book?' And I'd say, 'It's a really great book! It's all about God's best.'

I needed encouragement. I was full of all this self-doubt. I was yet to have a revelation that God loves me for me, for who I am; all the troubled stuff I've been through, he can redeem - he has such a bright future for me. The money was starting to run out. When am I going to do this album? I did not know. But in the meantime I decided to try and contact a few people. A friend of mine in Bluetree put me in contact with a record producer, a guy with a great heart called Paul Mills. He's produced Robin Mark and Bluetree. I didn't realise he is an amazing producer from Nashville. This guy, bless his heart, on a flight from Nashville to Belfast when he was recording Bluetree, he listened to all my demos. He met up with me for coffee for two hours and he says, 'Nigel, there's definitely an album in you. I really encourage you to pursue it. Some of your songs remind me of Elton John. They're different, there's so much variety in your writing. My advice would be to get together with your friend from Bluetree, and he could play the drums, he could surround you with some of his contacts. Make this album, show your hand as a songwriter. Maybe not all your songs are congregational. My challenge to you would be to get into Scripture and see if there's a nugget you can find that can give you a congregational song.'

I took all of his advice. The song of Moses in Exodus 15 gave me the most congregational song I wrote, which shares a title with Ol' Blue Eyes, "Start Spreading The News". The Message translation of the song of Moses is full of these amazing little phrases. Another friend got involved, a guy called Nathan Jess who's done really well for himself now, and I celebrate his involvement in this. I went to his house one day and asked him, 'Could you help me go through all of these little songs that I have and pick out what you think would make good songs for this album?' He did that and he was really encouraging. He played acoustic guitar on the album, and I ended up contacting his mate, Andy Dougherty, who had started this studio.

The story about having no money was amazing. Just at a time when my career break had run out, I really needed to go back into the civil service to earn some more money