I’m Not My Yesterday Answers the Church Car Park Where Howard Gripp Changed Course at 46
The Wisconsin Songwriter’s Second Single with Producer Billy Smiley Points Towards a Spring 2027 Album
At 46, Wisconsin songwriter Howard Gripp sat in the car park of a small church, and his life and faith took a new direction there. I’m Not My Yesterday, the Americana-leaning single he wrote with producer Billy Smiley, came out on 11 September. It is his plainest answer yet to everything that came before that day.
Howard Gripp’s I’m Not My Yesterday is in the playlist below, and his coverage across our titles is gathered on his artist profile. The single reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Play it first, then read on for the day that shaped it.
Before I’m Not My Yesterday, Howard Gripp Spent Years as a Wisconsin Rock and Roller
Gripp’s music started behind a drum kit. In his own telling, the first time he played for an audience outside school was at 12. He was drumming for his church’s production of Godspell. By 16 he had formed his own band, and for years afterwards he was, in his own words, a rock and roller.
Away from the stage, those years brought marriage, fatherhood and a career in IT. However, they also brought divorce, depression and, eventually, a suicide attempt. Then, at 46, he found himself in that church car park, and before long the songwriting followed the faith. Today he writes and records as a Christian artist from Wisconsin Rapids. He describes the change as a new season of life, built on years of musical experience.
Since then, the catalogue has grown quickly. His debut EP, Rescued Redeemed Forgiven, arrived in 2024, and I Can Feel The Change followed in 2025. In July 2026, Welcome To Your Life opened the next chapter as the first song from his first full-length album. That song began during a quiet moment by the ocean on a beach holiday. Its lyric pictures footprints disappearing beneath the tide.
Who Plays on I’m Not My Yesterday, From Billy Smiley to Ron Hemby
I’m Not My Yesterday is the second song from those album sessions. Gripp wrote it with Billy Smiley, who also produced it. Smiley is best known as a founding member of the Christian rock band White Heart. On this record he does a bit of everything: he co-arranged the song, plays electric and acoustic guitar and sings backing vocals.
Gripp sings lead and plays acoustic guitar. Alongside him, Mike Payne adds electric and acoustic guitars, Chris Brown plays bass and Miles McPherson handles drums and percussion. Jonathan Brown plays the organ and the piano. Meanwhile, Ron Hemby, Smiley’s bandmate in The River Cryers, joins him on the backing vocals. Finally, Billy Whittington mixed and mastered the track with Smiley. His credits include Vince Gill, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant.
The album itself was recorded in Franklin, Tennessee, at Castle Recording Studios and Peter Frampton’s Studio Phenix. It is due in spring 2027. This single is laid-back and Americana-leaning, and it runs four minutes and 16 seconds. It came out through NRT Music. On his own pages, Gripp files the music under Americana and heartland rock, faith-based and drawn from real life.
What I’m Not My Yesterday Answers for Howard Gripp and the Listeners He Wrote It For
The song turns on one declaration, the line that gives it its name: I’m not my yesterday, grace has washed my past away. In the note under the official video, Gripp says the song comes from his own journey of change. He also hopes it reaches someone who needs encouragement today. In other words, it is written for anyone still carrying regret or shame, and it tells them the story is not over yet.
The Three Albums Howard Gripp Loves Most and the Seasons Behind Them
Gripp has also named the three albums he loves most: Ben Fuller by Ben Fuller, Double Take by Jeremy Camp and Phil Wickham by Phil Wickham. He has seen all three artists live. Each time, he says, their humility and their devotion to singing for God stood out.
Two of them wrote from the far side of their hardest seasons, which is where this song comes from too. Jeremy Camp wrote I Still Believe after his first wife, Melissa, died of cancer in 2001. The song reached the top five of the US Hot Christian Songs chart. Later, it gave its title to a 2020 film. Similarly, Ben Fuller grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont and moved to Nashville in 2018. More than 14 years into an addiction, he heard the gospel at a church in Franklin, Tennessee. Later, his debut single, Who I Am, went to number one. Gripp’s album was recorded in that same town.
So the natural listener for I’m Not My Yesterday already keeps Camp and Fuller close. It also suits anyone who likes Americana with a testimony inside it, played by a real band rather than programmed. For that listener, Howard Gripp has made a song about leaving the past behind that never pretends the past was easy.
From the NewMusic.News curator team: “Seven people play and sing on I’m Not My Yesterday, yet the song still rests on a single line of faith. That balance, a full band in service of one plain declaration, is why it sits as easily on an Americana playlist as on a Christian rock one.”
I’m Not My Yesterday plays at the top of this page, and it is also on Apple Music as a single. Follow Howard Gripp on Spotify, Apple Music, the YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X. His Linktree and official website collect the rest.
