Texas songwriter Butch Hancock once wrote that "Spanish is a loving tongue." It's certainly sweet on Seth Condrey — and so is the Gospel Music Association.

Woodstock High graduate Condrey, 24, vaulted into the big leagues of the Christian music world with a Dove Award nomination, the GMA's annual honors, for Spanish language album of the year with "De Corazón a Corazón."

Frank Niemeir/AJC (ENLARGE)
Seth Condrey is among this year's nominees for the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards.
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RELATED: • Visit Seth Condrey's MySpace page • Dove Awards lift Gospel Music Channel • Check out the Gospel Music Channel site • Seth Condrey's Spanish language interview onYouTube

When the Dove nominees were released in February, Georgia artists were everywhere, including many familiar names. Casting Crowns' frontman Mark Hall of McDonough leads the pack with six of his own and four with his band, and recent Grammy nominees Karen Peck and New River have three. Duluth's Aaron Shust, Atlanta's Darlene McCoy and local quintet Family Force Five are also up for awards.

Then there's Seth Condrey.

"I never even thought I'd be nominated for a Dove and that's still soaking in," he says. "I've struggled a lot with the confirmation that this is what I'm supposed to do. Once this happened, it helped confirm that there's a plan, there's something that's going to happen eventually. It's just being patient. It's a little sign from the Lord."

Condrey's first foray into the music business came with an independent release, "My All," in 2004. Then he met Barry Landis, former president of Word Records and head of Atlantic Records' Christian division, through producer and musician Scotty Wilbanks about three years ago.

Landis became Condrey's manager and was soon hired to head a new Christian music division, Kosmos, for Koch Entertainment, one of the nation's largest independent music companies.

It all came together when Landis sent Condrey to the local law offices of Greenberg Traurig, the firm that handles Koch's legal work. Landis gives much of the credit to one of the firm's advisers, Don Perry.

"Don brought everybody in and Seth played," Landis says. "There were ladies crying. And that's when I felt like, OK, we've really got something with this kid. I think this is a guy we need to sign. He's making lawyers cry."

Not only can he make folks cry, he can do it in Spanish.

After high school, Condrey went to Argentina for a year of Bible school, where he studied Spanish.

"I came back and started working landscaping, hanging out with Mexican dudes, and I just picked it up," he says. "I had friends who spoke it, so I just got better and better."

"I think you ought to go ahead and get your Spanish language album done first," Landis recalls telling Condrey. He sent Condrey to Houston-based label CanZion, and they agreed. With the Dove nomination for "De Corazón a Corazón," it looks like they were right.

Condrey's next album, an English-language effort, will be released through Kosmos Records. It was initially intended for spring release, but Landis wants to ride the wave of interest that the Dove nod has generated. Now it's looking like a fall release.

Condrey, meanwhile, has a young family to support. He and his wife, Jessica, were married in early 2006 and have a 1-year-old named Titus. When he's not making music, Condrey works part time helping out local preacher and motivational speaker Christopher Coleman and takes the occasional landscaping job. He leads worship at Watermarke Church in Kennesaw, and he's working on a new Spanish-language worship program at North Point Community Church.

"I'm always leading worship somewhere on Sundays," he says.

And that's what it's all about for Condrey. "I don't consider myself the greatest guitarist in the world or the best singer, I just feel like God's blessed me with enough talent to go out and make a statement about some good stuff."

ON TV

The 39th Annual Dove Awards broadcasts live from the Grand Ole Opry House at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Gospel Music Channel.