This drab first few weeks of January seems like the perfect time to announce a very cool and exciting concert coming here this spring.
And one that will get your hands up high in the air.
It’s the Hillsong London worship team, along with CrossRock favorites Leeland and veteran Christian rocker Lincoln Brewster on Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m.
As a sign of Hillsong’s massive popularity (and Leeland’s, too) the concert is being held at Lancaster County’s largest church, LCBC, between Manheim and Mount Joy.
Hillsong London’s modern worship has steadily grown in popularity since releasing its first live praise-and-worship album in 2004, and some of its best-known efforts include “Lord of All,” “Jesus Is” and “Hail To The King,” also the name of its new album.
And Hillsong London is indeed an offspring of the original Hillsong church in Australia, famous for worship leaders like Darlene Zschech and Reuben Morgan.
As exciting as it is having this world-famous praise and worship crew here, it will also be nice to see and hear Leeland again.
Few newer/younger Christian-music people are as interesting, or prolific, as the band’s frontman and main songwriter Leeland Mooring.
(By the way, doesn’t he just look like the Rolling Stones’ original guitarist Brian Jones … just to make us all feel old)
(Also by the way, Mooring’s brother Jack is married to Michael W. Smith’s daughter  Whitney … to make us all feel old again!)
Led by their 20-year-old singer/songwriter with the soaring, almost angelic voice, Leeland has released two studio albums.
Already, it has has received a Grammy Award nomination and two Dove Award nominations for its debut, “Sound of Melodies.”
Other great songs by Leeland include the powerful and haunting “Tears of the Saints” and the title track to “Sound of Melodies,” a bouncy, rising number.
The April show also offers Lincoln Brewster, the veteran worship leader with a strong voice and CCM radio-friendly sound.
The three will be here as part of the “Creation Worship Tour,” announced last fall by the leaders of the huge Creation East and Creation West festivals.
The date that tickets will be available for the April 16 show hasn’t been announced. Keep an eye on www.creationconcerts.com for details.

He was a key member of the band known as the Newsboys, now simply known as newsboys.
And as the new year begins, it’s been announced that guitar player Jody Davis is returning to newsboys after a five-year hiatus.
Davis, who was a member of the band from 1993-2003, contributed to many of newsboys’ greatest hits, like “Shine,” “Entertaining Angels” and “It is You.”
In 2003, he took time off to care for his daughter, Bethany, who has cerebral palsy.
He’s thrilled to be “back with my bandmates, who are some of my best friends,” Davis said. “This is a big change in my life, and I’m looking forward to the tour and new record with excitement.”
Paul Colman, who played guitar with newsboys the last three years, will be continuing his solo career and performing shows nationwide in 2009.
“My three years with newsboys were among the best of my life. I learned an immeasurable amount about music, ministry, and life, and am happy to say I left with all our friendships wonderfully intact,” Colman said.
“I always was and always will be one of newsboys’ biggest fans.”
With Colman helping out, newsboys had one of their biggest hits, “Something Beautiful.”
The band is planning to release the title track and debut single, “In The Hands Of God,” on Jan. 16 from its forthcoming May 5 project.
The band also will also embark on a 30-city “Join the Tribe” tour with special guests Decemberadio, Vota, and Bread of Stone in February.
Additional tour details, and whether or not the band is planning any visits to the Northeast, are forthcoming. For more information, visit www.newsboys.com.

As 2008 is winding down, there are no signs of Casting Crowns and the sales of at least its first-ever Christmas album “Peace On Earth” also winding down.
The group’s CD is the highest-selling Christian music package in America, according to the very latest Billboard chart.
It tops this year’s “WOW Hits” package and Amy Grant’s “The Christmas Collection,” in second and third place, respectively.
That’s probably not a real surprise to anyone who’s tried, and maybe failed, to find the Casting Crowns Christmas CD with the angelic-looking jacket in their local record store.
But according to the charts, Casting Crowns is also in the eighth spot in the Billboard rankings with “The Altar and the Door,” and that was released in … 2007!
What’s behind that? Maybe some people who bought the new Christmas CD found out they love Casting Crowns’ sound and decided to also buy the newest non-Christmas CD?
Whatever, it brings what’s been a successful year for the Atlanta-based band to a proper conclusion.

One of the best musical interviews I ever got to do was with a Lancaster music pastor who told me about the time in church his worship team sang the words to “Amazing Grace,” but did them to the tune of “Joy to the World.”
In August.
(Go ahead and try it … the same number of syllables and everything)
But Christmas Day is the really appropriate time to hear “Joy to the World,” and that’s what you’ll be able to do this Dec. 25.
Grammy-nominated Casting Crowns will perform “Joy to the World” off its No.1 Christmas album “Peace On Earth,” on FOX News Channel’s top-rated national “FOX & Friends” morning show Christmas Day at 9:50 a.m. Eastern Time.
It will be just one more showcase for Casting Crowns, whose new Christmas album will likely be one of the most-successful releases of 2008.
For more on Casting Crowns, visit www.castingcrowns.com.
Also, worship leader and singer/songwriter Matt Maher, best known as co-writer of the popular modern worship song, “Your Grace Is Enough,” will perform his current Christmas single “Silent Night (Emmanuel)” on the EWTN Network’s “Life On The Rock” on Christmas night.
Maher’s current project is “Empty & Beautiful,” and for up-to-date information on the growingly popular artist, visit www.mattmahermusic.com. Check listings for more about the show.
And for a post-new year’s Christian music note, Third Day’s performance of its hit song “Revelation” on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” will repeat on Friday, Jan. 2, on CBS. Again, check listings for your area.
A very Merry Christmas to you, wherever you are reading this, thank you for stopping by, and blessings in Christ for the new year.

There’s some very good news about a leading Christian music act that got its start here in southern Lancaster County.
After lying dormant for the past two years as a band while its members took a break to focus on other ministries and interests, FFH has announced it plans to return in 2009.
FFH leader and Solanco native Jeromy Deibler says the band plans to start a tour by February, and also will start working on both a new album of FFH music and also a Christmas album (to be out by the 2009 holiday season), Jesusfreakhideout.com reports.
Deibler and his wife and fellow singer Jennifer “decided, and this might come as a surprise, that it is time for us to go back to FFH in 2009.
“We now feel like it is time to start reconnecting with our FFH audience. So after two years away from FFH, we are returning.”
This is welcome news for all of us FFH fans who have watched the group morph from being four kids from Solanco High singing at the Rawlinsville Campmeeting to becoming a leading force in current Christian music.
The band originally planned a six-month hiatus, but that turned into a two-year break.
The Deiblers were “taking a break to focus on their family and other ministries, as well as tackle some of life’s trials along the way,” the Jesusfreakhideout.com report states.
My personal favorite among the several FFH shows I’ve seen was its 2003 appearance at Lancaster Mennonite High, which also featured a new performer named Warren Barfield.
As good as the band’s great vocal harmonies and surprisingly (I don’t know why, now, it was surprising) excellent playing all was, there also was a great sincerity and purpose about the group, whose members easily shared their hurts and connected with the audience.
At one point, FFH was doing 200 to 250 shows a year, and even us non-math majors know that means almost every night of the week.
Now, seemingly renewed and with a reaffirmed purpose for their band, the members of FFH are ready to jump back in the pool.
And with all the down news that’s about, including in Christian music, their return is an early blessing for 2009.

USA Today is honoring one well-known Christian group — plus one that’s lesser-known but musically as excellent as they get — in a review of top holiday albums.
A music critic at the newspaper, Brian Mansfield, picked the Annie Moses Band and Casting Crowns as among the top Christmas albums for 2008.
He lists, on USA Today.com, the Annie Moses Band with “This Glorious Christmas” and Casting Crowns with “Peace On Earth.”
It’s particularly good to see the musically adept and creative Wolaver family, who form the Annie Moses Band, get some well-deserved recognition.
The family outfit includes parents Bill (composer/arranger/pianist) and Robin (lyricist/vocalist) Wolaver and their children: Annie, Alex, Benjamin, Gretchen, Camille, and Jeremiah, who range from age 24 down to 10.
Their background is in classical music, and they infuse their music with a rare spunk, style, creativity, loads of ability and a thousand other things that make theirs a trademark sound.
(I’m stumped as to how to describe their sound …  70’s supergroup Kansas meets Christian 70’s supergroup Second Chapter of Acts? Dave Matthews meets Twila Paris? Nah)
Named for the kids’ great-grandmother, the band has produced one of my personal favorite albums ever, “Bethlehem, House of Bread,” blowing me away with a dazzling variety of classical and also Celtic, bluegrass and other music thrown in.
To learn more about this talented and exciting band, visit www.anniemosesband.com.

A lot of the best-of-2008 reviews in Christian music are listing Third Day’s “Revelation” as the year’s best albums, and with good reason.
And Third Day, wanting to keep its incredible momentum going, has announced a major tour early in 2009 that will bring the band within driving distance, at least, of Lancaster.
The “Revelation: tour will feature a show Friday, April 3, at the 16,000-seat Bryce Jordan Center in University Park.
Playing such a major Dave Matthews/Coldplay-ish center shows the massive popularity of Third Day, which in recent months has seemingly been everywhere.
Or at least, on the Tonight Show and the cover of mass-market Billboard magazine.
The “Revelation” tour also is to feature Brandon Heath and Revive, a newly-signed, promising band on Third Day’s label.
The April 3 stop at Penn State (tickets go on sale in mid-January, by the way) will come at the halfway point of the tour, which begins March 5 in Champaign, Ill.
Third Day in 2008 also was part of the monumental “Music Builds” tour that raised over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity, and just a week or two ago Third Day got its first American Music Award, as favorite artist in the “contemporary unspirational” category.
More dates for Third Day’s tour could be added down the road.
Visit www.ThirdDay.com for an updated concert schedule and other information.

Two Christmas music reminders involving Christian performers this weekend …
The Casting Crowns Christmas show is Saturday night in Reading, and also features guests Natalie Grant, Michael English, Avalon, Denver & The Mile High Orchestra and the group PureNRG.
It starts at 6 p.m. at the Sovereign Center, and tickets as of Friday were remaining, and range from $40 to $70. For information, call (610) 898-7469.
Another Christmas music special from a Christian artist comes on the small screen.
Mandisa, who got her start of course on “American Idol,” is to perform “Little Drummer Boy” from her new holiday offering, “It’s Christmas,” Saturday evening at 8 on the Fox News Channel’s “Huckabee” show.
“It’s Christmas,” is Mandisa’s first, full-length Christmas project, and features such Christmas classics as “It’s Christmas,” “Joy to the World” and “Little Drummer Boy,” and includes special duets with Michael W. Smith and Matthew West.
Hosted by the Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (hey, let’s give those bass players some attention!), “Huckabee” is a talk show that covers a variety of topics, from politics and religion to pop culture, and average more than 6 million people per weekend.

It’s a chance to see and hear one of the better-known bands in today’s Christian music, a band offering six number-one songs and 11 overall top-five hits?
Sanctus Real, fresh off a Grammy nomination last week, is coming to Calvary Church in March as part of the church’s “Vision Conference.”
The band’s Web page lists the concert on Saturday evening, March 14, capping off the church’s day-long conference.
Also being featured on the bill is up-and-coming Christian-rock act Reilly, out of Philadephia.
Sanctus Real is a household name to anyone following contemporary Christian music, with a clear, guitar-infused sound that has led it to near the top of them-thar CCM charts.
The band’s awards include a Dove Award for “modern rock album of the year,” and critics are hailing its newest record, “We Need Each Other,” as perhaps its best yet.
Another Sanctus Real favorite is 2006’s much-acclaimed work, “The Face of Love,” which produced hit songs like the title track, “Don’t Give Up” and “I’m Not Alright.”
Tickets for the March show are listed at $16.50, and are to go on sale Friday. For details, call 392-3206 or visit www.cmilive.com.